Learn about Promoting Your Events from #TheBlindBlogger

 

As some of you know I had my first ever Houston book signing at The Book Scene on Saturday, March 24th, 2018.

I know that many of you are authors or aspire to be, so I thought it might be helpful to share some of what I did leading up to the event.

Timing Is Everything

The first thing I did had to do with picking the date. I learned from my experience at Dog Ears Book Store in Buffalo last year that it takes time to promote an event.

I should have known this from my days in the carnival business. I mean, most of our festival committees would work all year to ensure a big turnout for their fundraising events.

SO, when Alda and Cathlyn asked me to pick a date, I remembered this. We worked together to pick a date. The one we settled on would be over two months from the time we talked about it.

Once I had a date, a location, and a website; I started sharing it on social media. I wrote many Facebook and Twitter posts. And I shared with the few people in the media who I had previously connected with.

Creating and Sending Press Releases

The next thing I did, I didn’t do myself.

It was actually a surprise from my editor and friend Lorraine Reguly.

She took it on her own initiative to create a press release for my event. She then took it a step further by searching online for the email addresses of newspapers in the Houston area and sending it out to them.

She didn’t tell me about any of this until the Conroe Courier wrote back to her asking for some photos to be included in their article. Then she told me what she had done and said she would do more if I got her the email addresses or contact forms for local TV and radio stations.

Of course, I did that. And we both contacted more media outlets hoping to make the event go viral by getting some news coverage. Sadly, there were no TV cameras, radio microphones, or photographers clicking away. But we wouldn’t have even had the opportunity for that if it weren’t for having advance notice and putting in the hard work.

Looking back at how much effort was involved, I can understand why so many aspiring authors are willing to put themselves through the agony of pitching agents, publicists, and publishers. I’ve had moments this year where I was ready to start pitching literary agents full time myself.

I’m going to copy Lorraine’s press release here. I think you should see the kind of work she is capable of. I also think you should see how similar what she wrote is to what appeared in two Houston papers.

Believe it or not, they both appear to have printed what we sent them, word for word, without any editing or adjusting for space in print. Lorraine was impressed that they didn’t cut her words down. But she was not surprised that they didn’t edit it, as she is an editor and a writer and wrote it very well!

Press Release for The Book Scene Book Signing

Maxwell Ivey, Jr., internationally known as The Blind Blogger, is an author of three self-help books and will be appearing at The Book Scene on March 24th, 2018, for a book signing, from 1 PM to 3 PM, although the store is open from 10 AM to 4 PM that day. Max is also offering package deals on his books.
The Book Scene, located at 1820 West 43rd Street, Houston, Texas, owned by Cathlyn Stinger and Alda Pool, has been in business since 1985. They sell new and used books as well as collectibles, and they allow you to bring in your old books and trade them in for store credit, which will allow you to buy used books at a discounted price.
Max Ivey is more than an author. He is a motivational life coach, a podcaster, a blogger, a singer, and an entrepreneur who runs a business brokering carnival rides and amusement equipment. Max has been on dozens of radio shows and podcasts, has addressed the Student Blogging Society at Kent University in England, was a featured presenter at a global online summit, wrote and contributed to many blog posts and news articles, and was featured in an article in New York Magazine!
Max was also a guest on a TV show in New York City: The Coaching Game with Laurie Lawson, and appeared on the Breaking Free show with Marilyn Shannon. Plus, he is an award-winning author who has a unique way of storytelling. He hooks you with his casual, conversational manner of writing, and draws you into his world quickly. He is fearless, too, and is admired for his courage, his risk-taking, and his unwavering ability to face any obstacle head-on. Because Max leads by example by “walking his talk,” he is viewed as an inspiration.
Max displays a remarkable amount of courage and willingness to chase his dreams, despite the obstacles in his way. He is a great role model who teaches others how they can work towards their dreams and ultimately reach them… no matter what.
In his first book, Leading You Out of the Darkness into the Light: A Blind Man’s Inspirational Guide to Success, Max shares the 11 steps to success via his personal experiences as a blind entrepreneur and the lessons he has learned along the way. It includes exercises for the reader to do as well as email support from Max.
In his second book, It’s Not the Cookie, It’s the Bag, blind man Maxwell Ivey Jr shares the ups and downs of his weight loss — and weight maintenance — journey to good health. He also reveals the exact methods he uses in his day-to-day life to achieve and maintain his phenomenal success. Going from 512 pounds to a 250-pound, lean, mean machine in just two years, Max tells you how YOU can replicate his success and become the person you want to be… the person you were meant to be… the person you deserve to be… one small step at a time.
The Blind Blogger’s NYC Adventures: + How You Can Make YOUR Dreams Come True is Max’s third book but is the first book in his travel series. It is part memoir and part self-help, as it is about Max and his adventures in New York City, where he chose to travel to – alone! – after winning Amtrak’s 2016 prestigious Writers in Residency Award. It contains many life lessons and explains how you can make your dreams come true, using the keys to success Max regularly uses to attain his own goals and make his dreams a reality (which are all listed in the final chapter).
Call The Book Scene at 1-713-869-6117 for more information, or visit their website at https://www.thebookscene.xyz/.
To learn more about Max and his books, visit http://www.theblindblogger.net/books

Check Out Her Book

I’m including this link here as my way of thanking Lorraine. She really has written an amazing book on living with depression and thoughts of suicide. I hope you will visit the link and learn more about her book.

Press Clippings

I do want to thank both The Conroe Courier and The Houston Chronicle for posting my announcement.

If you want to see what they published, you can go to the links below.

The Houston Chronicle

https://m.chron.com/neighborhood/moco/events/article/The-Blind-Blogger-hosts-book-signing-March-12753599.php

The Conroe Courier.

https://www.yourconroenews.com/neighborhood/moco/events/article/The-Blind-Blogger-hosts-book-signing-March-12753599.php

Make It Easy

One other point I would like to make is that reporters are like visitors to your website or blog. We all know we have to make it easy for people to navigate our sites, share our content, leave a comment, or buy our products and services.

Reporters and copy editors are no different. They are under constant deadlines to fill time and space. They genuinely want to help people like us share our events and tell our stories, but they just don’t have the time to do all the work. We have to make it easy for them by creating a proper press release and sending it to them well in advance of the date of our event.

Heck, with larger papers and with radio and TV stations, we may have to send it multiple times before someone notices. It may even help to have it sent by a third party like Lorraine did for me. And it may even take several people calling or writing in a coordinated effort to get their attention.

This last part is a lesson I learned. Next time I have an event to promote, I’m going to reach out to my friends, family, and social media connections and ask them to contact the media outlet in question. I’ll give them the press release or the script. And of course, I’ll depend on my good friend Lorraine to write it.

One of the great things about what she wrote for my event at The Book Scene is that I can reuse it for other events. All I have to do is change the name of the bookstore or venue, the names and story of the owner or owners, the location, the date, and the time.

I’m actually counting this file as my birthday present from Lorraine even though she did send me a beautifully rendered three-dimensional reproduction of my site logo. Look for it to appear in future podcast recordings.

Next Time

So, when scheduling in-person events, always allow plenty of time to properly spread the word about your appearance. Then create or hire someone to create a proper formal press release. Then send it to all the media outlets you can find in your area no matter how big or small they may be.

Then show up and have a great time. Next time, I’m going to tell you how the signing went.

Sharing Is Caring

This time I don’t have a specific person or link that I want you to share this for. My goal in writing was to help others who are booking their own events to get more results out of their efforts.

So, I hope you will share this with anyone you know who is a creative type. Tell those authors, musicians, filmmakers, graphic novelists, sculptors, artists, etc., in hopes that we can help them all have better turnouts at their live events.

I look forward to hearing some of your stories about promoting events. Whether your experiences were amazing or horrifying, they can all help my readers to do better in their own lives.

I look forward to learning from you as well. I’m sure there are tricks you know that I haven’t thought of. And maybe there are opportunities where we could work together to help each other promote our work.

I appreciate your taking the time to read my posts. I know you have lots of pressures on your time, and I’m so blessed that you are spending a few minutes of it with me.

I really couldn’t do this without you. I hope you know that my friend. So, until next time thanks, God Bless You, and take care out there.

~Max