Alternatives to Bookstores for Talks and Sales

One thing I’ve found most shocking during my attempts to distribute and promote my books is how little support I’ve found from bookstores, especially independent ones.  One would think that they would want to utilize the resource of local artists to draw in more local readers.  At the very least, you get the friends and family coming in.  Most amazingly, independent bookstore owners are asking their customers to bypass major corporate stores to go to their stores, but they refuse to bypass major publishers for independent ones, so there’s a large amount of hypocrisy there.

Some bookstores have been supportive, and I can go at length about this subject alone, both as a rant, and providing information.  But today I want to talk about some of the alternatives I’ve found.

While I was preparing for my book tour for Two Gun Hart, I tried to arrange talks at bookstores in Nebraska, Chicago, San Francisco, and Austin.  While Nebraska businesses opened their doors wide, none of the others did.  I was particularly surprised about Chicago and San Francisco.  Chicago, of course, is where the famous Capones lived, and San Francisco prides itself on having large numbers of book lovers and having the independent spirit.  But the bookstores in both entirely ignored me.

Meanwhile, one of the Capone family members set up a talk at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.  As I mentioned in one of my earlier blog entries, the event was a success, partially because students were offered extra credit if they came.  Also, it was a venue where people wanted to learn, and the staff was not inundated with requests by self-published authors to have readings and signings.  By going to the correct department, (in this case the Italian-American studies,) Corey was able to set up a highly successful talk.

It got me thinking of other venues where this sort of thing will work.  There are museums dedicated to the old west, Italian studies, and crime in America.  Each one would make good venues.  There are other departments at universities and high schools that would like to learn about this story.  Libraries, too, are good sources, though they are also often contacted by many independent authors, so the competition is fierce, and promotions can be difficult.

I’m of the mind right now that school systems will be the best as they’ll have a ready-made audience, sometimes even a captive one.  However, if one can work out the promotions correctly, especially if they can go to a venue that has members who meet regularly, they can be successful.

By the way, in this instance, I am defining “success” as selling a number of books of course, but more importantly, getting the word out.  You will not sell enough books at any of these venues to make it worth your while.  But, if successful, you will get enough people interested that they’ll tell others.