Kat Kuan

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Self-Publishing

How to Prep For a Book Signing Event

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Since I’ve had the opportunity to do several storytime & book signing events for my book, I wanted to share my experience on prepping for these events.

I don’t really have to practice the speaking part because I’ve read aloud the book enough times already lol. Also, when you’re presenting to kids, there’s not enough time to tell your whole elaborate backstory because of their attention span. 😛 So after a quick intro, I usually jump right into the book!

Photo Credit: Eastridge Center

I usually prep the night before by packing the car with anything I need to bring with me. I suppose this packing list could be applicable for any small business owner doing a booth as well, with modifications for their product.

use your voice kat kuan

PACKING LIST

  • Books. My books come in boxes of 30. So I usually bring a box or two of books into the event, and leave extra boxes in the car for backup. I haven’t even needed remotely close to that many, but doesn’t hurt to be prepared! 
  • Rolling cart. There’s a lot of stuff to carry from the car to the venue, so this helps.
  • Sample book. This is my demo book that I use when I pitch bookstores. It has sentimental value! But it’s also beat-up around the corners, so I continue to use this one for storytimes because the book has been opened many times. (You know how new books don’t really fully open, and you don’t want to ruin them by opening them up?) It is pretty banged up though, so I may need to retire this soon! 🙁
  • Pens for signing. I bought some quick dry pens from Office Depot. They’re great because you sign and it dries quickly – I would hate for it to smudge.
  • Sign with the Book Price. My book doesn’t have the price on the back of it because I wasn’t sure how I was going to price it or if it would change. At first, I tried to avoid having a sign with the book price – to keep it classy! 😛 But that didn’t work out too well because people would need to keep asking me, or even more awkward, they would think the books were free… So yeah, bring a sign with the price clearly displayed.
  • Business cards. I made them from an Office Depot template and really like them. I often get compliments on them too!

  • Binder of early drawings. I gathered early sketches and printed out iPad drawings from on the book illustration process. I put them in a binder so people could easily flip through it and see the evolution of my drawings.

  • Activity materials. I have copies of a coloring page and crayons for the kids to use. Sometimes the place I’m going to already has coloring supplies.
  • Water. You’re going to be talking a lot. Stay hydrated.
  • Spare friend/family member. Sometimes it gets really hectic with talking to potential customers, and fumbling with accepting cash/credit card. It’s easier if there’s another person available with you. And also to watch the booth if you need to go to the bathroom. 🙂
  • Sign up for mailing list. Sign up sheet for people to join your mailing list

  • Canvas for signing & colorful Sharpie pens. To add a little more interactivity, I also bought a blank canvas and had people sign by filling in the blank “Use your voice to ____” with their own phrase. Pretty fun to see what people write down.

PAYMENTS

  • Square payment reader. If the location is a bookstore, then the bookstore will handle the payment transactions. But if it’s not a bookstore, then I collect payments. I use a Square reader for accepting credit cards. I tweak it for the city that I’m going to (automatically back calculates the tax). Charge the device ahead of time. Bring your phone because it pairs with Bluetooth to complete the transaction, so the customer can provide their signature and get a receipt emailed or texted to them.
  • Cash for change. A cashbox is useful. I also got a paper receipt book too in case anyone wanted a receipt, but no one does, ha!

DISPLAY

In case you’re wondering about where I got the extra decorations, I went to HomeGoods, Ross, and Michaels to collect a bunch of supplies. From watching interior design videos on YouTube, I tried to create an eye-catching, cozy, kids-room type of feel to the booth. Sometimes, people are more interested in the decorations (i.e. the colorful train pictured above) than the book, haha!

home goods

My cart of things at HomeGoods

Overall, these in-person events are a fun way to meet new folks (parents, grandparents, aunts / uncles, etc..) and also little kiddos! The kids have so much energy and I love when they open up and chat with me. Hugs are even better! The perks of being an author!

Photo Credit: Kristin Antons

Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into what it’s like to be an author. For more details on my book, check out Use Your Voice on Amazon. Plus, since it’s Prime Day, I think there’s a discount code for $5 off $20 purchase of books shipped by Amazon. Sweet!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. And of course, I recommend the book regardless. Well, I am a little biased since I wrote the book. 😛

Getting My Book into Bookstores

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From my recent social media posts, you may have noticed that my book has been accepted into a couple of bookstores! I’d like to share some insight about the process for those who may be curious.

Note: If your physical book is self-published by Amazon or CreateSpace, then some bookstores may not accept it for consideration. Instead, I self-published with IngramSpark.

Independent bookstores / gift shops each have their own process for acquiring new books. Across different cities in the Bay Area, I basically use my two legs and walk into these stores to try to pitch my book. I introduce myself and ask them if they would consider reviewing my book as a possible fit for their store.

Some stores have a policy that they don’t work with independent authors individually. I’ve gotten rejected quite a few times like this. One time, I walked into a bookstore just ONE hour after their staff decided to discontinue their local author program. I couldn’t believe the timing. Oh well.

No hard feelings though, it’s understandable. They have tried working with local authors in the past. The problem is the economics. These stores barely broke even by taking on books from local authors, so they just can’t make it work despite their best intentions. Instead, they work with big publishers that have a larger catalog of books.

If the store does agree to review the book, then you either leave them a copy or they review it on the spot. If they decide it’s a good fit (woohoo!), they will either purchase a couple of copies upfront at wholesale price or it’ll be a consignment agreement.

Consignment is when you provide them with the inventory of books (several copies) and they put it on their shelves. If a consumer buys the book, then you’ll get paid at some later pay cycle. If the books don’t sell through, then you don’t get paid. There may be a fee to cover the overhead of entering the book into their inventory system.

So the consignment program is how I got on to the shelves at Books Inc in Mountain View! The above image is the first 5 books I handed over to them. 🙂 It’s a 3 month trial basis, so we’ll see how the books do.

More details on the Books Inc Consignment Program here. The application form is online too. Each location of Books Inc in the Bay Area handles consignment differently though, so I’m going to try to pitch the other locations to see if they’ll carry it too.

Once your book is carried by the store, then you can also discuss with them the option to do a storytime or in-person event. Speaking of which, my storytime event just happened last Saturday, June 9, 2018 and I had a great time. Hooray!

Hope this was helpful, good luck!

My eBook Launches

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After 4 months since my initial book release and lots of positive feedback, I’m excited to announce that the eBook version of my book Use Your Voice has launched!!! Starting today, it’s available on Amazon right here: bit.ly/useyourvoiceebook

It works on Kindle Fire devices, phones / tablets using the Kindle Reader app, and even on desktop! I know because the engineer in me tested those all devices 😛 haha! The full list of supported devices is on the book page.

If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, I’d love for you to check it out, maybe even share with a child in your life, and let me know your thoughts! Thank you and have a beautiful day, everyone! 

Use Your Voice (Kindle Edition): bit.ly/useyourvoiceebook

My YouTube Channel: Writing a Children’s Book

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Hey y’allz! I forgot to update this blog with the fact that I started a YouTube channel! It’s a vlog series documenting my journey to writing a children’s book – which I have wanted to do for SOOO LONG!!

My motivation always went up and down. One day, I was all gung ho about starting it. Then I would get overwhelmed by the fears of all the worst possible outcomes or overwhelmed by all the things I didn’t know how to do (self-publish, illustrate, market a book, etc…). I would get discouraged. I would get distracted easily. Or I would just get plain lazy and go to the mall instead. 😛 Anyhow, it was a nonlinear process to say the least.

About 2 months ago, I FINALLY got the guts to seriously buckle down and work on the book, and by announcing it on YouTube, I feel like it’s going to keep me accountable to keep making forward progress. ONWARDS!

Here are the videos I have so far, Episodes 1 through 4. You can click each one individually or I’ve combined all of the videos into a handy dandy playlist!

If you enjoy these videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel to follow along!

Also, what are some of your favorite YouTube channels? I’d love to find new awesome channels for inspiration! 😀