If selling more books is your goal, then getting out and speaking to groups large and small will be a key part of the strategy! Our thanks to author and entrepreneur Jackie Lapin for this contribution.
One of the most effective ways to sell more books, attract more clients or change lives is to embark on a public speaking campaign.
This doesn’t yet need to be delivering high level professional keynotes in front of thousands of people. It can be a consistent outreach at local venues that welcome your wisdom and inspiration. You can also take advantage of a travel schedule, by marrying business trips or family visits to speaking engagements in cities where you are already slated to be.
Where to Speak
Consider some of these types of venues, most of which are actively seeking speakers to entertain and inform their own audiences:
- spiritual living centers
- churches
- fraternal organizations & civic groups
- monthly business gatherings
- chamber of commerce meetings
- women’s organizations
- recovery centers
- conferences and conventions
- bookstores
- libraries
- Meetup book clubs
- lifestyle expos
- museums
- health and wellness centers
- universities and colleges
The opportunities are plentiful. Obviously not all will apply to you as an author. But, depending on your genre, there will be plenty of places you can shine!
But to do this you should be well prepared. You want to present yourself as accomplished, an expert in your field, and a respected presenter. To convince bookers to take a chance on you, you need to make them feel confident that you can be a benefit to their audience.
Speaker Tools
- A Great Benefit-Driven Speaker One-Sheet
The one marketing tool that every speaker needs is a One-Sheet. Much like an author tip sheet or sell sheet used to offer up benefits to booksellers, this single page document (printed on glossy paper if used as a handout), should contain all the information to impress the booker about your skills as a presenter.
Your one-sheet should include the value of your content, why they should book you, your expertise and what other people have said about you or your presentation. Most importantly, it should speak to how it will benefit the audience…What’s In It for THEM!
Your expertise isn’t enough. Your great presentation skills aren’t enough. You need to give them a reason on how the audience will grow, change, learn and get motivated. What’s the benefit and expected outcome?
- A Compelling Contemporary Website
The first thing a booker will do is review your author website. If you have a 10-year-old website, or one with old links and old blogs, you are doing yourself more harm than good. Make sure you have a contemporary website—one that is horizontal in nature with big photographs, video if possible and minimal words on the home page. The colors must also reflect today’s trends. Your logo, if you are using one, should be crisp and simple. The site must speak to today’s values, client needs and user accessibility—with very easy navigation and little clutter.
I have 10 more tips to offer the WWW community as well, so if you’d like to access them all, free free to grab them here: www.SpeakerTunity.com/free-report
Speakertunity
Meanwhile, if you are in the inspirational/transformational category and are ready to get out and speak, or you just want to add to your speaking opportunities without all the headache of researching them, than www.Speakertunity.com will make your life a lot easier!
It’s the twice a month speaker leads tip sheet with direct contacts all over North America for people who welcome transformational speakers. It’s inexpensive, time-saving and easy-to-use. Then, with one email, phone call or filled out form—you will be changing lives, selling books, enrolling people in coaching programs or building business in that truly amazing face-to-face way.
To learn more, visit Speakertunity.com!
Jackie Lapin is a leader in helping transformational leaders, authors, practitioners, speakers and messengers connect with their next followers around the globe. For the past 10 years, acclaimed Conscious Companies have been providing PR campaigns, radio media tours and speaking engagements to support the growth and revenue of change-makers. Her clients have included Don Miguel Ruiz, Dr. Joe Vitale, James Twyman, Denise Linn, Arielle Ford, Hay House and more.