How to Prepare for an Author Book Talk or Book Signing (when YOU are the Author!)

What do you need to bring to an author talk and or book signing? I mean when YOU are the author? Good news – I’ve got you covered! Because I am an expert. Expert status is achieved after ONE author talk, right? I’ll tell you how to prepare for an author talk below.

I recently held my first author talk/book talk at the Moody County Museum (Flandreau, SD.) Determining WHAT to say during said talk was obviously a very important task. But determining WHAT TO BRING was equally critical to the success of the event.

Just so you know – I could get an affiliate commission if you link from my site and buy a product. Hopefully, I’ll accumulate enough affiliate commission to buy myself a coffee someday! Not Starbucks or anything like that. But maybe a plain small coffee from a gas station on the outskirts of town.

What Should You Bring to an Author Book Talk?

Here’s what I brought:

• Laptop\Laptop bag
• HDMI cable
• Books (duh)
• more books (hey, just in case 100 people show up)
• business cards
• pens (for taking notes, signing books)
• binder
• script/notes (super secret stuff I planned to say)
• see-through stand thingee
• silly cat stickers
• cookies (made by your Mother to entice customers to stay and hang out)
• charm, wit and a certain savoir faire
• Square Reader and adapter

Laptop

I bought a refurbished, new-ish laptop. Got mine locally for $200! Similar one shown below. I didn’t need anything fancy, just something for mobility and writing blog posts (like this) while sitting on the couch.

HDMI Cable

I feel silly telling you what an HDMI cable is. If you don’t know, you probably shouldn’t be trying to do things in public. I brought one to hook up to a TV/projector. They already had one there, so I didn’t use mine.

Bring Your Books to Your Author Book Talk!

You know, copies of my OWN book. Like the one I wrote. I brought 50 or so. Attendees bought 18 of my books during the event, and the Moody County Museum bought another 18 to keep on stock!

Author Business Cards

I created these through VistaPrint. 250 cards for about $30! I believe I’ve still got 248 left!

See-through Acrylic stand sign-holder thingee

I printed out a QR code for people to scan and sign up for my newsletter. These things are pretty handy, and cheap!

Cat Stickers

What do you mean, WHY silly cat stickers?

Sell Books With a Square Reader

Let’s say you need to sell a book. And the customer doesn’t have cash. What do you do?? Barter? Do you say no to the sale? Do you lose a customer forever? What a terribly unfortunate theoretical scenario! Fear not, Square has you covered. You can actually get one of these Square credit card readers for FREE. Yep, they just take a small commission from each sale. I did have to buy an adapter for my phone for about $9.

It’s better to bring too much stuff vs wishing you would have brought something! That’s probably not true in all cases. Like in the case you drive a small, compact vehicle that doesn’t fit as much stuff as a 2011 Ford F-150.

This is the definitive…partial list on how to prepare for an author talk. Each author talk/book signing may be different. Scout out the details ahead of time to ensure success!