Promotional Secrets Shared: Alyson B. Stanfield

This week we welcome Alyson B. Stanfield!

Alyson is the author of I’d Rather Be in the Studio: The Artist’s No Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion. It was first released in 2008 and was recently released as an updated and expanded edition.

Alyson is the founder of ArtBizCoach.com and ArtBizBlog.com.

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Alyson B. Stanfield

Welcome to our podcast series: Promotional Secrets for Authors! brought to you by Waxcreative Design and Autographed By The Author stickers.

Hosted by award-winning author and professional publicity coach Elizabeth Yarnell, these podcasts connect author to author about book promotion. Please read on for a transcript.

I hear you just returned from a book tour in North and South Carolina. How did that come about?

ALYSON: When the first edition came out in 2008, I knew that bookstores weren’t my primary venue. I needed to go where artists were.

Fortunately, I had a platform. I had thousands of subscribers to my weekly Art Marketing Action newsletter and even more on the Art Biz Blog. I asked if anyone wanted to host a book party. I call them parties because that’s what I wanted them to be: informal, good-time meet-and-greets.

The Carolina trip stemmed from a previously scheduled workshop in Durham, NC that I had on my calendar for nearly a year. When I thought about how nice it would be to spend more time in the area, I put a few posts on my FB page and tweeted a few times that I was looking for hosts for book parties in SC and NC. Within a couple of weeks, the book tour was filled.

Aside from the workshop in Durham, I visited six other cities and met lots of other artists along the way.

Would you do a book party anywhere you were invited?

ALYSON: I don’t really travel out of state just for a book party because that’s a little cost-prohibitive. Sometimes 10 people show up to a party and sometimes 40. I don’t make a lot of money from them.

But I do think of them as a loss-leader. Lots of artists (and potential clients) come to these book parties. They might buy a book, they might subscribe to my newsletter, or maybe become a follower on Twitter. It’s hard to attach a $ sign to the value of that personal interaction.

You’ve been doing this for a few years now. How have the book parties changed?

ALYSON: The first book party was lovely. It was at Jan Carson’s studio-gallery in Fort Collins, Colorado. But we didn’t make a plan for me to talk and people just kept coming and going. I never spoke. I just signed books and talked with people. That was a mistake. I quickly learned (and should have known) that I’d need to speak.

There were a couple of other occasions where speaking would have been awkward, but I could have (and should have) arranged them so that I could speak.

The other thing that’s changed is how they’re promoted. Many of the parties are now promoted solely through social media. I’ve also had people record radio segments, get newspaper articles, and post flyers. And I’ve created a generic postcard that I can slap a sticker on the back of and send to my peeps in the area.

I think the combination of postcard (snail mail) and email/social media is powerful.

What tips could you share with other authors who might want to organize similar book parties?

ALYSON: Have a strong platform in place. I couldn’t have done this without having some followers and credibility in place.

•   Go where your audience is and at times that are convenient for them.

•   Offer to bring or pay for all of the refreshments at an event.

•   Create an online media room just for your event and tell your host or hostess about it. My media room has book reviews, images of me and the book cover, and a blurb for blogs. You can find my media room at idratherbeinthestudio.com.

•   Get someone to help you with sales.

•   Order “Square.” Square is a small device that plugs into your smart phone and allows anyone to accept credit card payments. It’s much cheaper than other credit card processors, but the only caveat is that you have to have connectivity for your phone. Find that at squareup.com

What’s the #1 benefit you receive from the book parties?

ALYSON: Energy! I get out from behind my computer and in front of artists. I always learn from their questions.

I also want to say that I will often speak to local artist organizations informally if they allow me to set up a book party. These aren’t keynotes or workshops. They’re more like Q&A sessions. But I talk a little, answer questions, and then I sell books. Win-win.

Great tips and tricks, Alyson. Thanks! For all our listeners, check back here regularly to get insider secrets from bestselling authors about what promotional tools YOU can use to support yourself as an author. Or subscribe to the Promotional Secrets for Authors podcast on iTunes!

Thanks for listening, and thanks for showing off your signed books with our gold Autographed By The Author sticker… the signature sticker that makes your signed books that much more valuable on the store shelf and in a reader’s hands.

stick Don’t forget to check out our other recent podcasts in this series, interviews with Mia Marlowe, Rebecca K. O’Connor, and Jane Porter. We know you have promotional secrets to share! We’ll have an easy-to-use online form ready for you soon, but in the meantime, please email us if you want to be interviewed, be featured here, and share your secrets with other authors.