Below are my responses on a book publishing forum about attending literary events, a book fair and expo. I wanted to republish my response, because within the message you may find resources, tools, steps, wisdom and information to assist you in your self-publishing journey. As always your comments are valued and appreciated.
Do you think attending literary events is important as an author?
ANSWER:
When I think of literary events I think of events centered more around novels and children's books more than anything else. All of my books are fact based resources guides.
With the exception of How to Self-Publish for Profit, my books are on the music industry and modeling. It has been my experience that at literary events my target market doesn't attend outside of those seeking to publish or improve their publishing business. With that in mind literary events typically don't work well for me.
If I were a writer of novels and/or children's books I'd think literary events would seem perfect to touch my target reader.
Sylvia, you mentioned "since I have over 800 authors, writers & poets in the group, and we always have very very low turn out at our events (and you can't blame finances because over half the events we hold are almost free)..."
RESPONSE:
This is a primary reason that money isn't the issue keeping most people from succeeding. I imagine that for you to have over 800 members in your group that you are a power networker unlike many in your organization. Sylvia, many people talk about how bad they "want it", how money is the issue and how they can't seem to get ahead, but the truth is many people lack the burning desire, a practical written plan and don't do things everyday towards achieving their goals and realizing their potential.
At the end of the day we tend not to activity on information until we truly want to make a move, change, update or have our backs against the wall.
If out of 800 people you get a conversion rate of 1% you're doing good (that's 8 people). If out of 800 people you get a conversion rate of 10% (that's 80 people) you should call Oprah and Tyra Banks, because you have a serious story.
Unfortunately, we often have not been taught about the number of impressions needed to get people to respond to an advertisement/announcement nor are we taught about conversion rates, so we may have an unrealistic expectation on how many people will respond to an advertisement.
At this very moment I'm unable to provide supporting evidence for my claim. However, when you do the research you'll find the numbers to be close to extremely accurate.
Thank you for starting this forum. Perhaps others may read through it a few times and find just the spark they need to keep on keeping on.
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