Stephen Oram, author of “Fluence” and “Quantum Confessions”
Though festive titles are already visible all over the internet and in bookshops, you don't have to have a Christmas-themed book to make the most of festive selling opportunities. Here's a simple and affordable book marketing idea that would help you sell more copies of any kind of book during the Christmas shopping season, courtesy of British dystopian novelist Stephen Oram. Though he lives in the heart of London, with hundreds of shops within reach, he's staging his book sale in a much more convivial setting: the local pub! Over to Stephen…
Stephen Oram's latest novel
A friend invited me to dinner a couple of weeks ago because she’d bought six copies of my novel Fluence and wanted to give personalised copies as Christmas presents. I was flattered. We had a lovely evening and it started me thinking what a good idea it would be to host a relaxed social event so my other friends could do the same. After all, a personalised book is a fairly unusual gift.
So I decided to combine a pre-Christmas drink in my local pub with a book signing. Then I thought, wouldn’t it be great if they could choose from a wider range of books than just mine. This is where ALLi came in. I go to the London meet-ups so I already knew some fellow London authors and for £5 each we – Stephen Oram, Jule Owen, Avalon Weston, Christopher Bowden and Patsy Trench – now have an upstairs room in my local pub booked for an afternoon of Beer & Books.
Teamwork with Other Indie Authors
The obvious advantage of having more than one author at the event is the reduced cost and the increased punters, but it also increases the promotional skill set. For example, I’m not so good at the graphical stuff, so Jule created the visuals for the advert.
I’m hoping we’ll have an afternoon where people feel free to browse upstairs, have a drink downstairs with their friends and maybe stay on into the evening. And, of course, buy lots of books as Christmas gifts that they wouldn’t have otherwise discovered.
What’s not to like?
Anyone in Central London on the 28 November is very welcome to join us in the Grafton Arms, W1 and you can find out more online here.
OVER TO YOU How will you capitalise on the Christmas market this year? What's worked for you in the past? Please feel free to share your success stories via the comments box!
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It’s a marvellous idea. I have been musing over something similar at a deli cafe (who have my books for sale too), as they do themed evenings. Best of luck with the Beer & Books!
Great idea. I’m planning something similar but in a bookshop. The bookshop does a customer evening every year offering 20% off and last year had four authors there. This year we’re making the focus on ‘farming / rural’ books and some are self-published. Hoping it goes well and that we get coverage on local media for it too. Love collaborating with others for things like this.
It’s a really good idea! Thank you for sharing it with us. It’s got me thinking. I’m not a pubby person but it could be modified, as indeed, Betsy described above having a similar event in her village theatre.
Or indeed a tea room!
LOVE this idea. We did a similar event last year in our village theater. We catered tapas and wine (a very inexpensive thing to do in Spain), gave a short chat about the story, and then sold+ signed almost a hundred books. We got the theater space free because of some volunteer work we do in the village, and we ended up booking another event in a neighboring village (who catered for us!) plus getting asked to stock our book in two area bookstores and two shops. The area newspaper also wrote about the event.
What’s so fantastic about your idea is that you can repeat this at other pubs with other authors around London. My run was relatively short-lived because of where I am and the language differences (I only have 1 book translated). I hope you get lots of press and future opportunities because of this.
Best of luck. If I was in England I’d join you for a pint!
What a wonderful idea. And good luck with it. I hope it is a wild success. I’m a great believer in collaborating with one another like this – especially when the creative process is essentially so solitary.