- Coronavirus has taught authors
we don't have to get on planes
to host successful author events.
We can do cool author events
from the comfort of our own home.
And in many cases,
they're even more well attended than live events.
Whether you're sheltering in place for safety reasons,
or you just want a cool way
to reach a much wider market area of people.
This video on how to host a cool online author event
is for you.
(upbeat music)
Hey there, I'm Julie, The Book Broad from Book Launchers.
We're your professional self-publishing team
helping you write, publish, and promote a nonfiction book
that will help you have a huge impact on your readers,
and done right, will help you grow your brand,
build your business, and make you money.
The best part, you get to keep all rights and royalties.
Whether folks are still hanging out at home or not,
one of the things we've learned from COVID-19
is that there's a market for content streaming
right into people's homes.
Where their children are running around them
while they're working.
(floor creaking)
And people's buying patterns of purchasing online
and even attending things online versus going to them live
is gonna stick around to a degree, for quite some time.
Virtual events also give you the ability
to collect and analyze your data and your results,
so you can get better and better at them.
But when you're live streaming
on Zoom, or Facebook or YouTube,
you get data right from those platforms.
And you can see the number of people watching you live,
the average time they watched you,
how many watched you concurrently,
and how many comments were posted.
So whether you're replacing your event with a virtual one,
or you're adding it to supplement your live one,
or doing a combo event, here are some things to consider
when setting up your virtual book event to create success.
Number one, to create a successful event,
you can't just turn on Facebook and go live.
Sure, you can do that on a regular basis
to create connection and audience,
Jackson, shh!
Sure you can do that on a regular basis
to create connection and audience growth,
and I recommend you do that.
But that's not an event
that people are gonna get excited about and attend.
If you wanna create successful events,
you have to invest some time, energy
and maybe even just a little bit of money
into making it a great experience for your audience.
Number two is to consider, what is your event goal?
Are you trying to just get as many attendees as possible?
Do you want book sales?
Are you hoping people will opt into an email list
so you can build your author platform?
Do you have a specific topic or thing you wanna do
or offer a specific kind of value to your audience.
For example, during COVID-19, all the sheltering in place,
we've done a ton of deep-dive training sessions
for our audience.
The goal of these sessions
has been to support the author community
and build deeper relationships with people.
It's not about selling or pitching anything.
Think about what your event is going to be about,
and what the purpose is.
Of course, if your goal is to sell books,
which would make sense given that it's an author event,
you're going to wanna figure out
how you're going to do that.
But we'll talk about that in a second.
When I held a live book event for one of my book launches,
I did an event called Burpees For Books.
Every time somebody bought a book
and emailed in their receipt during the livestream event,
I did 10 burpees on the livestream.
That created engagement and gave people a reason
to buy their book at that moment and email in their receipt.
And then we got to have a celebration,
and they also caused me to do burpees,
which was fun for them. (laughs)
The third thing to think about,
is what type of event are you going to host?
A large, multi-platform stream session
seeking the widest possible audience,
using a streaming service like StreamYard or BeLive
or one of the others out there?
Or are you gonna do a single platform
on YouTube or Facebook or Instagram?
Or are you gonna have an intimate gathering,
maybe a private, exclusive event
that is only for an invite-only type audience,
maybe via a private Facebook group
or an unlisted YouTube link, or a Zoom meeting link?
Think about that before you do this.
Here's a hint, use something you're already familiar with
unless you're going to have someone
acting as your tech person who knows this stuff,
'cause you wanna be able to be relaxed enough
to enjoy the experience ,and add value for your audience.
Tech problems can make it very hard
to stay present in the moment, and deliver value.
Just like having three year olds
run around your video shoot.
(laughs)
(child speaks)
Also, how will you use this event to grow your email list,
which is what I highly recommend you do.
You can create that Facebook event page and promote it,
but what else can you do
to get people to opt in to your newsletter?
Fourth consideration, will you have a guest host?
This is something I highly recommend
because this person can manage comments, handle tech issues,
hold the spot if you get kicked out for some reason,
and even take over for you, you know, if nature calls
or you just need a breather.
Fifth consideration, how are you going to sell books?
Like I mentioned with my Burpees For Book event,
you should have some sort of a reward
for buying during the event.
And this also makes it fun too.
When someone buys a book, somebody sings a 10 second song.
You wouldn't want that to be me. (laughs)
♪ I will sing the surprise ♪
♪ And the fear in my eyes ♪
(tape scratching)
My point is I encourage you to make it super fun
to buy your book during your event.
And you'll need someone watching the emails
to see the receipts roll in, so you can do a dance,
do burpees, sing, or celebrate.
I recommend directing folks
to your website to buy your book,
and having a bunch of retailer choices set up there,
or setting up a universal book link
so people can buy your book through their selected retailer.
Or you can partner with a local bookshop,
if they will ship books, and then everyone who participates
can get signed copies that day.
They just have to buy online through that store,
and then you can go into the store and sign those books
so they can ship them off to your buyers.
There are so many ways to do this.
Ultimately figure out what you want people to do,
make it fun and cool to buy your book during this event.
Six finally, because we're all about
#noboringbooksatbooklaunchers,
we're absotutely-positively about no boring book events,
so have some surprises,
and cool things planned for your event.
Next week, we're gonna introduce you to Amani Roberts,
who did his book launch virtually
when COVID-19 messed with his book launch plans.
He did some really creative things
to make his event a ton of fun,
including surprise performances from people.
So make sure you've subscribed to the channel
and turn those notifications on,
so you catch that amazing video on Amani Roberts.
Ideas, other than having a surprise performance,
include having props,
surprising people with a funny song and a dance,
wearing a cool costume,
having special guests, prizes,
and just all kinds of fun and celebrations.
This is not the time to be nervous,
this is the time to shine,
and be the host with the most to create a great experience.
It is not about you looking good,
it is about your attendees having fun.
Seven, test it all out in advance.
Your mic, your lighting, your internet connection
with the exact system you're going to run.
Dry run it with your guest hosts.
Something's gonna go wrong, so if you're prepared,
then you won't have a bunch of things going wrong. (laughs)
And you'll also be more relaxed
because you've already decided
how problems will be troubleshooted before they even happen.
And if you're like me
and technology likes to gang up on you,
keep the live stream simple
and just focus on creating the experience for your audience.
I don't think virtual will ever replace the live experience
because there's tremendous value in the personal touch
that comes with meeting someone eye-to-eye.
People are also more distracted if your event gets boring
and they're gonna disappear
or put your event on in the background
until they hear something of interest.
So virtual events have disadvantages,
but they also have a lot of advantages.
You can reach so many more people with your event,
you don't have to cancel because of weather,
or sickness or a pandemic. (laughs)
And they're very cost effective,
you're not spending money on a venue,
or printing materials for the attendees.
You can put that money
towards marketing and prizes if you want.
And then, when you go live,
that live is gonna live forever
on the platforms that you've done it on,
and it will reach people well beyond your event.
So that's kinda cool.
Have you done a virtual book event?
What tips do you have?
Let's share it in the comments below.
And when you comment the day a video is released,
you'll be entered to win some fabulous book launcher swag
like this oh, so soft journal,
and my mug which ran off with my three year old.
Okay, thank you.
And when you comment the day a video is released
you'll be entered to win some sweet #noboringbookswag,
and you'll be one step closer
to being one of my YouTube besties, like Kevin Maguire,
Coach Deb, Mike Hird, Derek Silski, and Andy W,
thank you so much for your likes, shares, and comments.
You guys make my day.
I've really enjoyed our time together today,
and I think we can have even more fun, what do you say?
Have you seen this video right here,
on all the ways to make money from your book?
You might really like that one.
If not, YouTube thinks you really going to like
this video right here.
So go ahead, both are really fabulous if I say so myself,
so just go ahead and click on over, I'm waiting.