Author events need to break free of publication schedule, FutureBook told

Events should be used to build long-term audiences for writers and their books rather than just being built around publication dates and sales, a Futurebook panel has heard.

In a session on “finding the money in live events” on Monday (25th November), a group of experts agreed that live events needed to break free from the publishing schedule.

Rosie Beaumont Thomas from Waterstones said events were useful to get books into the hands of people who only buy one or two a year. “These people don't care about publication dates,” she said.

She raised the example of Reni Eddo-Lodge, who was still doing sellout talks where copies of her books were snapped-up because of her ability to hold audiences and the resonance of her topic. “It's having the bravery to see outside of that publicity schedule and see that they can go on for up to a year,” she said.

Alex Fane from Fane Productions brought up the example of Adam Kay, whose new tour and book release have been fully aligned with the publisher's own marketing strategy. Kay is doing 25 events and has sold 25,000 books and tickets through the tour.

He said: “Really it works best when everything is moving in the same direction and you're creating momentum for someone that can set them up for that release but also take them into the years to come. Actually it isn't really about week one publication when it comes to events, they build momentum and audiences for authors. It's so important to take the long-term view rather than just 'what can I do around publication'.”

Fane said it was vital to pay authors well for their time to motivate them when it's 18 months past the publication date. He said: “Dolly Alderton did an event following publication for 300 people that was sold out and a year later she's doing a sell-out event at the London Palladium to 2,500 people, so it's that momentum you create but also there's a motivation there for authors. There is money to be had from events.”

Beaumont Thomas said “prescient issues, issues where people want to see themselves represented” would drive people to events even if the authors hadn't sold many books before and would bring in more diverse audiences. “The audiences are there, it's just about having the bravery to say 'ok, we're going to be strident, we're going to put this forward at the centre'.”

Angela Robertson, from Goodthinking PR, agreed, saying: “On issues based books there doesn't have to be a well known author. If the subject matter is interesting, there will be an audience for that, you canengage on social media and bring that audience in. They will buy a book.”