How to Have a Successful Author Visit

In December, my library was very fortunate to be selected as one of the stops on Jan Brett’s tour for her latest release The Animals’ Santa. We’ve hosted author’s before at the library, but never anything this large. We had around 800 people show up for the event and people drove from Kansas City, Arkansas and across Missouri to here Ms. Brett speak and get books signed. We had a lot of fun and the event was fantastic and we couldn’t have been happier with the way everything turned out. But I learned a few things along the way on how to ensure a successful author visit.

Photo Credit: Springfield-Greene County Library

• Create a schedule of events for staff as well as listed job duties and descriptions of what is expected. This was incredibly helpful since we had numerous staff involved in the event from various branches and departments.
• Use a ticketing system for the signing line. We used tickets created by our Community Relations department that also doubled as bookmarks. These were passed out as families came into the library the day of the event. During the signing, we called groups of 25 into the auditorium and had the crowd organized so the signing line went smoothly-and there were no mad dashes to get in line.
• Have activities while people are waiting. Expect a long line and a lot of waiting. We turned our story hour room into an activity room with crafts, trivia, and games based on Jan Brett’s books to entertain children why they waited.
• Limit the number of items to be signed. Ms. Brett was very gracious and signed numerous items for our patrons, but the line was just too long for her to continue the amount that she started with. We had to cut down the number of items signed by the end to keep things moving along. Next time I would have a set number to start with and advertise that so everyone knows what to expect.
• If possible, check in with previous tour stops for tips and advice. We were able to talk to the previous tour stop about how many people they had, how they handled the lines, and any other tips. This helped us prepare and give us an idea of what to expect.
• Think about parking! We thought we had everything planned-until we talked to the previous tour stop and realized the day of the event we didn’t know what we were going to with parking! Next time I think signage for parking and even someone directing traffic would be very helpful.
• Make sure you have food and water for your visiting author-and your staff. We had a break room with snacks and water for staff and made sure we had a stash of water bottles for Ms. Brett as well. We tried to give staff managing the lines short breaks to get something to eat or drink as needed. I would make sure you have someone on your schedule that can give breaks to staff along the way!
• People don’t understand what “personalization” means. We offered two books to be personalized and had post it notes for the names to be written on for Ms. Brett to see. What I realized in line is that people didn’t understand the difference between just getting a book signed and getting it signed with a name to someone specific. They also didn’t understand that they couldn’t write out a long inscription such as “To Mrs. Nelson’s class-you’re a great group of readers”. I think more explanation on what it means to get a book personalized from the line managers and book seller table would be helpful.
• Expect a few grumps and complaints. Not everyone will be satisfied with everything-and that’s OK-you can’t please everyone no matter how hard you try. I would say 95% of the feedback we received about the event was how smoothly everything ran, how friendly the staff was, and how happy they were the library was offering this event. There were a few minor complaints along the way-the lines were long, they couldn’t get a large stack of books signed, but these were largely out of our control. Once we explained that we had a large crowd and we needed to move everyone through the line, people were understanding. And the positive comments outweighed the negatives and we focused on that!
• Celebrate a job well done. Make sure you thank the author, any tour assistants they may have, the publisher, and your staff on a job well done. Send the publisher feedback on your event and pictures if you have them-they love to know how events turned out!

Have you hosted an author event at your library? Any tips you have for making it successful?