Speaking to Sell

One of the most effective ways to promote and sell books is through speaking engagements.

While some writers may cringe at the thought of public speaking, the ability to give an interesting talk to an audience is a skill that can be learned. And it can also be quite profitable.

What you talk about is your choice, but most writers have basically two options: talking about the subjects of their books, or talking about some aspect of the writing life. I’ve done both and much prefer the former. And I speak frequently, sometimes as often as five or six times a month.

My part-time speaking career evolved gradually. At first, what typically happened was some organization would hear about one of my books and invite me to speak. Writing a weekly history column also raised my profile in the community, and I’d get invitations to speak to local historical societies or other groups with an interest in history. Word of mouth led to other invitations.

But I still wasn’t speaking on a regular basis. So, about three years ago, I decided on a more pro-active approach. I put together some simple flyers, one for each topic I was prepared to speak on. Altogether there were about six, five of them tied to a book I’d written, the sixth based on the research I was doing for my master’s thesis. In a couple of cases, I also had slides to bring along.

The flyers went out, along with a nice cover letter, to every historical society and museum within two hours of home. And it worked! I now speak to groups about 40 times a year, sometimes on my own, sometimes with my partner, Bob Blakeley.

It’s definitely worth the investment of time and energy. First of all, it brings our books to the attention of people who might not otherwise see them – especially since some of the titles aren’t carried by major chains. Secondly, it usually results in fairly respectable sales, sometimes as much as $400 worth of books in a single evening. And thirdly, it brings in a bit of extra money, because we always charge a fee.

The matter of a fee was something I wrestled with initially, but after listening to and reading about other writers who speak, I am completely comfortable charging a modest fee. Usually, it’s $50, $100 if Bob and I are doing “Conversations with Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Nichol” together. Some speakers charge much more, but because we’re dealing mostly with heritage groups who are often strapped for funds, we keep our rates reasonable.

Even so, some organizations balk at paying for our services. I suspect that’s because they are probably more accustomed to inviting speakers from corporations with healthy p.r. budgets, or representatives from government organizations, social service or health agencies. While these speakers may offer their services “for free”, in fact they are being reimbursed if they’re on salary, and ultimately either customers or taxpayers are footing the bill.

There are also some speakers who waive their fee because they are promoting a particular cause or a just so enthralled by their subject that they are happy to have an audience. For writers like Bob and me, however, speaking is an aspect of our business, which means it has to bring in some money.

We make sure that we will be able to sell books after our presentation. Even so, the message isn’t always relayed to the general membership. Bob came up with a good solution: he tells people that we have books to sell and “we’d be happy to relieve you of some of your hard-earned money.” This year, we’re going to do a little added publicity on our own, providing the group we’re speaking to welcomes members of the public.

We also bring along handouts, usually a business card and a list of the books we have for sale. This gives people the option of buying our books elsewhere, buying them from us at a later date, or possibly passing on information to another group, resulting in another speaking engagement.

And we’ve discovered that, along with the extra revenue, speaking engagements have a couple of other benefits. We’ve met a lot of really interesting people, many of whom share our passion for history. We also get to hear what’s going on in various communities, what people are interested in, what they want to know more about. That kind of feedback is priceless, because it often provides inspiration for future writing projects, and proof that public speaking is an important part of any writer’s career.