You plan an interesting adult program (at least you think it will be interesting).
You post flyers around your library; at the entrances, at the service desks, and insert them into the checked out books.
You advertise the program on the library's website and send press releases to the local newspapers.
And then the day of the program.....no one shows.
Has this ever happened to you? Is it what we all dread?
I have actually had this happen to me.
On one occasion, I had a very entertaining gentleman approach me with an offer to give a book talk about his new book. He had self-published and was anxious to share his book with others. He supplied copies of the book prior to the event. He supplied a short summary of the book for the press release and a poster of the book cover for the library display announcing the program. The local papers all ran the press releases for us (the papers not running the press releases is sometimes an issue but wasn't in this case).
And then the day of the program, the author arrived and the room was empty. I was embarrassed for both the author and the library. I think that our community missed out on an interesting program.
I have tried to determine what issues caused this.
1. The author was unknown.
2. It was a beautiful day on the lake. Timing can be an issue; this program was offered in the summer and my library is located on Lake Erie. Beautiful sunny Saturdays can be difficult for adult programming. Had this program been in March might there have been participants?
3. It was a combination author talk/reading and book signing. Does this scare away adults who think they will be pressured to buy a book? But with budgets being small, it is sometimes helpful to offer an author the booksigning opportunity in exchange for not having to pay them for speaking.
Any ideas? If I have this type of programming opportunity again I would like to have better success.
Please share your thoughts or similar experiences.
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Unfortunately, I have had this happen more often than not with lesser well known authors. All of our efforts in marketing and publicizing the meet the author events were met with 4-5 people in the crowd. And yes, very embarrassing for both the library and for the author.
ReplyDeleteYou make an excellent point that other events around town and even the time of year can play a big part in whether attendance will be poor, fair, or great. It will be interesting to learn about others experiences with adult programming.
We're trying an author fair here next month. There will be 8 different local authors who will each have a table. Each will have 10 minutes to speak about their process, their book, etc. Then people can mingle about, speak with authors, purchase books, etc. Hopefully having multiple authors will help more people to come. It won't be as intimidating as a single author and possibly each author will have a few people who will come for them...then the room will fill up. We'll see!
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