In the Flesh or Between the Lines? The Benefits of Including the Author

Garth Stein, author of The Arts of Racing in the Rain, during an on-campus visit

As many all-campus and community reads organizers begin finalizing their decision for 2014 program titles, the account managers here at Books in Common often field an important question: why is it so critical for the author to participate, in person? We’ve worked with hundreds of event planners, on thousands of programs around the country. With nearly 100% agreement, the clients we work with say that having the author in the flesh dramatically increases the success of their programs.

1. The anticipation of an author visit encourages patrons/students to read. The prospect of a community-wide literary event can often draw the participation of classrooms, cultural centers, and local social networks.
2. A centralizing author event can help tremendously with programming and fosters collaboration among many different community/campus groups. This has short term as well as long-term benefits, since future collaboration almost always ensures that programs continue successfully.
3. Seeing an author in person is exciting! Because the work of being a writer is out of the public eye, students and community members gain immeasurable inspiration and continued interest when they can engage directly with the storyteller. Our clients often report that visiting writers include personal anecdotes, details on their writing process, and inside information that are simply unavailable in the print version of their work.
4. Visiting authors are often willing to participate in program fundraising. Sell tickets to an author-featured cocktail hour. Hold writing contests for the visiting author to judge. Invite donors to a private Q&A with the author. Many of our clients are able to not only offset the author’s speaking fee, but also help develop their programs as well.
5. Promotion of a visiting author will always help get the word out about the program. Although many of our clients plan wonderful programming around their title selections, when they don’t have an author present for a culminating (or kick off) event, they report decreased participation. Quite simply, an author event provides another line of promotion that can potentially draw patrons, students, and readers to the page.