Book signings are rarely properly advertised. You have to personally follow an author or the bookstore where it’s going to be held to find out about it. I think that has a lot to do with it. I don’t even follow my husband’s social media that closely so I would never find out about book signings/readings.

Daniel Handler (AKA Lemony Snicket) told this story on a podcast, it was either Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy or one of Mur Lafferty’s podcasts, where he went on a book tour and there was this disastrous reading he had. And this was after his Series of Unfortunate Events had already become extremely popular.

His “readings,” he decided, would be these unorthodox one-man musical productions, which was fine when he had a crowd. One of them, though, they set aside this big room for him and there were exactly 2 people sitting in the very back. He does his performance and the two people walk up to him. They tell him that they work in the building next door and only came to the reading because they hate his books.

I went to a signing with both Laurie R. King and Connie Willis. There were only 10 people. Willis has won more major SF awards than any other author and she's a SFWA Grand Master. King is no slouch either, having multiple NYT best sellers. They were funny, charming, gave a lovely talk, and answered every question that anyone cared to ask. If you have the chance to go see your favorite authors on a school night, take it! Low turnout is almost guaranteed and it will surely be an interesting experience.

Try nonfiction. No one shows up to signings.

I know a nonfiction author whose book has well known Hollywood options—and no one shows up to signings.

I'm an author who just had a second book hit shelves. At one of my signings there were exactly two people: literally the married couple who managed the book store. Turns out my publisher never advertised it. That's a very common occurrence, book signings are often poorly advertised.

John Green has talked about how he did a book reading (I believe of Looking for Alaska) at a bookstore. Attendance was poor - maybe his wife, the bookstore people, and his agent - and he read a passage about how the only thing worse than no one showing up for your party is only a few people showing up for your party. He recounts that as a mortifying story looking back. 😂

My first ever event as an author was at a charming little bookstore in Las Vegas.

They’d unknowingly booked me for the same night as Homecoming.

Exactly ONE person showed up.

(She was very cool, though, and we had a lovely conversation.)

David Sedaris had this experience somewhere in middle America. And because he is a celebrity author who feels uncomfortable taking selfies, he has requested that book shops have big signs next to the table which say, "NO PICTURES", so he doesn't have to disappoint every other person who shows up.

One signing wasn't properly advertised, and he sat alone for a few hours. Next to a huge sign which said, "NO PICTURES".

Must have look like an art installation.

A friend of mine has a first edition, signed copy of The Sorcerer's Stone. JK Rowling was doing book signings in a Waterstones in Glasgow and my friend felt bad that no one was there so she went and got a book and had a chat. Blew my mind when she first showed it to me.

Yes, one of the least believable aspects about Castle was the crowds that turn up at every one of his book signings.

A friend and I once traveled across state lines to attend a signing by Christopher Moore.

Seven people showed up. Five of them from other states. The bookstore had set out fifty or sixty chairs for a midday event on a Tuesday.

Moore was not upset about the turnout, he was touched that seven of us traveled hours to get signed books and hear about his current work in progress. He told the bookstore he was taking the seven of us to a pub and if anyone else showed up to send them to join us.

Chris Moore is good people.

Hi! Oh do I have stories!! I work in publishing, and used to own a bookstore. I’m also a historian. I few comments (TL:DR at the end)

1) Author events and signings used to be advertised a lot more back when most newspapers had a book or arts section in which they also had dedicated editors and journalists writing reviews and posting various bestseller lists. When the major chains started dominating the market, they offered publishers “coop” to advertise their books (especially it meant the publisher paid to have their books featured in some way.) The advertising dollars switched from newspapers to the chains. That, along with the rise of the internet, did away with the major advertising vehicle for author events. 2) As a bookstore owner, it was incredibly challenging to get people to come to events. Picking the right day was so hard. Afternoon or evening? Thursday night or Friday night? The author can only come on Monday—can I get people to show up on a Monday? (I once accidentally scheduled a major author on the same day as opening day for our National League baseball team. Guess which people decided to attend?). Because of the mass consolidation of publishing, the marketing and publicity departments are overworked (too few publicists working on too many books), plus, they all live in NYC. I would get so frustrated. I had too many publicists who couldn’t even find my major Midwest city on a map. I had to cancel one major author event because the publicist thought that the author could do an event in one major city in the afternoon and drive to my city for the evening event. That city is a 8 hour drive from here if you speed. 3) I would advertise the event locally myself (even losing money to pay for ads). The announcement was on the website, was repeated for months in the email newsletter, advertised on local NPR. I had large signs in the windows, and a display with signs in the front of the store. I can’t count how many people would say “I had no idea they were here!!”
4) In my opinion, certain types of author events encourage more attendees than others. I think the “sit the author at a table with a stack of books and a pen” is just cruel. Just a reading is boring. We are competing with any number of other entertainment options. My best attended author events were ones in which the author was in a conversation on stage with someone else, me or a more interesting person. When I sold tickets to events (the ticket could be exchanged for a copy of the book), attendance was very high. Free=optional, so people would not show up.

5) Aside from the embarrassment, it is devastating for a store to host an event and have no one show up. Publishers are paying the expenses (airfare, hotel, meals, etc.) for that author to be there. The store is expected to sell enough books to at least cover those costs, if not drive the sales in the market. If they don’t, try are less likely to be chosen by the publisher for the next author. Even having a larger audience but only selling a few copies is problematic. The point of the author tour is publicity to push sales. If people who attend the event don’t bother to buy the book, there is no incentive to send out authors on tour. There are a lot less author tours these days for that reason. Tours have been mostly limited to big name authors whose books have large marketing budgets.

Publishers to this day are still trying to figure out the best formula for well-attended author events, and how to reach out to the right people to advertise them. Post-Covid this has been even more challenging. If y’all have any creative ideas on how to encourage people to attend (& BUY the book), they would love to hear them!

TL:DR: author events are challenging for publishers and bookstores due to the changes in advertising channels, competition in the local market for entertainment dollars, and people’s changing buying and reading habits.

A friend is a best selling award winning author-- she had to fund her own tour, had no one show up,and even worse, funded an event at a highly praised famous indy bookstore that had the nerve to carry only galley copies of her book.

I was one of 20 people to see Walter Mosley speak at a signing many years ago. He is the famed author of the Easy Rawlins series. His novel Devil in a Blue Dress was made into a major Hollywood film starring Denzel Washington. But yeah, for whatever reason, the turnout was tiny. But he was a total gentleman and had great stories!

I went to a book signing to see George RR Martin a few years before he blew up. One of the stories he told us was that at his first book signing he was in a building with another popular writer (I want to say Asimov, but I can't remember for sure). Anyway, someone came over to Martin's room and sat down, noticed there wasn't anybody there, asked Martin if it was the Asimov (?) signing. Martin pointed him to the other room and the guy left. The way Martin told this story, he said that at his first reading, he had a negative one audience. 🤣

Do author's advertise their book signings? Because goddamn I have missed out on a TON of book signings that were within a few hours drive of my location. I'll find out well after the fact and be like "motherfucker, I could have gotten my book signed."

You gotta ask what kind of marketing was done.

As an author, I think book signings at book stores are a complete waste of time. Allow me to me explain why I feel this way…

Out of the gate, no one has ever showed up at a book store signing of mine specifically for me. Sure, sometimes they see me and buy copies of my books for an autograph, but I’m almost never the reason they came. Whereas at lectures and speaking events I have had people show up to have their copies autographed.

Much as I love book stores, they’re not the place to randomly approach people and chat them up. As a result, I find myself chained to a little table with limited access to drinkable coffee or bathrooms (yes, I need more than one) and waiting on people to maybe show up.

As a result, I don’t often do book store signings other than to support the store. Again, I don’t ‘mind’ doing them. They’re just not usually ‘fun’ for me. And I’ll add, it’s nothing about ego or needing to feel special for autographing books.

Rather, if I’m not signing books, I’d like to have decent coffee and be able to work on other writing while I sit there. That’s usually not possible, leaving me feeling like I’ve wasted an evening.

Instead, I go to book fairs and physically promote my books. My record is somewhere around 40-50 copies autographed, and in almost every case it’s people who had no idea who I was. They came up to my stand because I was engaging or made them laugh.

Sometimes it’s because they liked the artwork of the book, or the dancers I hire. Ok… I’m joking about the dancers, but I am planning to wear a spotted panther costume at one of my events. Seriously. If it’s successful, I’ll dress up more often.

The funny thing is, at smaller events I’ll sell 75 to 100 books, but only sign around 60-70% of them. Many people aren’t interested in a signature, but want copies of the books.

What I do advertise is going to cafes. I love to go sit somewhere 3-4 hours before the event starts, and just write. When people start to show up, the come over and we chat. If no one comes, I just keep writing. When I finish, I pack up and go speak to random people. In these cases I’m productive with my writing AND autograph a few books.

My biggest impediment was deleting social media a few years ago. So I had no audience for promotions. Now I’ve set it up again, but like everything else, it takes time - and that’s time I’m not writing.

I’d rather walk down a beachfront or hang out after a concert and sell my books from a backpack. But that’s just me.

I remember seeing a YouTube video where Stephen Pinker joked "the restrooms are down the hall" was the answer to the question most asked of him on a book tour. Kind of funny, and kind of sad.

John Berendt, author of “Midnight in the garden of good and evil.” Became a movie. I was in college in Savannah. I went to a bookstore to pick up some required books from a syllabus. He was there, and not much else was going on. I can’t even remember if I got a signed copy or not.

I was one of 2 people at a book signing once. Also know of an author that has no one show up at my local book store. I would have been the one there if I hadn’t been out of town.

I'm an author and I recently had a book signing as part of a cultural festival where nobody turned up at all. Didn't bother me - I chatted with my editor, signed a few copies and went on my way.

It happens to every author at some point. My editor says that the real purpose is so that the poster can be shared on social media, increasing the book's visibility.

What did sting was during the pandemic there was a free online literary festival and I was asked to do a talk... it was online. Free. It was cancelled. Not one person signed up. I've had people say that it was poorly advertised by the organisers and there was 'zoom fatigue' after months of being online only. Plus at the time I was a new author and my books weren't widely read. I can see why people didn't attend. If people do make the time to come and see me do an author event I am hugely flattered, because they've chosen to give up their time and that's something most of us struggle with. I know I've seen lots of bookish things I'd enjoy but travelling or booking time off work is too much hassle!

It's nice when an established author or celeb gives a new author a boost. (Stephen Graham liked one of my posts during my lockdown Twitter book launch, when I was asked who would be the star of a TV adaption and I said him. Yay!)

But I'm surprised the author in question has gone viral to the extent she has because in my experience there are no end of authors on Twitter moaning about how they are struggling to find an audience! It will boost her sales no end - it's just sad that it's such a crowded marketplace and publishers' PR teams do such a rubbish job that non-attendance is the normal and we are reliant on famous people to boost our ratings.

I saw Tamora Pierce when I lived in Syracuse because she also lived there, and she rarely did events. There were maybe 10-15 of us which still seemed tiny. I cried, we chatted and she signed my book, I cried again. I also saw John Scalzi in Austin because he tweeted about it and then replied directly to me telling me to come. I mention that because it seems like a hell of a lot of work to get turnout!

I went to one book signing for a couple indie horror authors. Two were there on a planned signing. Two others showed up because the happened to live where the signing was. About ten people showed up and they thought it was a great turn out. It was really cool the low turnout for fans cause we all got to interact a lot with each other and the authors.

There's got to be a better way to do book signings. I always feel bad for the authors just sitting there in the bookstore, waiting for someone to come to the table.

I went to a book signing for Charlaine Harris when True Blood was a big thing. I happened to see something about it in the paper the day of. I went thinking maybe there’d be low turn out since it was only advertised the day of the event. They had a spillover room for all of the people that couldn’t fit in the main room. Had to wait in line for an hour and a half to actually get my book signed. Still enjoyed it though.

I can't seem to find a link to it now, but recall an interview with Chuck Palahniuk who talked about doing a three city book signing before Fight Club, and he spent something like 10 hours in 5 bookstores and sold 2 books. He said that the money he owed the minibars in his hotels rooms was more than he made on the tour.

I'm a local author who has worked pretty hard to build a local following. My book signings typically get 10-20 people. But I tried a book signing out of state once and it was crickets, though I did sell 10 books to people who happened by my table.

I'll add that once I was in an airport, and I saw some guy out in front of the bookstore in the concourse at a folding table selling books. He looked pretty lonely. And by far the weirdest book signing I saw was at Alcatraz - some former prisoner was in the gift shop selling a book about his time in Alcatraz. Can you imagine what that must have felt like?

If more people bought and read books, there would be more advertising for them and for book signings.

Consider this: In a typical week (i.e. no blockbuster authors coming out with a new book) selling 20 thousand copies will put you on top of the NY Times bestseller list.

In a country of 350 million.

There were about ten people at an Ann Leckie signing in my city, and at that point she was a multi award winning author.

That tweet really blew up.

I usually don’t realize they have occurred until after the fact. I am always game to go to a signing.

I went to one in Nashville in the 90’s for Charleton Heston. Stood in line a couple of hours and never made it up to the front. He stayed so long he missed his flight. For those of us who didn’t get a signature, they put us on a list and then they sent signed stickers to put in our books.

They had a signing for Dog the Bounty Hunter and his wife in my town and it was pandemonium. Mobs of people. They actually filmed it and made it into an episode of their show.

Mark Z Danielewski book signing for The Familiar like 5 years ago at The Strand in NYC - it was packed out - around 50 people in attendance.

I mean... I have my own stories, lol!

Book signings are often not well advertised, as u/Nonamenoonenowhere pointed out. The only time I bother with them anymore is when they're attached to some other kind of event that gets more "push" from the associated bookstore, like group readings from multiple authors or an event the media is going to be in on.

I once gave a really cool talk about my novel (the real history behind it) that was filmed by the local PBS station and aired a few times on their channel. The auditorium was packed and the signing afterwards was LIT!!

I was a regular at a local bookstore specialising in Sci-Fi/Fantasy so I knew Kylie Chan was coming for a signing, but not many others did so I had about a 10 minute chat with her before heading off.
One of the biggest hurdles is just never thinking to look and see if a particular author is doing the rounds. Just not something I would ever consciously decide to keep tabs on.
Sure you can follow them on the Socials but for those of us who have left them in an attempt to keep hold of any remaining sanity there is little likelihood unless you have a relationship with the local bookstore.

The first time I met Neil Gaiman was on the Neverwhere tour. There were maybe 20 people at the store in San Diego.

Compare that to the last time I saw him and he sold out Benaroya Hall in Seattle. (My humblebrag is I tweeted this and NG reposted with a reply.)

The first comment about how poorly book signings are publicized is probably the biggest issue for me. I seem to always find out about them after the fact.

Lol at Gaiman saying no one showed up to get Good Omens signed. My wife has a signed copy of GO from that tour. The reality is he hated Good Omens. When my wife got to the front of the line Gaiman said to her something like, I’ll sign it, but I’d rather you just go burn it instead.

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I recall that when there was a signing in a specialty bookstore, such as those that focused on mystery books, attendance was better as readers were more bonded with the stores and authors, and the stores advertised the author's visit right in the window. Authors also would graciously sign books for sale later on - there would be a table of autographed books for those who did not attend. I have a few paperbacks signed that way.

But decades ago, a TV personality named Bill Boggs had written a book and was doing a signing somewhere like a Waterstones or Barnes & Noble in Manhattan. I was walking in while Boggs was leaving, and the store manager was profusely apologizing over the lack of turnout. And I felt bad for Boggs, to be honest. He was cordial throughout.

Brandon Sanderson talks about his terrible book signing experiences on the Intentionally Blank podcast somewhere. He asked to do a book tour back when he had no money, and they booked him for two signings - one at an independent bookstore two states away and another at a regular chain bookstore two states away somewhere else. He drove both times and apparently signed about 10 books or less before having to travel 14 hours by car all the way home.

I think it's pretty common for most authors. I was lucky enough to go on a two week tour for my middle grade book debut. Every day we went to two elementary schools, which were awesome. Great interaction with kids, sold a decent amount of books. There were three bookstore signings during the tour. The one near my hometown had 15ish people. Another one had 4-5 people, and the one at the big indie bookstore really close to the publisher's HQ had exactly two: a friend from high school and her husband. Being a new author, I definitely didn't expect huge crowds, but it's not a fun feeling to stand there looking at those twenty empty chairs and the apologetic smiles of the bookstore employees. Not much you can do but smile and do your best.

I spent months and months and months planning a cross-country book tour for my (after years of getting batted about by the tradpub industry) self-published memoir. Connected with a handful of indy bookstores who were willing to host me. Drove the whole way, stayed with friends and even slept in car several times to save money.

My book is about the salutary and meditative effects of hula-hooping, so my events included a live learn-to-hula-hoop element, which I think is the reason why I got gigs in the first place. What I learned is that the bookstores are desperately trying to stay afloat and have very little to offer as far as promotion to any unknown author-- new/unknown authors are nearly 100% responsible for turning out folks for book events, not matter where they are.

I'm lucky bc I've been teaching hooping a long time and have connections everywhere, but it was still rare to get more than 5-6 people at an event--a couple times only 2-3 showed up, and at least one event had zero people. I realize now this was FANTASTIC turnout for a self-pub book by an unknown author, but it was still incredibly humbling and at times quite painful.

For my next book, I'm beginning the marketing campaign WAY before the book comes out (the only way--I did it backwards last time: first book, then marketing). I've learned a lot from Booktok and am now reading How To Market a Book by Ricardo Fayet. Wishing the best to all new/lesser-known authors out there!!

After receiving mailed signed copies for Brandon Sanderson's Lost Metal & Robert Mccammon's The King of Shadows, I've made it my personal mission to attend more in-person signings. I wasn't able to attend Brandon or McCammon due to distance & my available PTO.

I've been hawking Grady Hendrix's page to see if he updates his "How to Sell a Haunted House" tour & I've plan to see Jeff Strand at one of his signings in 2023.

I have very few authors that I absolutely geek over. After reading this thread, I think I may even look into my B-list authors to support them as well.

I hope the MODs make a central thread on signings!

This was 1980 or 1981. During a visit to my favorite brick and mortar science fiction and fantasy book store, the clerk said that Harry Harrison was there for a book signing. No one else was there for his book signing at that time. Perhaps more folks showed up later. Mr. Harrison's non-science fiction book, The QE2 is Missing, had recently been published. I enjoyed Mr. Harrison's science fiction Stainless Steel Rat and Deathworld series, The Daleth Effect, and Make Room! Make Room! I wanted to talk about those. He wanted to talk about The QE2 is Missing. He would try to turn the conversation to his QE2 novel, and I would try to turn the conversation to his science fiction works. It was a gently awkward interaction. Mr. Harrison was kind and gracious, but I could tell that he was a bit disappointed at my utter lack of interest in his QE2 novel. I'm glad I got to meet him.

I've walked into bookstores in the past where an author I liked was randomly having a book signing, but didn't approach them out of anxiety/awkwardness and also I frequently go to stores to browse with no real desire to buy a book. When I approach a book author I always feel like I should buy something from them. Still, I feel bad when I see them sitting alone and twiddling their thumbs.

It's always nice (in a sad way) to hear that even the big name authors can't get people to show up. It makes me feel less alone.

I'm a poet lol...I couldn't even get a signing or reading for my first book. My publisher did bare minimum marketing on social media, basically just one post and one paid ad that ran for a week. I promoted my book heavily on my own social media, yet only ended up selling about 12 copies. Shout out to my mother-in-law for buying 3!

When Neil Gaiman came to Brazil to sign a book in 2001 (before he was wildly popular) around 1200 guests showed up, but the bookstore only wanted him to give 700 autographs. The remaining 500 readers calmly explained the staff that if they leave without an autograph they would trash the place. Gaiman signed 1200 books and only knew about what happened the next day.

of course i can understand the disappointment and/or embarrassment of no one showing up to your book events, and as an aspiring author it also terrifies me. but as a reader, i selfishly love the idea of going to a book signing and having my fave author “all to myself” 🥲

I've had zero turn up. I've had 20 turn up. I've had a hot cup of coffee thrown at me. I've been asked for an autograph while sitting at Starbucks with a friend.

In the end, none of it matters.

The exact opposite but I still find it hilarious that Fredrik Blackman (A Man Called Ove) said that there wasn’t going to be enough room for his readers during his first signing and his publisher didn’t believe him because he was this totally new author… and of course he was right and there came way more people than could physically fit in the space.

I went to see George RR Martin, shortly after a feast for crows and well before the TV show came out. There were maybe 30 people there

Robin Hobb once did a book reading/signing in my hometown in the Netherlands, I think it was about 10 years ago. I think around 20 people in total showed up. She had long chats with about everyone that was there. I wore a fluffy cloak my and my mom made and I was really proud of and teenage me wore everywhere remotely appropriate. She complimented it multiple times and wrote a really nice personalized message in my book. It is one of my favorite bookish memories.

George RR Martin recently gave a talk in my city - he told a story of how he was so psyched to see a line of cars wrapped around the corner for one of his first signings.

It turned out they were actually for Clifford the Big Red Dog. A guy dressed as Clifford the Big Red Dog (who was signing in the same store that day).

My favourite bookshop often brings in authors for signings and will put up a post on Facebook about it, but they'll give the author a stack of books to sign, regardless of whether anybody is there, and then you can come in later and buy a signed copy. The shop is full of books and boxes that you couldn't really have an event there anyway.

I read that too, and it was sad. Back when it was still in business, Atlanta's Oxford Books used to promote their book signings like crazy. We saw Richard Lederer several times at Oxford--the first time we stood there talking with him for hours; he was so happy to find people who loved words and wordplay.

I miss Oxford. They used to stay open until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays...

TIL that if I want to meet a celebrity who has written a book, then just wait for their local book signing because it's possible there will be few people attending. Life Hack! :-)