Here's how pro writers do signings:
Months in advance of my book's release--two months is usually enough, but three is better:
I contact the manager or community relations manager of the biggest, busiest bookstore in my area.
I let her know my book is NOT with Publish America or any other vanity/POD operation.
You can see the relief in their eyes when I drop that one. Suddenly they relax and smile, they know they're dealing with a pro.
I let her know when my book is to be released, the publisher, the genre, and she checks her calendar to see if there is a date open, usually on a Saturday in the early afternoon.
If there is, she puts it in the system, and an order is placed with the distributor (or publisher) for copies to arrive well before that date.
I do not buy the books. The store orders them through the usual channels and sells them at cover price. This so they can make a
profit.
They do NOT like writers supplying their own books. They cannot make a profit from those sales. The writer is taking up floor space and time the store needs for its
own bottom line.
The big stores have a newsletter and send emails to an extensive list of their customers. The signing will be a big thing. There will be signs printed and in the windows.
I send out e-mails to friends to please show up. A) it's good to have bodies coming through the door; B) your friends will likely buy *other* books while they're there. The store LOVES that kind of thing.
I turn up on the big day, dressed nice, with a big cheerful attitude and a bowl of Hershey Minis and bookmarks to give away. No one likes a pretentious Gloomy Gus playing "Tortured Author". If you're happy to be there, then people will come up and chat.
Publish America SUCKS at getting books to signings. We've seen this again and again on their message boards. Disappointed writers have to cancel signings because the promised books just don't arrive.
The authors are out the cost of the undelivered books and the bookstore manager--who put time and money into promotion of the event--is
never going to forget the embarrassing screw up, and will understandably, if unfairly, blame the author.
The posts about the non-delivery (or "why don't you answer my emails??") are quickly removed by Miranda Prather, because *everything* is always perfect at PA. They never make mistakes, it's always the writer's fault.
With my signings I usually call up a couple of my writer pals and ask if they'd like to do a joint signing. Three writers are better than one and at one event there were five of us. My friends also have mailing lists and a big local fan base. The store gets crowded with bodies and sells LOTS of books that day and not just the titles by those writers.
Big Name Writers will have signing tours set up by their publishers. These are the pros who have been selling for years and are on the NYT bestseller lists.
A new writer, pimping a first novel, won't get a tour. When I mentioned doing one for my first novel to my editor she was very kind and didn't laugh, but I did hear a choking sound. I was very green back then.
GothicKnight--You need to get to a library, dive into the 808 section and read all the books there about writing.
Read the books by other writers about how THEY did things. I picked up all this information back when I was 12 and my first sale was decades down the road in my future.
I found out I didn't have to reinvent the wheel, the blueprints were already there.
Surfing the Net can help, but there are too many strangers with candy who are only too ready to LIE to you to get your money. PA is a prime example.