Hosting Author Events
- Maria P Frino
- Sep 9
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 13
Sydney Authors Inked - A Writer's Journey
Hosting author events or preparing a book event takes time to organise, but organising multiple events is even more daunting. The first event I ever organised was the book launch for my debut novel, The Decision They Made, published in 2019. The launch happened 2021 during a break from lockdowns. I was able to launch at a local bookshop and had a nice crowd turn up, people were keen to be out and about by then.
Even though organising this event was both exciting and daunting, it was successful and I was pleased with the feedback from attendees. But, I am now glad to be part of a group of authors who do book events as we help each other with the workload.
It helps with organising events if you are a group of authors like this one I helped to form. Sydney Authors Inked is a collective of authors local to Sydney, Australia. We are interested in sharing our author journey with readers and authors.
We focus on creating a supportive community for local writers. This group provides a platform for authors across various genres to connect, collaborate, and share resources, with a particular emphasis on helping each other with writing, publishing, and promotion.
The collective often organises author events and book readings, where authors can showcase their work, gain insights into the writing and publishing industry, and build connections with other writers.
Here are a few tips on planning and hosting author events -
Planning Your Event
Identifying Your Target Audience when Hosting Author Events
Understanding your audience is a large part of hosting author events and this will guide your decisions of what to present and where to hold the event. From your first event, you will gain insights into your audience, which helps with future events. As our Sydney Authors Inked self-published books are for sale at events, we would like readers to attend. However, our events are also targeted to authors who want to network and increase awareness of their writing.
The amount of attendees varies depending on the topic of the event. As we have only started these events this year, people are just beginning to know us and our events.
Sydney Authors Inked has been around for a few years, but each year we do different events. Keep an eye on our website for what is coming up.
Choosing the Right Venue
A venue for a book event can be a local cafe or bookshop, a hall, a pub, or even outdoors (if you're brave enough to trust the weather). It helps if it is accessible, provides enough space for attendees, has parking nearby, and public transport facilities. The venue you choose will depend on budget and how many people you hope will attend.
Our latest events at a local pub doesn't have accessibility, sometimes this is the hardest thing to have at every venue. However, these events are proving popular as there is parking available and a bus stop out the front.
Event Promotion
Crafting Your Marketing Strategy
Our events are marketed over social media, on our website, word of mouth and many local businesses will display posters for us. Marketing is not an easy thing for any group or individual to do, but as we are a growing group, it is becoming easier with each event.
Being seen is also a marketing strategy. Show up to literary events and network with other authors and meet readers. Talk to everyone about your book, any events you are organising and showcase what it is you do - your genre, age group of readers, where you are based, where do readers find you and your books. Promote yourself as much as your work.
Collaborating with Influencers
Collaborations are great to help with your event. Social media can help to reach influencers who will share your posts, but again, as with marketing, it is not an easy thing to do without a decent budget. Paid influencers will promote your event and your work.
During and After the Event
With our events, we allow time for questions as well as time for attendees to browse and buy books. We encourage authors who attend to network and discuss their books with others, and many will book events with us.
After the event we post images on social media and talk about how the event went. This is an upbeat post and it also helps promote our upcoming events.
We try to do events once a month. Organising these events takes time and we need to spread them out to give us time to do a professional job of hosting. Hosting author events, or any event for that matter, is rewarding, but you need to put the effort into it for it to succeed.
Whether you organise a single event or multiple ones with a group, enjoy the process and bask in the successes you achieve with your hard work.
Happy reading (and organising)
Maria P Frino