Signing Books and the Pandemic?

Susan Reichert

I am curious!

Are author's still doing book giveaways of their new books as they release?

Or has that all together just stopped since covid? And what happened to some of the books that came out when covid hit?

With one book, author, Sarah Ramey, said about her debut book's release date, (March 17, 2020) "That is essentially the same week that COVID-19 came out." She goes on to say, "For it to come out that week, of all weeks, was really . . . challenging. Her book was The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness.

Aimee Liu's, (author of numerous books), novel Glorious Boy came out in May 2020. She said, "The publishing industry only gives you one bite of the apple. She goes on to say, "They immediately write you off if you don't sell big on your first book. They don't give you a second chance, and they don't handicap you for bringing a book out in the middle of a pandemic. It's not like you get extra points."

And what about book signings and speaking events during the pandemic? Those opportunities became non-existent.

Sometimes when things happen that prevent us from business as usual it can be detrimental; but, with that said, it can also be an opportunity to find a better, more productive way to do business.

Yet, out of the shutting down came more virtual tours. . .online debuting. . .podcasts! Whatever someone could imagine they seem to be able to pull it together.

We won't know the outcome on all of that yet, but we will as time goes on. Each author will continue to look for ways to announce their newly released book to the world.

Never count an author out.

Maybe, we can look at the things we did before, and dust those off now and put them into action with a different twist. We might find ourselves looking to tweak some of those and make them more user friendly for our readers.

By putting ourselves in the readers shoes we will be able to find new and better ways to bring about new facets of getting information out about our new books. Don't forget, authors create buzz!