CHAPTER 7

Inform, Educate, and Entertain: The Power of Personal Appearances

STEVE JOBS BECAME THE BIGGEST INFLUENCE in Carole’s professional life when she worked as the West Coast editor acquiring books for Addison-Wesley in the late 1990s. It was amazing to have the rare opportunity to go inside Apple headquarters in the early days and witness Steve Jobs’ mesmerizing presentations in the Apple headquarters auditorium in Cupertino, California. It was a visceral experience of the power of speaking to an audience with emotional force and tapping into the dreams of each person. There is an immediate and powerful force that was built into the speeches of Steve Jobs. He carried the inspiring message “follow your dreams” on the body of ideas and technology. His personal charisma and drive, combined with a well-crafted message with the audience’s needs foremost, was destined to shape the wired world we live in now. Luckily you, too, can witness these inspiring talks, now available to everyone to watch on YouTube.

Before he even reached the stage, the audience could feel the power of anticipating Jobs’ spoken presentations at Apple. Through the premium auditorium sound system, a song like the Pointer Sisters’ “I’m So Excited” would vibrate the huge room long before Steve even walked out. By the time he took to the stage, the cheering was so loud it drowned out the music. Jobs’ speeches had entertainment and drama; they drew in an audience far and wide. Today the effects of these speeches are legendary.

All of these now-famous speeches had a well-thought-out and practiced method, all of which are beautifully documented in Carmine Gallo’s book The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs. In this book, Gallo points out a little known fact, that Steve Jobs was nervous when he started out as a speaker in 1978. Jobs understood the power of personal presentation, believed in what he did, and then honed his speaking skills, practiced many times, and stayed with it, until he became regarded as one of the most charismatic and persuasive modern business leaders.

All of us who have a passion for what we do and take the time to think through the quality of how we communicate it are also able to reach out and touch our audience in a memorable and meaningful way. In interviewing the Waterside author clients for this book, it became clear that the most striking traits that all of these successful authors have in common are a passion for their work and a commitment to work tirelessly at building an audience for their message.

Short Talk vs. Long Speech

The good news for authors is that the era of necessity for the long lectern speech is over. Now people don’t generally expect or desire an hour-long speech. In fact, with attention spans ever shortening, most audiences now prefer short talks. Most people are not naturally gifted public speakers, and audiences generally only remember about three points from a speech anyway. As a result, the construct of a short talk is preferred and has gained widespread acceptance.

The proof of the wide popularity of short talks is found in the rise of TED talks. TED was founded in California as a series of conferences owned by the nonprofit Sapling Foundation, whose slogan is “Ideas Worth Spreading.” TED started out collecting short speeches about Technology, Entertainment, and Design, but that sapling has grown to include more than 1,500 short talks with a widening range of topics. You can watch any of these talks on the TED website (ted.com). The TED conferences have given rise to a new art form, the well-crafted short speech, in the process bringing cutting-edge authors and thinkers to ever-wider audiences.

To get an idea of the power of this type of talk, search ted.com by topic or by speaker (the 2005 Steve Jobs commencement speech, “How to Live Before You Die,” has over 11 million views). It’s likely you’ll become mesmerized and inspired by how memorable a single idea presented well can be. The common trait among these speakers is passion, spoken by a range of people, from the famous to the unknowns.

Apply to speak at a TED conference and your name, talk, and video could appear alongside many famous people. Among our author clients who have given TED talks are David Meerman Scott (“The Need to Explore”) and Gaurav Tekriwal (TED-Ed “Why India Should Be Proud of Vedic Math”). These talks give speakers instant global social authority and an almost celebrity-type speaking status.

For local speaking, check into the TEDx program (.ted.com/tedx), which gives you the same visibility on a smaller scale. Here locally, we have a Bay Area TEDx conference, so check your local TEDx speaking opportunities and apply to speak at them. Our author client John C. Havens delivered an October 2013 talk for TEDxIndianapolis called “Shift the Impact of Modern Technology.” TEDx events are created by local organizers independently of TED.

The good news is that you don’t need to speak at a TED conference to give a TED-caliber talk. As an author you can use TED talk guidelines to create a model speech to give at any event; our client Lynn Johnson created her talk “Igniting a Passionate Revolution” in the TED style. Ranging from 5 to 18 minutes, a TED talk is based on a stone tablet of “TED Commandments”:

1. Thou Shalt Not Simply Trot Out Thy Usual Shtick
2. Thou Shalt Dream a Great Dream, or Show Forth a Wondrous New Thing, or Share Something Thou Hast Never Shared Before
3. Thou Shalt Reveal Thy Curiosity and Thy Passion
4. Thou Shalt Tell a Story
5. Thou Shalt Freely Comment on the Utterances of Other Speakers for the Sake of Blessed Connection and Exquisite Controversy
6. Thou Shalt Not Flaunt Thine Ego: Be Thou Vulnerable; Speak of Thy Failure as well as Thy Success
7. Thou Shalt Not Sell from the Stage: Neither Thy Company, Thy Goods, Thy Writings, nor Thy Desperate Need for Funding. Lest Thou Be Cast Aside into Outer Darkness
8. Thou Shalt Remember All the While: Laughter Is Good
9. Thou Shalt Not Read Thy Speech
10. Thou Shalt Not Steal the Time of Them Who Follow Thee

Audiences love this style, and it is well worth creating your own TED-style talk on video as a valuable addition to your author platform. In addition to your own sites and networks, there are a wide range of places on the web that house author talks, some of which are mentioned later in this chapter. Video opportunities are also covered in Chapter 10.

In this chapter, we show you how to broaden your author platform by speaking, covering options from speaking in person to teaching and training, along with some basic principles to integrate into the classic short, memorable book presentation.

Personal Appearance Options

In working with more than a thousand authors over the last several decades, it’s become clear that some authors love, crave, and show talent for public speaking and some do not. The in-person appearance transmits your enthusiasm for your subject matter as the most memorable way to connect with and gain followers. Thanks to the rise of a huge Internet audience, authors can deliver short talks in a number of audience settings, from in-person to online video. If you have the excitement and passion to appear personally in public, we highly recommend this! If you do not, the options below are also very powerful, so choose at least one of the options offered. Your audience needs to experience your persona along with your knowledge, insight, and expertise, and the only way to connect on this level is for your audience to see you speak.

With a crowded list of published books, your author platform is what makes your book stand out and your author brand thrive. Successful authors prepare a personal appearance strategy in advance, and a whole subcategory of author publicists has sprung up to assist with this very need. There are great publicists available if you have the cash, but many authors understand their work and audience well enough to avoid spending thousands of dollars on these experts.

Advantages of Live Personal Appearances

Personal appearances are a proving ground for your authority and carry immediate rewards. When you appear in person you can make eye contact and meet and greet your audience before and after your talk, making more of a personal connection than you would via an online webinar or video. Among the other advantages:

Create viral interest. When you touch your audience speaking in person, you increase chances of creating conversations about your book.

Ready audience to buy your book. Your upcoming book sells better when there is already an audience in place, interested in you and what you have to say. That’s why publishing companies search for authors who already have a teaching, training, and/or speaking background, preferably with large audiences.

Learn the needs of your audience. There’s no better way of hearing what your audience likes, needs, and wants than hearing it directly from them. Interacting with the people you’re writing for, whether you’re teaching, training, or simply speaking, helps you write a better, more targeted book.

Build up your mailing list for future book announcements. In connection with speaking events, it’s customary either to ask attendees to sign in with their email addresses or advance register for your talk online with email addresses.

Increase your chances of additional media. Speaking in person increases your chances of being photographed, filmed, or quoted across a variety of media. This can go even better if scouts are in the audience. As a part of my acquisitions editorial job at Addison-Wesley, I attended industry conferences and speeches on a regular basis and stood in line to make direct contact with the speaker, which often was the only route to meeting that person.

Sell copies of your book. After talks, most authors tell the audience that books are for sale at the back of the room. Alternatively, some authors fold the price of their books into the price of their talks so that each attendee finds a copy of the book on their chair. Of course, books that are signed live by authors at the end of a speech are especially in demand. Just attend a Book Expo America (BEA) conference in New York to witness lines as long as a city block for signed books!

Pay nothing. Live speaking does not cost the author anything except time and travel, and teaching and training can generate money enough for some to make a living.

Record/repurpose video. Your personal appearances do triple duty: engaging your audience, creating buzz, and using the opportunity for videotaping for future use on all locations of your author platform. Some events and panels are streamed live online, but most are recorded for showing evidence of your enthusiastic audience, so be sure that the recording shows applause and engagement.

Personal Appearances Strategy

Start making your personal appearances one-on-one. Don’t wait until you are in front of a group; start to tell everyone you know and meet about your book! This is not a sales pitch; it’s an expression of enthusiasm, telling people what you are writing about and showing how you are impacting others in their lives, and it’s great practice for group speaking.

Get people excited, including friends, family, clients, associates, colleagues, coworkers, and online contacts, and they will likely tell their friends. Word of mouth, as we all know, has the biggest influence of all. People love telling about something that helped them or a story that entertained them.

Authors and what they are writing is pretty fascinating to people, so mention your writing freely—at events, on the road, even while standing in line. For example, I personally love what I do, and my enthusiasm for helping authors build a platform has now gotten the interest and attention of my friends in retail, sales, and just about any profession. The reason? Everyone with a message now needs to build a platform or risk anonymity. If you find that universal interest or need in your audience and meet that need with unique information or coverage in your book, you’ll find ready listeners.

Next, target a group to present to, either in person or online. You can start small and then work up to a larger audience at your comfort level. Below are the options that most of our author clients use for online and live speaking and training. We recommend a mixture of options that fit your natural instincts so that you are at your most confident during all appearances.

Personal Appearance Opportunities

Teaching, online or in person. As noted earlier, publishers seek talented subject matter experts among teachers and professors, many of whom are under “publish or perish” pressures. Interaction in the classroom and exposure to the questions and problems expressed by students creates an instant window of understanding your audience needs.

Speaking, online or in person. In live presentations you can underscore the value of your book by presenting your knowledge in real time. When you appear in person, you also have the option of including your book as required reading for purchase or including it in the price of admission.

Many businesses, organizations, and associations, when seeking speakers for conferences and meetings, look for published or soon-to-be published authors with a proven body of knowledge. Seek out speaking engagements at the following places:

• Panels at industry conferences. Search the Lanyrd, Plancast, and Conferensum websites to investigate potential speaking opportunities at conferences and events.
• Local consulting/speaking at businesses.
• Schools and colleges.
• Book club groups.
• Trade shows. Your publisher can arrange for you to speak on a panel and/or appear at an in-booth signing. Look into BEA, held in New York each year.
• Writing and publishing conferences.
• Bookstores love to bring in authors to speak about their books either in-store or off-site in an auditorium.
• Local service clubs. Rotary, Lions Club, Toastmasters International, and Chambers of Commerce all seek speakers for meetings.
• Business networking groups, such as Le Tip, Business Networking International (BNI), and Local Business Network (LBN).
• Trade associations. The National & Professional Trade Association Directory shows conventions, meetings, and trade show dates for thousands of trade associations. Also consider the Directory of Association Meeting Planners.
• Speaker Services that charge a fee to find engagements include speaker services.com and speakerzone.com.

TV and Internet Interview Opportunities

Major broadcast television is ideal exposure, of course, but other potential appearance opportunities await on television and the Internet. Following is a list of some of the many options our author clients use in building their author platforms.

Book TV interviews (booktv.org) is on C-SPAN2 and covers BEA. Ideally you or your publisher can arrange a book signing at BEA, so there would be a chance of appearing on Book TV, too.

Local TV interviews. Check your local stations for interview opportunities at local talk shows.

BookTelevision (booktelevision.com). This Canadian specialty channel broadcasts shows relating to books, literature, and other media.

Fresh Fiction (freshfiction.com/GMT) has a listing of local TV stations that interview authors.

American Library Association. For a listing of librarians who interview authors on television in a variety of cities, check out ala.org/tools/librarians-who-interview-authors-television.

For more resources, search on keywords “books and TV” and “television author interview” to find local listings that apply to you, and contact these venues to build up your televised speaking list.

Online “Events.” Often people organize “virtual” gatherings when they have shared interests. Google Hangouts is great for this, and you may consider starting an event of your own as we plan to do for the launch of this book. (See “Google Hangouts” in Chapter 4.) As you join groups on Facebook and LinkedIn, watch for announcements on events and join in. Check for meetings or events by location and topic and geographic location.

For more speaking possibilities, see our chapters on audio (Chapter 9) and video (Chapter 10).

Best Practices for Teaching and Training

The most fundamental step in building your author platform is intrinsically tied to the success of your book: Know your audience! Audience needs and preferences drive interest and sales of your book, so it makes basic sense to try to direct decisions based on reader preferences. The more time you spend researching and understanding your audience, the better. In fact, a good revenue source from our agency’s published author base is training, and for good reason: Authors who are teachers know best and deliver on audience needs. Experts who teach also have organized their content into lessons that correspond to chapters.

Some training organizations require a college degree, but most require no credentials, other than a proven ability to communicate effectively. Many of our author clients who are also trainers agree that the easiest way to create a course—to teach either online or live in a class setting—is to use the steps below, starting with short courses and then building from there.

Create a single short course. Use the subject matter of your book to create a series of numbered segments. Your book’s chapter titles can serve as an outline for a single course. For example, we’ve organized this book into 14 discrete steps to build your author platform, each of which we will teach as an expanded unit for a course, webinar, teleseminar, or talk.

Write out the presentation points with visuals for each. You can use the subheads of your chapter organization, then find visual slides to accompany each point, preferably that utilize very little text. Avoid boring presentations that simply require you to read slides! Liven up your points with interesting visual background to give your audience a fresh point of view. The term “edutainment” summarizes how to get to the heart of an audience. For example, we like to flash the visual “Don’t Be Anonymous,” showing why authors need to care, before showing them any how-to steps. One effective visual I use is from a Sourcebooks button I got at BEA, with a rock band drawing of Shakespeare and the caption “Authors are my Rockstars.”

Vary the presentation. As you run through your points, make your presentation as dynamic as possible. Use anecdotes, insert short videos, ask a live group for a show of hands, or do an exercise.

Make your opening and closing remarks memorable, so that you’ll be quoted in the media and social networks if possible. Ensure you end your presentation with some take-away about your subject matter.

Rehearse and rehearse again. Ask your friends for feedback, and if needed, use your iPad or iPhone as a streaming teleprompter if you’re prone to forgetting lines. Use Teleprompt+ for iPad, Android Prompter, or one of the many other teleprompting apps available for tablets and smartphones.

Publicize your course. Get the word out on your author website. Our authors add events plugin calendars to their sites, since it’s the clearest way to show events dates to mark on your own calendar. The Events Calendar or Event Organiser displays your course events and links to registration. See Chapter 1 for information on installing these WordPress plugins.

Teach a short course. Your options are wide here, as you can teach a course on your own by choosing from the options below. Or you can teach for an online university, course provider, or your publisher with a seminar branch, such as Hay House hayhouse.com/event_search.php?format_id=19,31&is_browse_search=1&search_or_results=results&searchType=browse (hayhouse.com). Some authors teach on author-related cruises as well.

As a news producer for Associated Press Television, John Carucci conducts studio and live interviews for red carpets and news events, and writes and edits television scripts. He also works on webinars, webcasting events, and PowerPoint presentations. As someone who has watched a massive number of online classes, John warns against creating a boring, underproduced course. He says the best courses get to the point quickly, use a time limit of about 20 minutes, and have a clearly laid-out structure and format: “The success of a webinar depends on holding your audience’s attention. So have a structure and keep time to a minimum. As a speaker, it’s important to stay on point. Make sure you adhere to the time constraints and understand that you can’t teach them all you know in that short time.”

Our client Nigel French is a designer, author, and trainer who suggests choosing models of speakers you like and emulating that style (he likes the styles of BBC Radio 4 and This American Life). Nigel suggests that you “bring a new angle to your topic and make the content as real-world as possible. For a how-to, start at the end so that you can demonstrate what will be achieved so that your audience knows it’s worth the effort.”

Some fiction writers teach on the topic of the writing process and publish books on this topic. See Stephen King’s book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft as an example.

The Simple Course Format

Here’s a practical, basic format that our author clients use whether teaching online or in person.

Before the Presentation

• Show up before your audience for a sense of control and confidence, and to test any equipment you’re using for your presentation.
• Take time to make personal contact with a simple hello as people arrive.

During the Presentation

• When you introduce yourself, make sure everyone is able to hear you. Tell your audience your talk will be about 30 minutes, including accepting questions for the last 10 minutes.
• Deliver your talk, with your three major points. Speak slowly, leave time for pauses, and if possible project visuals on a screen behind you. Remember to use stories and anecdotes to illustrate points.

After the Presentation

• As you close, offer follow-up information or show how to get access to your slides. Many authors offer a slide at the end of their presentation showing how to follow up and often provide a link to an online survey. A simple three-question survey can give you valuable insight into making your course better as well as positive testimonials to post on your website.
• Remain at the back of the room to sign books while a separate person handles the purchase transactions.

Teaching and Training Strategy

Start small. Even if you create a couple of short courses, your author platform will be enhanced. Ideally, try to present material either online or live during the months leading up to the publication of your book.

Get Speaking Practice

One easy way to start cultivating a live audience is by joining meetup.com. On this site you can find local face-to-face meetups, bringing together enthusiasts of many different stripes to talk about a common passion on just about any topic. You can join existing meetups or easily start your own. For each existing group, contact the group organizer or first attend a meeting to meet your audience.

If you’re in or near an urban area, there may be dozens of small Toastmasters groups (Toastmasters International: toastmasters.org) within a few miles of home. Check their website to find a chapter of this nonprofit organization that brings together people for the purpose of helping members improve their communication and public speaking skills.

Types of Online Teaching and Training

Webcasts, teleseminars, and webinars are the primary ways to deliver online teaching and training.

Webcast. A webcast is an Internet broadcast that uses live-streaming video technology to reach many simultaneous listeners/viewers at once. You can record a webcast to replay and repurpose throughout your author platform. The disadvantage is that you won’t be connecting directly with your audience.

Teleseminar. A real-time telephone seminar that includes interaction with students. The advantage is that a free conference call line enables you to interact with your students and have a robust question-and-answer session. The disadvantage is that while you can link to recordings of a teleseminar, you lose the interactivity—unless you have the energy to repeat the seminar!

Webinar. A webinar is a web-based seminar. Hundreds of these are posted every week across a variety of subject areas. This is the best online teaching option because webinars offer live, real-time interaction with your audience. Your webinar can also be posted after the fact on all parts of your author platform. Setting up a webinar is a little more complex than creating a webcast or a teleseminar, but the process has been made far simpler with software created to organize your webinar, as you’ll see below.

Creating a Webcast

You can create your own live webcast from home by using technology similar to what’s used for concerts and large events. A webcast is a much smaller event that employs a free live-streaming website and a digital or web camera. Before choosing to create a webcast, check out various webcast channels and find ones that have the look and feel of the final result you want to have.

What do we mean by “streaming”? In the early days of web audio and video, you had to download a complete file before any of it would play on your computer. So you would click on a three-minute video clip, wait for it to download … and then you could see it. Streaming technologies allow media to start playing almost immediately while the rest of the file continues to load. Live streaming allows a speaker or musician to perform in one place, with camera and microphone connected to the Internet, and be seen by anyone with a web browser.

Once you’re ready to move forward, the first step in creating your custom live-streaming website account is to log into a live-streaming website like Justin.tv, Ustream.com, or Livestream.com, as of this writing the three leading Webcast sites. On these sites, you are directed to create a channel where your audience is able to see you and your live webcasts. Visitors to the site are able to find information about your webcast, such as updates about your schedule, and see your archive of previous webcasts. You’ll be asked to include a title for your channel and a description of you and your broadcast, as well as some keyword tags. When you have your channel ready, publicize it by adding your webcast link to all parts of your author platform.

Choose a location in your home with a neutral background and good lighting and do a few dry runs in front of the camera to get comfortable with how you look and sound. When it comes time for your live webcast, log in to your channel and press the Go Live! button at the top right corner of Justin.tv or Ustream (or Post if you are using Livestream). At all three sites, your live broadcast can be recorded and linked to from any other site. Each service also provides pretty good help in how to get started, though the UStream videos (like this live demo: ustream.tv/recorded/16851190) may be the best.

As you do more webcasts, you can opt to add interactive features, such as live questions and answers, polls, tests, and surveys.

How to Create a Teleseminar

The teleseminar is by far the easiest way to connect with your audience in real time. With a telephone and a free conference line such as those offered at freeconferencecall.com, you can teach your course as a telephone workshop in a live audio-only format. Teleseminars are perfect for having the interaction of a live audience while eliminating the time and costs associated with classroom instruction. A teleseminar also gets you maximum impact in 30-minute blocks.

Students attending your teleseminar only need access to the teleconferencing service and, of course, a phone line. This is a medium that works fine for telephone conferences alone, but you can also use your computer to monitor who’s attending the conference.

There are a lot of services available that will allow you to host a teleseminar on a free conference line but will charge for webinar hosting, sometimes with charges tied to the number of participants.

How to Create a Webinar

A webinar gives you the most control, interactivity, and reuse options, so we highly recommend using it as one of the tools on your author platform. The webinar requires a few more steps than a webcast or a teleseminar but is well worth the effort for how it engages your audience. Webinar participants need an Internet connection, a computer, and access to web-conferencing software, and they can dial into the webinar through their computer or phone line.

GoToMeeting is a web-conferencing service that costs around $49 a month, with a 30-day free trial. It’s well worth the cost to use this service in the three months leading up to the publication of your book. Afterward, you can make extra money with paid webinars. You can have up to 25 people connecting to your webinar. If you expect many more connections, you can upgrade to a $99-a-month package that permits 100 people to connect.

For a webinar course, we recommend the short course at 30 minutes. Remember to schedule your webinar when your audience is most likely to attend. Business-oriented webinars often take place around lunch hour, while consumer-oriented topics run after dinnertime. Generally, you’ll be talking into a headset while slides are being shown on the web. Practice your delivery and timing well before making your first webinar. We cover this further in the video chapter (Chapter 10).

Publicize your webcasts, teleseminars, and webinars on your author and book websites, and social networks, and through your targeted email lists of followers to draw as many people as possible.

Types of Live Teaching

There are as many options in teaching live as there are in teaching online, from short courses to long, from local venues to large auditoriums. If you are not already teaching in person, begin with one small course and grow from there. It’s always easiest to start with local opportunities. Check with continuing education courses, community centers, coaching and consulting opportunities at professional organizations, book clubs and bookstores, and corporate and training companies.

A couple of online businesses can help you organize classes, and you can even get paid for teaching them. Both of these sites offer writing-related courses, among a variety of topics:

Dabble (teach.dabble.co) is about one-time, live classes in your hometown. For students, Dabble is a low-cost, informal way to learn about topics they are interested in. Instead of investing a lot of time and money taking a college-level master gardening course, they can come to Dabble and talk to someone who can help them assess whether they have what it takes to start a backyard vegetable garden. As a teacher, you can propose a class to Dabble and set your date, time, venue, and fee. When your class is approved, they will list your class on their website, handle all the registration stuff, offer you some ideas for developing your course, and transfer the fees to your bank (they will, of course, take a percentage of the total fee). Whether you want to establish yourself as an expert, bulk up your résumé, or get new clients in the door, Dabble can help.

Skillshare (skillshare.com) is more focused on “project-based” video courses online, but also hosts live classes (mostly in New York City). For example, you can take an introductory web design course for $40 that consists of 56 videos, ranging in length from 6 to 40 minutes. According to Skillshare, “Anyone can teach. It’s a great way to share your knowledge, build your brand, and make your community a better place.” As a teacher, your main task is to prepare a “project guide” or course curriculum, get it approved, and then record your videos. Skillshare offers recommendations on software and equipment, and also offers guidelines on class development. Skillshare also provides a discount code to include on your website; students who enroll in your course with the referral code sign up for less, and you get 85% of the fee (otherwise, you get 70%).

Live Speaking Strategy

Speak live to groups as often as possible to grow your audience before your book is published. Our author client Ray Anthony, coauthor of Killer Presentations with Your iPad: How to Engage Your Audience and Win More Business with the World’s Greatest Gadget (McGraw-Hill), suggests that regardless of where you give your speech, the following format gives polish and a professional framework to any author’s talk and can be customized to fit your needs.

The Simple Author Short Speech Format

Visuals: Two foam boards, 2´ × 3´, one with photo of author, one with photo of book, both on easels. Before and during your talk, the visuals serve as visual reference, frame, and backdrop.

Introduction. Have someone who knows you and your book introduce you, holding the book up in her hand as she mentions some key points or tidbits in your book that won’t be duplicated in your speech.

Presentation. Your author talk should focus on three points in your book without focusing on yourself.

Relate each of the three points to someone else who helped you with the book, which makes you very likeable rather than self-aggrandizing.

Highlight the book without pitching it. An example of doing that is to say, “My good friend Sally Q gave me excellent insights that I incorporated into Chapter 4 that covers … Here are some powerful ideas she shared with me that I put in my book …”

Periodically refer to something in the book that is a key part of your presentation.

Reference someone whose comments were quoted in the book.

Give great insights into the writing of the book behind the scenes.

When you talk about your book, you do so in an indirect way that communicates specific, useful ideas, strategies, and information that the audience will appreciate.

Closing. The same person who introduced you should make a closing remark suggesting that the audience meet you and “pick up” the book in the back of the room (don’t use the word “buy”). If there is a discount or freebie it should be mentioned here. If it’s a nonprofit, it should be mentioned if a percentage of the sales are going to that organization. You can also raffle a copy or two of the book. As the speaker, you should delegate the handling of the money, focusing your attention on signing purchased copies and speaking to people

Regardless of the type of personal appearance you choose, be sure to connect with your audience on a one-to-one basis in person or through teaching courses for maximum impact.

Checklist, Step 7: Personal Appearances

Organize your subject matter into teachable lists.

Plan your mix of live and online personal appearances in advance of your publication date.

Create and deliver a short course or series of courses.

Record and videotape each appearance for placement on sites and networks.

Give live talks and connect with readers afterward.

Attend industry conferences for networking.

List your personal appearances in your media kit on your websites and on all parts of your author platform.