Not everyone runs an Author Talk the same. Below are details from Mosman Library and their very successful Author Talk program. How do you run your author talks? Perhaps you have some hints and tips you'd like to share with the rest of us?


Notes from Readers Advisory Seminar
May 2007
Mosman

Library Author Events

Partnerships Mosman Library has been running author events since the late 80s with the same bookshop in Mosman- Pages&Pages Booksellers. At the time they were the only bookshop in Mosman. We were interested in providing author talks so, we approached the bookshop and suggested that we work in partnership to provide author talks at the Library. The bookshop liaises with the publishers and sells the author’s books at the talk. We negotiated for 10% of book sale profits to come back to the Library to purchase new books for our collection.We have no formal written agreement and it is all based on goodwill. As the events have been going for such a long time the publishers know us well and we never have any difficulty in attracting speakers. Every year, we plan to hold at least one author event per month between February and December but often have two a month if the bookshop has been offered another good author.

Budget We charge $7.70, $5.50 for pensioners. This covers the cost of catering. We don’t make a profit for our author events.

Publicity &Promotion Publicity is handled by us and by our partners Pages & Pages. Pages & Pages publicise in the shop through posters and leaflets supplied by the Library, through their website & email newsletter and a hard copy mail out newsletter. The Library uses media releases which are posted on the Media Centre on Council’s website as well as faxed or emailed to the local media. Council also has a fortnightly column called “W hat’s On in Mosman” in the Mosman Daily which is used to publicise Library events. Posters and flyers are displayed in the Library and distributed to Mosman Art Gallery and Community Centre, Council Foyer and Council noticeboards in the community. We also use our MosLib email list which is a monthly email newsletter, the Library’s webpage and Library News and Views our hard copy newsletter to publicise author events.

Tickets and Catering We sell tickets to our events which as I said covers the cost of the catering. We sell a total of 130 tickets to each event. We supply the bookshop with 40 tickets to sell and they bring us the money on the author night itself. Catering is supplied by a number of local cafes and restaurants. We change the caterers to keep the food interesting. We also supply a glass of wine (red/white/champagne) as part of the refreshments. NB: Be careful of licensing requirements. If you advertise as selling tickets and providing alcohol as part of the ticket, you need a licence. If serving alcohol you should have staff with Responsible Service of Alcohol Training. Council provided training for Library and Art Gallery Staff.

Staffing We have 5 staff rostered to work each event. Two staff members who have author events as part of their position description organize and work every event. We make up the other staff numbers by rostering staff so all staff get involved with these events. As we usually have the events in the evening staff work it as a night shift. The author event is from 7pm to 9pm.

Setting up As we don’t have a dedicated space for events, we have our author evenings when we are not open to the public. We use our Reference Library area and clear out study tables and set up chairs, sound system and lectern after the Library closes at 5.30pm. The talks start at 7pm and usually the author talks for 30 to 40 minutes with 15 minutes for questions which are moderated by the bookseller. The supper is served upstairs in our lending level after the talk. The food is self serve and the wine is served form a table set up with wine already poured out.

Technolgy (Webcasts) We do the webcasting in house. Our Internet Cordinator has the expertise to film and set up the webcast using streaming media. To do this you require a digital video camera, video capture card for the computer and a streaming media host –server.

Author Signing The author signs copies of his/her book upstairs after the talk and we set up a special table for book signing. The bookseller sells copies of the book during the signing and supper.

Measuring success Almost all our author events are sell outs. Last year we had a record number of 18 events with 2,000 tickets sold. We think those statistics speak for themselves. At the author events many people often come up to us and comment favourably on the talk. We also do annual user surveys and many survey respondents often comment favourably on our author talks. Thank you.
Any Questions?