On Thursday, April 6, 2023, Del Howison visited the South Jersey Writers’ Group virtually to talk about how authors can connect with indie booksellers. Along with his wife, Sue, Del is the owner of Dark Delicacies, a horror-focused independent bookstore in Burbank, California. Dark Delicacies regularly hosts book launches and signings and other horror-related events. With Dark Delicacies having been established in 1994, Del has a wealth of knowledge about the publishing industry and led an engaging discussion about the practicalities of author events. Specifically, Del gave insight on what authors should expect to provide for their event and other logistics to consider:
How will the bookstore make money from sales of your book? If your book is print-on-demand, is it printed through a service like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, or is your book available through a distributor like Ingram? If the latter, the bookstore can order copies of your book ahead of time. But if you use KDP, you will need to provide copies yourself.
What you will need for your setup? Check with the bookstore about whether they will provide a table and chair for you so you know what to expect.
How will you get the word out about your event? While the bookstore will do basic promotion like featuring your event information on their website, it’s the author’s responsibility to bring readers to the event. This is a big reason indie bookstores do author events in the first place. Ways to promote your event include sharing the information on social media and your own website.
Del also gave the writers’ group some positive inspiration, asking attendees about their careers and letting us know that there are many ways to make money from writing if you just put yourself and your work out there. For example, you likely have specialized knowledge about some subject. Why not pitch paid articles to magazines like Writers Digest?
You can learn more about Dark Delicacies at www.darkdel.com.
