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I love doing readings and signings.  I’m lining up my annual Halloween reading at the moment — I will let you know as soon as I have more details, but I can tell you that it will be on the night itself, October 31st, so if you’re in Seattle, I hope to see you there.

Until then, let’s have a look at this advice from Corrie Garrett, who attended a John Scalzi reading and came away with some observations about what makes a signing great:

1. Audience participation

Get involved. Scalzi was chatting with all the early arrivals when I got there, funny stories about his travel or whatever. When he started the “real” bit, he asked us a lot of questions. Did we hear about this from his blog? Did we want to hear him read from his new novel, or his next, unpublished one? He let the audience vote on it, and he then he had us all swear secrecy for the excerpt from his new book [....]

2. Elite status

Make the audience feel privileged. Signing books is only part of it. By coming to your book signing, they’ve formed a tenuous relationship with you, and inside information is a great way to cement the feeling of that relationship [....]

3. Question control

[...] Some questions will be off the wall—only glancingly related to you or your book, or even inappropriate. A short answer is good, but don’t let them hijack the session with questions of no interest to anyone else. The rest of your audience will appreciate it.

4. Humor

Do funny. Okay, so a lot of us don’t have great comedic timing or fantastic impersonations or anything like that. But you don’t have to. [Most] of us authors have some pretty hysterical rough drafts and drawer manuscripts. Dig one out (an old one that doesn’t grieve you anymore), and find a section to give your audience [....]

Getting people to your book signing is fantastic, making them tell all their friends about it is even better. Have fun!

– Four Elements of a Great Book Signing

It’s good advice, and the article gives specific examples. You should check it out.

I keep hearing a lot lately about how book signings are going to go extinct along with bookstores, and I just can’t quite believe it. The naysayers also will tell you that they’re just not a good way to sell books, but I think they really are more about building community and forging a personal connection with readers, and there’s only so much of that you can do from behind the comfort and safety of our keyboards. Sometimes, as weird as this may sound in our brave new socially-networked world, you sometimes just have to actually meet your readers. I know! It’s crazy!

Right now you might be thinking, well, that’s great, Montoure, but — how do I get started doing readings, anyway? I’m glad you asked. We’ll talk about that next time.

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