I was admiring my new pop-up banner (for Angel) and it made me remember the last time I was doing an event at a bookstore.

 

It always seems like I do really well at bookstores when I’m there in person.

 

I sell lots of books because I chat with people. (We’ve talked about that before, HERE.) I gauge their interest by their reactions and their body language. Walk away from my romance? Hey, I have a sci fi! If they don’t like what’s written on the back of the book, I can tell them some additional stuff that’s not.

Typically, if I’m at a signing and I have more than one book on display, I have to be able to quickly tell them about each one.

That’s your “elevator pitch.”

The problem is, I’m probably better at my elevator pitch the third or fourth time – okay, seventh or eighth time – I say it time I say it at an event.

 

So… We should probably write them down.

 

Odd concept for an author, right? Writing something down? Bizarre.

 

I mean, why wouldn’t you write down your elevator pitch? It’s been more than a month since my last signing event. Whatever magical words were flowing trippingly off the my tongue then certainly aren’t forefront in my mind now. And they wouldn’t be for the first 10 or 20 minutes at whatever next event I go do.

 

Which means as a professional, I haven’t rehearsed my lines.

 

And make no mistake about it, when you are at an event, you are as much an actor/performer as you are an author.

 

So be a professional. Once you get a good pitch down, write it down.

 

Save it in your computer. Save that file to your phone. When you get up in the morning to go to your event, rehearse your lines. Take them with you to the event on a piece of paper – not on your phone because then you’ll end up reading your phone and not talking to customers. The phone version is a backup in case you lose the piece of paper.

 

Be a professional, and make more sales as a result. Write down your lines and know them.

 

I haven’t been doing do that.

 

I should.

 

So should you.