Hosting Events

Formats

There are a variety of event formats libraries can produce, depending on their capacity, local interests, and budgets. Events can be anything from full-fledged literary festivals and lavish book launches, to community reads and small book clubs. Pick the format that best fits your goals and resources to ensure an optimal experience for everyone.

Author reading

  • A traditional event featuring one or more authors reading from their own work, usually with moderated audience Q&A afterwards. This format doesn’t tend to work as well in a virtual setting.

  • Twinsburg Public Library (TPL) rarely hosts readings, as they do not poll well with our audiences.

Author interview

  • A variation on the author reading where the host engages in an insightful conversation with the featured author as the main appeal of the event, with a reading as a secondary component, if at all.  This format works particularly well in a virtual setting. 

  • Schaumburg Township District Library (STDL) and the Aurora Public Library have had success with the on-stage interview. It can be helpful to send out a call for questions in advance which can be incorporated into the interview while serving as a marketing opportunity, too.

Book club

  • Book clubs are a great way to connect readers and authors while keeping things relatively simple. Attendance will typically be lower if people feel they have to read the book first, plus there is a lot more in-depth discussion of the book itself. This type of event builds up goodwill and a stronger relationship with the author, and is highly recommended for local authors.

  • Hosting an author for a virtual book club is another good way to build up goodwill with readers and authors. Many authors are receptive to speaking with book clubs in this fashion since it does not take as much of their time nor require travel, and they can get direct feedback from attendees. 

  • St. Charles City-County Library (SCCCL)’s book club members are notified in advance of upcoming author events, and are often offered early admittance to encourage attendance. This also gives them early access to book signing tickets. 

Panel discussion

  • Rather than focusing on a single author reading their work or sitting for an interview, hosting a panel discussion with multiple authors can deliver an engaging event that works in both physical and virtual settings.

  • When hosting multiple authors, make sure your expectations are clear ahead of time and everyone’s on the same page with a signed presenter’s agreement for each one. Provide specific questions or an outline of the intended conversation ahead of time.

  • Make sure each author has equal space to sell their books at the event and that all authors are equally represented in marketing and speaking time.

  • If you’re paying one author to appear on a panel, you should be paying all of them. 

Book party

  • Whether celebrating the publication of a major new book or the recipient of a major award, book parties tend to be more lavish versions of an author reading, typically capitalizing on existing interest in the author or book, rather than creating it via the event itself. 

  • Twinsburg Public Library (TPL)’s most popular author event. When an author hosts their book launch at our library, we often sell out of copies. So the author is invested in the launch and sends out invitations to their friends and family. We usually “sell out” of registrations several weeks in advance when we do these.

Literary festivals & conventions

  • Literary festivals are often author readings, interviews, panel discussions, and a book party all in one! They can range from relatively simple half-day events with a few guest authors and a cocktail party, to weekend-long events featuring dozens of authors, concurrent sessions, and an awards ceremony. 

  • St. Charles City-County Library (SCCCL)’s Foundation has teamed up with the local Foundry Arts Center to host an annual, day-long Arts and Literary Festival. The purpose of this free event is to celebrate the intersection of arts and literacy featuring regional authors, poets, and illustrators, along with local artists, musicians, and vendors. The speaking engagements, music, and vendors are appropriate for all ages to enjoy and encourages wider audience attendance. 

  • SCCCL also hosts an annual Teen Fandom Con at the beginning of June to coordinate with the library’s Summer reading challenge. This is promoted & managed (during the event) as a youth-only event. Attendees dress in cosplay, enjoy trivia & panel presentations, and can visit an exhibit hall with a variety of local/regional vendors. Local food trucks are invited to ‘attend’ on the day of the event to provide food and refreshments.

  • Schaumburg Township District Library (STDL) hosts a comic con that features an illustrator panel and artist alley, as well as the comic writers. Sales of artwork are typically handled by the creator rather than a bookseller or publisher. We’ve also hosted comic writer & illustrator events in conjunction with Free Comic Book Day, and host an annual Indie Author Day event that incorporates elements of a book party, panel discussion, and themed, experiential programming.

Community read

  • Henrico County Public Library (HCPL)’s “signature” event is an annual author appearance where they discuss their work. All of our book clubs read the selected title and discuss it around the time of the event. Our school system is also involved and the author makes a second appearance to talk to students.

  • Schaumburg Township District Library (STDL)’s Community Read—or OneBook, if we pursue a grant—is our largest author event of the programming year. We typically select complementary titles for children and teens and bring those authors to the schools and the library, as well as the adult selection’s author. The event begins with a large-scale, family-oriented kickoff event and features linked programming leading up to the author visits.

  • St. Charles City-County Library (SCCCL) hosted its first St Charles Reads event centered around How to Bake Everything by Mark Bittman, in May 2020, during the library’s COVID-19 closure. The title was readily available in ebook format from both Hoopla and OverDrive, and customers who wished to purchase their own copy of the book were directed to the library’s local independent bookstore partner, Main Street Books.

Reading challenge

  • Twinsburg Public Library (TPL) hosts a 50 Book Challenge every year where we invite participants to read 50 books in the year. They receive prizes at the halfway point and when they complete the challenge. We host an author at the giveaway, so that author has a built-in audience for their event. For this reason, we look for authors who have local interest or connections.

Venues

Physical

Your venue selection may depend on the popularity of the author, or be limited by the available event space in your library buildings or with local partners. Physical capacity will have a direct impact on your event’s format as well as the overall experience, especially if multiple authors are involved and book sales are an important component.

Whichever physical venue you use, follow this checklist to ensure the best experience.

  • Book in advance: Follow the appropriate procedures in your library system to reserve the space you intend to use.

  • Proper set-up: Does the author need the room to be set up in auditorium style, classroom style, or banquet style? Where will book sales happen? Do they need a chair or podium? Do they drink water or require some other beverage?

  • Technology set-up: What audio/visual equipment will be needed? Will they be using Wi-Fi to stream audio or video? Wired or wireless microphone? (No matter the size of the space, you should always have a microphone for accessibility purposes.)

  • Attendee experience: What’s happening before and after the author takes the stage? Is there music playing? Are books available for purchase? Is there a waiting area or assigned seating?

  • Support staff: Ensure a smooth experience for the authors and attendees by giving staff clearly defined roles, and having a pre-event meeting to walk everyone through expectations.

Examples

  • St. Charles City-County Library (SCCCL) has a large (capacity 300+) meeting room and a smaller meeting room (capacity 50) at our largest branch. There are also small meeting rooms (30-50 depending on size of facility) in a number of branches throughout the county which allows for holding multiple programs for a variety of audience sizes across the system.

  • Schaumburg Township District Library (STDL) hosts routine local author programs onsite in the larger meeting room (capacity 150), and will utilize the entire building for larger events like IndieAuthor Day that include panel discussions, autograph stations, and readings happening in separate zones. For larger events over 1,500 people, we partner with a local arts center. 

  • Twinsburg Public Library (TPL)’s large meeting room will suffice for most programs, but larger events have been held in the high school auditorium or the local Hilton. This is another area where connections and relationships with local partners can be helpful in producing successful events. Plus, when you frequently use the same external venue, you can follow the same procedures you’ve used in the past, ensuring a smoother process for everyone involved.

Virtual

The COVID-19 pandemic required a lot of events to scramble for virtual alternatives when physical venues became unavailable, but virtual events have been around for years and will remain a viable option when physical gatherings become possible again.

The virtual platform you choose will depend on the speaker and the format, as well as your audience’s preferences. If the author does not want to engage with the audience directly, a livestream via YouTube, Facebook, or Twitch may be a good option. If you want to control the number of attendees and their level of engagement, you might use Zoom which keeps attendees muted and off-camera unless you decide otherwise. For smaller groups and book clubs, Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams are all good options.

Each virtual platform comes with its own pros and cons, and your IT policies may limit which platforms you may use due to security concerns, so be sure to check your organization’s best practices before committing to a virtual event.

Consider partnering with other libraries to share the cost of expanding the digital reach of a virtual visit. For example, Schaumburg Township District Library (STDL) is partnering with several area libraries to host Ibram Kendi in November 2020, and the group was able to share the expense of the 3,000 attendee account. 

Registration

Free or Paid?

Most library events are typically free to attend, but sometimes paid registration is a requirement, whether to support a fundraiser or satisfy a publishers’ expectation for book sales. When producing paid events, you’ll need to consider an online ticketing and payment option, especially if capacity limitations are a concern.

Increasingly, publishers prefer ticketed events for established authors, with purchase of the book included in the price. If the author is popular with your readers and this is the only option, you may decide to agree to these terms, assuming you can accommodate them. 

Examples

  • Cuyahoga County Public Library (CCPL) hosted well over 100 events in 2019. Most of these were free events held in either our auditorium (425+ capacity) or one of our larger branch spaces (150-250 capacity). If a publisher insists on a ticketed event and the author is popular with our readers, we’ve agreed to these terms. 

  • Schaumburg Township District Library (STDL) typically does not charge for author events and makes a limited supply of giveaway copies of the book available for free to generate interest. We have hosted some ticketed events that include the book, upon publisher request, and registration is either managed by the venue or the library. Festival and fair-type events are drop-ins.  

Managing book sales

Most libraries’ policies prohibit direct sales by library staff, so you may be able to engage with volunteers or your Friends group to facilitate sales. If your library has no Friends group or Foundation to manage book sales, partnering with a bookseller or working with the author directly may be the only avenue for supporting book sales at an event.

  • Cuyahoga County Public Library (CCPL) partners with a local, independent bookseller, Mac’s Backs - Books on Coventry, for nearly every event. Mac’s staff will have a sales table at the event and report the sales. For ticketed events, Mac’s will place the order and drop ship to the library, then report the sales.

  • Twinsburg Public Library (TPL) uses our connection with our local bookseller, Learned Owl Bookstore in Hudson, Ohio. They report book sales for most of our book sales as well. For authors selling their own books, we rely on them to report the sales.