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Successful Signings
How authors can organise a book signing at their local WHSmiths bookstore
This article was firs published in Writing Magazine in February 2020
It’s a dream many writers have, signing books in a national bookshop chainstore. But getting into those stores can seem challenging if we’re not blockbuster authors.
However, here in the UK, one of the major bookchains, WHSmiths, has been more open to approaches direct from authors in recent years. Here are two authors’ experiences, one who was self-published, the other traditionally published.
Richard Vaughan Davies is the author of In The Shadow of Hitler, and he managed to get a book signing in his local WHSmith store, quite by chance.
‘I noticed last Christmas,’ he explains, ‘that WHSmith in Stratford upon Avon were promoting a book by a local author. On impulse, I asked the manager if she might be interested in mine. She looked it through and said casually, “Fine — do you want to do a book signing?” We fixed a date, and I stumbled home in a daze.’
She also gave Richard some advice about how to make his book signing a success.
‘Her instructions were to get the local paper to run a story, and preferably get an interview on local radio, as well as to promote the day…
