Summer festivals and street fairs attract thousands of people, and an author doing a book signing is always a special treat for passersby.

Even though summer seems like a long time away, now is the time to begin strategizing which festivals you’ll approach and how best to promote your book at those events.

Alice Peeples published her book, Child POW, A Memoir of Survival, with Annotation Press, our general market imprint. The book was in print just in time for a “super signing” at the WinePress booth during the Enumclaw StreetFair. Here’s how we set up a successful signing:

We contacted the local paper with a press release, copy of the book, and book signing schedule during the fair. We asked the editor to run the article on the Wednesday before the StreetFair to announce the signing and make sure it was fresh in people’s minds. The article came out as planned with a color photo of the cover and the author, right on page 3!

We picked the heaviest traffic spot for the booth, close to the main stage and the ticket sale booth. Our graphic design department created a “meet the author” banner and we attached a photo of the author and the cover just below the wording. The banner faced the main street where all the foot traffic passed by.

In four hours on Friday and three hours on Saturday, Alice sold 125 copies of her book. Now that’s a successful book signing!