The Great Reader Event
Lindi Peterson and Ciara Knight
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| Ciara Knight (L) and Lindi Peterson (R) |
Ciara: Planning a reader event can be exciting and
exhausting. We’ve attended many in the past, so we had the general idea of how
they are run, but we had no idea about all the little things that we had to
think about. Don’t worry, though, we are happy to share what we've learned with
you here today.
First, do you have a theme for your event? We chose ‘Love Our Readers,’ because
our event was being held on Valentine’s Day, and it’s all about the
sweet/inspirational love story.
Lindi: And along with theme is purpose. Our purpose wasn’t
to make money. We did this to raise awareness for local businesses as well as
local authors. There is so much talent in our area that we believe needs to be
promoted. We think that after this first year people will be talking about the
event so next year people will be looking forward to it.
Ciara: Start planning well in advance. We started planning
in May of 2014 for a February 2015 event. Before you begin work on your event,
you should consider what type of budget you’d like to work with. Do you want a
large event with a big budget, a small event with a modest budget, or something
in between? Based on this desire, you can start the planning process.
Lindi: Ciara and I tossed out many different ideas before
deciding on the luncheon on Valentine’s Day. One of them being a brunch that
served mimosas. (You guys serve brunch here on Seekerville, right?) But we
discovered we didn’t want to get into the alcohol aspect. That brings another
level of expense even to a mild-mannered brunch. So we landed on a luncheon.
Now that we had our date and event we asked Karen White if she would be
available to be our Keynote speaker. She was and she agreed! So we asked two
local authors who wrote sweet and/or inspirational fiction to join us. Missy Tippens and Meg Moseley both agreed. Now the hunt was on
for the perfect venue.
Ciara: Yes! What
venue will fit your vision? You can have a seated dinner at a country club, a
buffet at a local restaurant, or tea and sweets at the mall. The possibilities
are endless, just make sure it matches your theme. In our case, we chose to go
with an eclectic theme with an air of romance, so we reserved the Rose Cotttage. It has the
perfect ambiance with its various, ornate chandeliers, hardwood flooring and a fireplace.
Lindi: Yes, the
place is very cool with its mix-matched chandeliers. I loved that right off. It
was different—in a good way!
Ciara: Next on our list is food.
Lindi: Yes—food is a must!
Ciara: No doubt. We live in the south, so we have to have
food at our event. If you’ll be serving food, you need to think about your
theme. In our case, we are having a sweet and romantic catered lunch prepared
and served by Tea Leaves and Thyme.
It’s a local, delicious tea house in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s perfect for our
sweet/inspirational love event.
Lindi: Oh, and our menu? Chicken salad, pineapple orange
pasta salad, scones with lemon or almond crème, yummy dessert. And iced tea of
course!
Now that we have the place and the food we need to talk
about our bookseller. FoxTale Book
Shoppe! An amazing bookstore that is so author friendly. They hold
workshops, host book launches, book parties, book teas, book everything. We are
so pleased to have them on board.
Ciara: The big decisions are made so let’s concentrate on a
few of the small things. I’d strongly suggest to offer some door prizes or
welcome bags with promo goodies. One way to offset the cost of this to stay
within your budget, reach out to local stores and small businesses. At Love Our
Readers Luncheon we worked with SandyJo Designs for our centerpieces, Jewelry
designer Julie Helligrath from Enchanted Ambition, Mary Conneally who donated
books and other authors to fill our bags with amazing swag! Oh, and we even
made the welcome bags.
Lindi: Correction. Ciara made the bags. Also, each author is
donating a basket for the door prizes. The centerpieces are door prizes as
well.
A few other miscellaneous things to think about is making
sure you have all utensils, decorations, name tags, pens for signing, paper
products and dishes. At our event, we’ll be eating on mismatched china because
it fits our theme.
Lindi: Yes, I work with a guy whose wife collects china.
She’s donating the use of 40 plates for the day. Ciara and I are dishwashers
immediately after the event. Event planner/author to dishwasher in a matter of
minutes. Gotta love it!! (And we do!)
Ciara: Lastly, set a schedule ahead of time. Make sure you
speak to your keynote speaker, each of your authors and bookseller to work out
a timeline that works for everyone.
Lindi: We hope
to stay on our timeline. If not, well, we live and learn and trust us, we are
taking notes for next year. Since our goal is to raise local author awareness,
we hope to grow the book signing part of the event.
Thanks for letting us share this journey we’ve been on.
We’ve been promoting this by social media and word of mouth. FB Twitter,
Instagram—If you are on these sites and are our friends, I’m sure you’ve seen
our posts. As of today we only have 7 tickets left. Of course we hope to sell
them this week.
Anybody want to come?
***
Missy Tippens, here. Thank you Lindi and Ciara! I hope some of you may be able to come to our event. We'd love to see you! Visit http://loveourreaders.blogspot.com for more info! Feel free to ask questions.
Lindi is giving away one copy of Rich in Faith.
Visit Ciara at www.ciaraknight.com and be sure to read her inspiring story of overcoming obstacles (on her "About Me" page).
