Mike Summey autographing, Asheville N.C.
Posted on November 28, 2003
Book Signing Review
by Ralph Roberts
Mike signing.
ASHEVILLE, N.C. 11-28-03 — Mike Summey, coauthor of THE WEEKEND MILLIONAIRE’S SECRETS TO REAL ESTATE INVESTING, signed books at the Asheville Barnes & Noble bookstore on Tunnel Road today.
“A very successful event,” Mr. Summey reports, “we sold all the books the store had, plus some I had brought.”
Traffic was good around Mike’s table and this reporter saw numerous people happily sauntering up to the cash registers with their signed copy of the book. As an author and publisher, and the veteran of 25 years of signings himself, there is no doubt here that this was a GOOD signing. … contines … read more and see a short video clip of the signing event and more photos …
See video here.
Autographing with a flourish!
Book signings, for authors, constitute both an obligation and a reward.
A duty in the sense that one has put forth many pages of opinion and information and should gather up the courage, if not to defend the book, at least to show no shame in its publication. In this respect, I am often reminded of the clown on the carnival midway who sits over the tank of water and dares those who pay their money to douse him. Sooner or later, someone will.
But signings more often, as indeed was the case for Mike Summey, bring rewards. People appreciate authors who provide books that either inform or entertain. Writers that combine both, as Mike and Roger have definitely accomplished in The Weekend Millionaire’s Secrets to Real Estate Investing reap accolades and sales in equal measure. During my stay at Mike’s signing, I saw both praise and book sales occurring, always heart-warming encouragement for a writer.
I admit to being an affictionado of book signings. Having written a few score books and overseen the publishing of many hundreds in the last twenty-five years, I’ve both done and supervised a lot of book autographing parties. One learns to “read” the event immediately on entering the bookstore or other venue. I knew the signing was a success even before entering the spacious new Barnes and Noble super store–through the window, Mike could be seen talking happily while signing a book. Action. Always a positive indicator.
Taking time to answer questions.
Mike’s signing had good advance work, always a bonus in crafting a successful event. His publisher, McGraw-Hill, does a great job of publicity nationwide for the book. This–and the efforts by Mike Summey and Roger Dawson themselves–has resulted in the book quickly achieving bestseller status. It is, as I write this, the number one selling real estate investment book on that massive worldwide online bookseller, Amazon.com.
Excellent advance publicity for this specific signing was enhanced immensely by Dale Neal’s informative article appearing the day before in the Asheville Citizen-Times newspaper.
And support by the Barnes and Noble staff, especially Erica, was also obvious. Nice colorful signage about the event was one aspect, but a more important one was provided as well. In book signings as in real estate itself, there are three basics–location, location, location. Erica had sited Mike at the perfect place, right at the place where customers get in line for the cash registers. More than once, during my brief tenure at the signing, I saw Mike make a pleasantry to someone in line who then got out the line, came over to look at the book, and wound up buying it..
The latter point above is important. Yes, the publisher, the local paper, and the bookstore folk gave very good support for the signing but the most important element by far is the author him- or herself. You have to be outgoing, pleasant, humble yet proud, and a dozen other things. An author, like any entertainer, has to be “on stage” for successful book signing events. Mike Summey was.
In the end, of course, it’s all a tale of the tape–in this case, the cash register tapes. Let me state now, Barnes and Noble was VERY pleased after reading their tapes for sales of The Weekend Millionaire’s Secrets to Real Estate Investing.
To bookstore people or anyone else desiring an entertaining and profitable book signing event, I recommend Mike Summey (contact him at mike@weekendmillionaire.com).
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