Picture this: Your favorite author agrees to come to your store for a special appearance. You have read the book, developed a spiritual crush, and now want to shout from the rooftops, “The author is coming! The author is coming!”

According to some of my favorite authors (whom I have the joy of calling friends, too), they just want to meet you, the store owner who promotes their books and products. You are their rock star, because you believe in them. The sales in your store let them follow their dreams of keeping their fingers to the keyboard to write and their feet on the road to teach. This symbiotic relationship between the artist and the store facilitates everyone living their dream. Isn’t this world grand?

It’s almost grand—because this is where reality takes a seat and taps its fingers on the desk until you pay attention. You must market, market, market to create a successful event of any type. Throw out the adage, “If you create it, they will come.” Scratch that—don’t just throw it out. Tear it up and burn the little pieces of paper, then bury the ashes in a field far away from your store so they never find their way back into your vernacular.

If you promote it, 1 percent will come. If you market it and tell everyone you know about it, 5 percent will come. If you promote, market, talk about it, create an interpretive dance around it, offer prizes, and entice people with chocolate, 10 percent of the people you invite will come. Ten percent is a good return on promotion, so plan for it.

It’s not hard to host an event or launch a party in your store; it just takes some elbow grease and sweat equity and a commitment to making it profitable. A well-run event can be a hidden pocket of profit, bringing in foot traffic from customers you have never seen before and widening your base of regulars. This is one thing in life where size doesn’t matter—600 sq. ft. to 2,000 sq. ft., you can bring in authors or artists, have local launch parties, host charity events, and make your store the talk of the town.

Any event you host is a partnership between you, the talent, and the customer; everyone wins. The customer gets to meet their favorite author/artist/musician, you get additional sales and enjoy the celebration, and the talent gets to meet and wow their readers or listeners.

Once you plan a great event, you will see how all of this information can be used to ensure your store is the celebrity. You will be sought after by local artists, musicians, and authors to have their launch parties, thus making you the talk of the town. And, best of all, you can do this without breaking the bank.

I went to the experts when writing this article: the stores that throw successful events and the authors who attend them. I took notes from events that were wildly successful and picked their brains for their magic formulas. I also called my friends: Christopher Penczak, Dorothy Morrison, MR Sellars, and James Wanless. These folks took time to share the top three things that can be done to create a prosperous event and the top three things they require from an event. They want to help widen your customer base, generate traffic, and create a profitable experience for you both.

Also, keep in mind while many of the tips you’ll find here are described as being for author appearances, the same principles easily can be applied to in-store events of all kinds—artist and musician appearances, parties and celebrations, charity events, specialized workshops, and more.

Everyone wants a fun, rock-star-like event; it also needs to be worth the presenter’s investment, as well as yours. The strategies for creating a profitable event also can be used in marketing your store, so any time spent doing so will pay off many times over.

Build a relationship with the “talent”

Talk to the author beforehand. Ask them about past successful appearances and what worked for them and how you can partner together to increase everyone’s sales. Get any and all press releases, bios, pictures, and product lists from them that you can. Create a promotions checklist for yourself starting with the bio of the author, because you will use it at least a thousand times before the event.

Ask the author or publisher for a PDF of posters, bag stuffers, and flyers. Printing and distributing them locally will give you the biggest return on your investment. Bag stuffers that you give to each customer with an enthusiastic “Oh, you have to see who’s coming to town!” will get you the most attendance for the event. Personal invitations are the cheapest and most effective strategy.

Ask the author to promote the event on their site, too. Ask them to send notification for the event to their mailing list, particularly the individuals in your local area. Also ask for a list of their media appearances prior to your event so you can promote that socially, giving your customers a taste of what they will get when the author shows up at your store.

Continue to communicate with the talent; update them on the status of the event and any changes so there are no awkward surprises for either of you when they get there.

Market in your existing streams of information first

Put posters in the front window and post the event on the front page of your website before you do any other marketing. Ironically, this is often the most forgotten method of free marketing.

Next, create a social media game plan to tease your clients with quotes from the author’s books and products. Use all your social media sources, and in every posting or tweet about the event, include a link to where customers can sign up for the event online.

Having a social media plan is just the beginning; no one pays attention to Facebook event postings unless you get them to start looking for it, so don’t make that the core of your plan. If you use every social media site available to you—Facebook, Twitter, Meetup, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Witchvox, and so on—you will get one to five more customers attending for each outlet you post in.

It’s worth repeating: Social media is not enough; personal connections are where you’ll get the greatest number of attendees. Use bag stuffers to invite every walk-in customer to attend the event, get a reading with the author, and come to the meet-and-greet. Invite them, tell them to be there, tell them you know they will love it and to mark it on their calendar. Be enthusiastic and tell them why you are bringing the author to your store.

Press releases can get attention, but writing one from scratch can be intimidating. Here’s one solution: If the author has a press release for their book that you can modify and use to announce your event, ask the author for permission and then simply rewrite it a bit, adding your event’s information. Research and create a distribution list of local publications, broadcast media, and internet radio shows to send the press release to. You will use this list over and over again for each event and promotion you have in your store. On a slow news day, you can get some surprising coverage.

Take the same press release and turn it into an email blast with an invitation to the event. While you’re at it, give people an incentive to sign up and pay early. A 10 percent discount goes a long way toward filling all the seats. Getting attendees to pre-pay for the event ensures they will show up. Nothing is more frustrating to everyone involved than a high percentage of no-shows.

Spread the word locally. Take some of the posters and flyers around town. Brainstorm with your staff and customers to create a list of places to promote—and then actually go do it. Make it a contest for your staff. Ask the author if they are willing to offer a prize to the employee who signs up the most attendees.

Get the products into the store early and pre-sell

Create a frenzy of anticipation for your guest’s arrival by having a full display of his/her products and books prominently featured at least one month prior to the event. Promote the sales of books early and encourage your customers to attend the meet-and-greet, or better yet, to get signed up and take the class. When an author comes to town, customers can get intimidated with paying for the event, buying the book, and then spending money in your store. Help them budget it out so on the day of the event they have the funds to buy whatever additional items inspire them.

In your pre-marketing plan, create a secondary order with the publisher or distributor to restock the week before the author arrives so everything is in stock and fresh. For author or artist appearances, many publishers allow returns for full credit, and it’s better to be over- than under-stocked. For the guest, it can be frustrating to show up at an event where none of your products are in stock and ready to sell.

Plan the details of the event wisely

See your event—from the initial stages of promotion to the moment the last attendee walks out the door—as a symphony that ends in a crescendo. Every aspect of the event should be built to get more people into the seats. More people in the seats is more money for your store and more opportunities to sell products to the people who attend. A natural course of events is to start with a meet-and-greet on a Friday evening, book readings or consultations on Saturday during the day, and culminate with a paid class Saturday evening or Sunday midday.

A casual 7 p.m. meet-and-greet with snacks, music, and your star guest can be a great money-maker. Create a way for the author to mingle, sign the pre-purchased books, and inspire some of the attendees to sign up for the paid class and fill any remaining consultation slots. Offer a discount for that night only or a contest to win something special from the author, but only for those who are present to win.

Your visiting celebrity may require time to do private consultations, which is their opportunity to profit from the visit; and your customers will likely be thrilled to have one-on-one time with their favorite author. After a private consultation, more seats for the paid class will be filled on “wow” factor alone.

During the entire event, your new titles will be Grand Host(ess) and Go-To Guide; the author needs you to make sure everything runs smoothly, have everything they need, and move the display of their goods from book signing table to reading room to classroom as their location changes. Your author doesn’t know where anything is, and they don’t know who the crazy customers are, so they’re relying on you to rescue them when they get cornered. Have enough staff on hand to handle the extra customers that will be in the store. The presenter is promoting and should never be considered a salesperson.

Money, money, money is the goal of any event, both for you and the guest celebrity. Establish clear expectations before the event—clarifying when and how the guest will be paid will help you avoid a lot of awkward moments and potential misunderstandings.

Treat your guest like a rock-star, or at least with respect

In my conversations with authors who regularly travel to stores for signings and other events, they shared with me some of their thoughts about what tends to make their visits a pleasure rather than a chore. Most of these suggestions may seem like common sense—and common courtesy—but you’d be surprised how small gestures can go a long way toward making your author happy and your event a roaring success.

It can be a day of travel for an author to get to your location, and the first thing they anticipate and desire when they arrive is that the store is ready for them: Clean and decorated with their books and products on display. Being welcomed with open arms is a balm to travel-weary souls. Guests just want someone to show them the ropes, offer them a cuppa’ something and a chance to catch their breath.

They also ask that you please feed and water your presenter. Talking for hours on end with no water or refreshments in sight becomes torture for the presenter. If they’re from outside the area, they won’t know what coffeehouses are nearby or where to get a bottle of water or a simple bologna sandwich. A store owner who anticipates these needs will be forever loved by the author, especially if they are offered an opportunity to have some quiet time before and after their appearance. A presenter does a lot of smiling, and their face may need a break.

The third item on everyone’s lists is to house them in a safe, clean, and reasonable facility. If you wouldn’t put your mother, little sister, or a child in that room, don’t put the presenter there. They ask for electricity, access to food at any time, cleanliness, and safety. Remember, as you go home at night to your comfy bed, the presenter that traveled to appear at your store is not. They are in a strange bed in a strange place, so a bit of human kindness can go further than a fully booked schedule.

Book signings, guest presenters, launch parties, and seasonal product events can all bring a surprising boost to your bottom line. A great event can bring in an extra $1,000-plus in a weekend just in classes and consultations, not to mention the extra product you will be selling. When customers come to an event, they are inspired, excited, and want to take a piece of that feeling, in the form of products, home with them.

Take a chance and talk to your favorite author or artist, invite them into your world, and treat them like royalty. Chances are they will become a fan of you and your store as much as you are a fan of them.