How to Secure Speaking Engagements

There's no way around doing the work to market your writing.

Me delivering a keynote address

Being a career-author requires recognizing that you are in this for the long-haul. That few, if any, authors are overnight successes. So you’d better settle in and decide how you can make it fun.

Yes, you read that right. Book marketing, author-career-building, writing book after book after book can be FUN. Hell, it should be fun! If it’s not, why do it?

My mother always says, “If it were easy, everyone would do it.” And I remember that saying when I feel FOMO (fear of missing out) or envy. Because every author experiences one or both from time to time.

As a marketing expert, I knew going in that I could appear on all marketing channels, but that it would be best to choose ONE to pour hard energy into. For me, that’s speaking to audiences of eager readers.

People ask often how I book speaking engagements. It’s part hard work, part deep research and an equal part of luck.

Me speaking on FOX 2 Detroit when my book came out in 2013, The Flavors of Faith: Holy Breads

First, I identify places, groups, communities of my ideal audience (it’s so hard to pinpoint who you’re writing for, but important to do!). Then, I find the organizations and outlets where they gather and determine who are the people that make events happen.

Program directors. Executive directors. Rabbis. Professors. Librarians.

My wish list for speaking engagements includes, in no particular order, Jewish communities and groups, universities (I’ve taught writing at universities for decades), women’s groups and book clubs.

Some of the speaking opportunities I've enjoyed over the past year, in Michigan, Hawaii and California

I wish there were a national umbrella organization for each that made it easy, but there isn’t. My talented VA Tamz does the digging for me and creates spreadsheets of contact information. Then I reach out one by one by email (copy and paste the general content, personalizing the details for each recipient).

Some people respond. Some never do.

Of course, if I know people in the locations or groups I’m eager to speak to, I ask for an introduction. Those always make it easier for someone to respond because I’m coming to them via a trusted source.

Last year, I tried to book speaking engagements in Dallas, where so many of my writer-friends and students live. Crickets. No one responded, except for one friend’s book club, so I did that speaking engagement by Zoom and figured it wasn’t meant to be.

Then I tried again, this time early in the summer for January of 2025. I guess it was the timing that didn’t work out last time because now I have four bookings for the second week in January and I can’t wait to go!

While I prefer to be paid to speak, I don’t require it because I’m focused on the big picture. Every time I speak, I build relationships. I sell lots of books. These people become friends and fans and they’ll buy my other books, too. I don’t take any of this for granted.

But I am a professional author, so I prefer to be taken seriously enough to earn a speaker’s fee or honorarium. Many places offer them.

I’ve spoken a lot in my career—first as a journalist, later as a marketing entrepreneur and now as an author. Sometimes I combine all three of my expertises into one talk. I love connecting with others in real time. I love the conversations that unfurl from these events.

You don’t have to be writing books to have knowledge and insight worth sharing. If you’re writing poetry, essays, short stories or op-eds even, you have something to say and there are audiences who’d like to hear it. Put yourself out there—you won’t be sorry!

Marketing is always about relationships. Never the quick sell. So I take the long view, aiming to know the people, and for them to know me, so we can find mutually beneficial ways to support one another. It’s more fun anyway.

Check out my upcoming speaking engagements here. And if you’re part of a group looking to hear from an author, consider me!

In Conversation with Jessica Fein, September 5th

By the way, I’ll be in Ann Arbor at Literati, one of my favorite bookstores, in conversation with the memoirist Jessica Fein, on September 5th. Come join us and hear about her riveting, wrenching book, BREATH TAKING.

Thanks for reading Lynne Golodner’s Rebel Author Newsletter. New issues release every Monday, with a focus on writing and publishing. If you’d like to hear about a particular aspect of becoming an author, building a writer career or finding your writer voice, message me below and I’ll include it in a future issue! And if you find value in these weekly missives, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, to support a working author. Let’s show the world how valuable creative work truly is! (The August book giveaway for paid subscribers is WOMAN BEYOND THE SEA by Sarit Yishai-Levi, a fantastically beautiful book.) Please share this with your writer-friends who might find it useful.