Prepare for your signing with a plan you can reuse

How many books should you bring? How many copies would cover the table fee, travel, and other event costs? Once the signing is over, what did you earn?

The Indie Author Book Signing Profit & Prep Kit brings your preparation and numbers into one repeatable workflow. Use it for bookstore signings, author festivals, book fairs, and other events where you sell books in person. Save a fresh workbook for each event and print the planner pages you need.

What’s included in the book signing kit

• 20-page printable PDF planner: event fit, a blank annual deadline calendar, an event brief, budget and break-even worksheets, a stock plan, preparation timeline, packing checklist, table layout, payment checks, book-pitch practice, offers, sales log, inventory reconciliation, results, follow-up, and a repeat-event decision.
• Editable Excel profit and inventory calculator: eight tabs for results, forecasting, titles, sales, expenses, follow-up, the annual calendar, and instructions. Enter your own prices and costs to estimate stock, calculate break-even copies, and review actual results.
• Four-page quick-start PDF: instructions, definitions, capacity details, a worked example, and guidance for importing the workbook into Google Sheets.

One ZIP. Three files. A reusable system for your author events.

How the book signing planner helps before, during, and after

• Before you commit: assess the event’s reader fit, list your costs, estimate the stock you need, and check how many copies would cover your event costs.
• Prepare your table: organize your packing, prices, display, payment tools, QR plan, and book pitch before event day.
• During the event: record sales and count stock so your results are based on records you can review.
• After the signing: reconcile inventory, review profit and cash movement, track follow-up, and decide what to adjust for the next event.

A book signing profit calculator that accounts for unsold stock

Buying books for a signing and selling those books affect your numbers in different ways. The workbook separates the cost of copies sold or removed from cash spent buying new inventory. Unsold copies remain inventory.

That lets you review the event’s profit alongside its cash movement, instead of treating every unsold book as an event loss. The break-even estimate uses your planned prices, costs, and title mix; it is a planning tool based on the inputs you enter.

Plan the event before you pay for it. Review the results before you repeat it.

Choose the right tool for your next author event

If you only need a packing list, start with our free one-page Author Book Fair Checklist. The complete kit adds the event budget, inventory planning, profit calculations, sales records, and review process.

This kit is a practical fit for independent authors managing their own signing or festival table. Each event workbook supports 10 title/format IDs, 150 sales lines, 20 expense rows, and 40 follow-up sales lines. The blank annual tracker has 30 event slots.

Book signing kit questions

What do I receive after buying?

Complete your purchase on Gumroad, then download one ZIP containing the 20-page planner PDF, the .xlsx calculator, and the four-page quick-start PDF. This is a digital product; no printed planner, books, or table supplies are shipped.

Can I reuse the kit for more than one signing?

Yes. You may print, copy, and adapt the blank files for your own author business. Keep an unchanged master and save a new working copy for each event. Resale, redistribution, and public sharing of the kit are not allowed. Full terms are included in the quick-start guide.

Are the planner PDFs fillable?

The PDFs are printable US Letter pages, not interactive fillable forms. Print the pages you want to complete. The separate Excel workbook is where you enter information for the calculator.

Can I use the calculator in Google Sheets?

The calculator is supplied as an Excel .xlsx file. The quick-start guide includes instructions for uploading and converting it in Google Sheets; a hosted Sheets template is not included. Use the guide’s worked example to check calculations after opening or importing your copy.

Does the kit include a list of upcoming book festivals?

The annual calendar is a blank tracker for the events and deadlines you choose. For preparation advice, read our author book fair checklist guide and author event table setup guide.

Get your Book Signing Profit & Prep Kit

Prepare your table, organize your stock, and keep the event numbers in one place. $12.99 USD for the complete digital kit.

Checkout and delivery are handled by Gumroad. Reuse the files for your own author business.