Guides · Bookshops
How to sell author event and book club tickets on Shopify
Author events sell books. When tickets are sold in your own Shopify store, you can offer a ticket with the book included, keep the customer, and show every upcoming event on one calendar.
The problem with how most shops do it
Bookshops often use a separate ticketing site for author talks, which takes a fee per ticket and makes ticket-plus-book bundles awkward to set up.
How to set it up
- Install Astraa Events Calendar on your Shopify store.
- In the app, click Create event. Add the title, date and time, venue, capacity and a ticket price. The app creates a ticket product with that many spots.
- In your theme editor, add the Events calendar block to a page such as “Classes” or “Events”, as a list or a month grid.
- Customers pick a date, check out as usual, and you see them on the attendee list.
Ideas for bookshops
Author talk with or without the book
Create one event and add two ticket types: "Ticket only" at $10 and "Ticket + signed book" at $30. Each type has its own price and number of spots.
Monthly book club
Set Repeat to "Every month" and Sell as to "A separate event and ticket for each date", so members can book the months they want.
Free events with limited seats
Set the ticket price to $0 to give out free tickets with a set number of seats, so you know how many chairs to put out.
Sold-out signings
When an event sells out, customers can join the waitlist from the event page, and the app emails them if a ticket comes back.
On the day
Print or open the attendee list, and scan QR codes at the door. If the author is delayed, email every ticket holder from the event page.
Tip: Add the Events calendar block to an "Events" page and link it from your main menu so regulars always know what's coming up.
Sell your next event from your own store
Astraa Events Calendar is $14 a month with a 14-day free trial and no per-ticket fees. It is launching soon on the Shopify App Store.