Hosting an author webinar is a powerful tool for connecting with your readers and growing your email list. About half of all my new email subscribers have joined my list through a webinar. After they’ve spent an hour hearing my voice, seeing my face, and interacting with me live, they know who I am, open my emails, and stay subscribed for a long time. Webinars are also a great way to listen to your audience. A typical Novel Marketing podcast episode will generate a few comments per episode. My typical webinar brings in a few comments per minute. That’s more than 100 comments during a 60-minute webinar. The comments, questions, and polls make hosting a webinar a great opportunity to get to know my audience better.   Webinars are also great for calling people to action, be that donating to a nonprofit, buying your book, signing up for your course, or backing your Kickstarter campaign. Most of my course sales come from people who first attended a live webinar. Hosting a webinar can be a powerful tool, but it requires proper preparation. If you don’t prepare, you may end up talking to an empty room and wasting your valuable time.  How to Host an Author Webinar How do you prepare the kind of webinar readers want to attend? This is the second episode in my ongoing series about author webinars. The first is How to Look and Sound Professional on Zoom, Webinars, and Podcasts.  It’s important to understand that webinars tend to work best for nonfiction authors. Some novelists can make webinars work, but fiction readers usually prefer livestreams.  Webinars vs. Livestreams Livestreams  Livestreams are live videos typically viewed through “free” platforms like Facebook or YouTube. They are open to the public and don’t require registration to attend. Live events are low-attendance events where people come and go throughout the event. A well-executed livestream can gain viewers as the video progresses if the algorithms pick it up. Novelists often host their launch parties through livestreams. However, most livestreams, especially on Facebook, get very few viewers. I host an annual livestream for a nonprofit that has 150,000 Facebook followers. The maximum number of viewers we’ve had at one time tops out around 100, regardless of when we host the livestream. Even though I have a much smaller total audience, I can get far more viewers on one of my Author Media webinars.  Fewer people watch Facebook livestreams because Facebook has de-prioritized livestreams in the algorithm ever since the Christchurch shooting was livestreamed. It’s also important for authors to remember that Facebook shares data with Amazon, and Amazon sometimes deletes book reviews from readers who gathered on a Facebook livestream and then left reviews for a particular book. I don’t recommend Facebook livestreams if you want a high review count.  That said, we have an old episode about Facebook Live, but keep in mind that it was recorded before the data sharing between Facebook and Amazon was widely understood.  Webinars By contrast, webinars, require attendees to sign up with their email addresses,