Public speaking may not be in every authors comfort zone or wheelhouse, but can be beneficial as part of a book publicity and marketing strategy. Book publicist Nicole Baker believes public speaking is as important as the author feels it should be. When working with an author client, she is happy to help those that want to do speaking gigs find and book these events. Some speaking gigs like keynotes may be booked out a year in advance and can be challenging to secure, so it's important to find events that are the best fit with the right audiences. She encourages her authors to do local speaking and smaller events to get experience and build a portfolio. This will help with securing the bigger gigs over time.If you aren't comfortable with public speaking, don't worry, she says, there are plenty of other publicity opportunities to create awareness for your book such as guest articles, guest blogging, expert commentary, and more.