Events Calendar
A live schedule on your website
Paste one snippet and your full programme of readings, book clubs, and workshops appears on your site — updated automatically whenever you change something in your dashboard.
For Bookshops
Know who’s coming before the night.
Turnout gives independent bookshops a live events calendar on their website, inline registration for readings and book clubs, capacity limits with waitlists, and automatic reminders — so you know the headcount before you set out the chairs.
Especially useful for shops running author readings, book clubs, launch nights, and children’s events.
How it usually works now
When events live on Facebook and a static page, “Interested” is the only signal you get — and it tells you almost nothing about who will actually walk in.
- You set out thirty chairs and three people come — or underestimate turnout and scramble on the night.
- A Facebook “Interested” count is not a commitment, and there is no confirmation or reminder to firm it up.
- Visiting authors and limited signing runs need a real headcount, and you do not have one until people arrive.
What changes with Turnout
Turnout puts registration on your own website, sends confirmations and reminders automatically, and shows you the names before the event.
What Turnout changes for bookshops.
It is built for the community-driven rhythm of an independent shop, where each event needs an accurate headcount without adding to the workload.
Inline Registration
Customers register without leaving
Readers browse what is coming up, click an event, and sign up right there. No Eventbrite redirect, no separate booking platform, no friction that belongs to someone else.
Capacity & Waitlists
Know how many chairs to set out
Set a capacity limit for signings, dinners, or workshops, and registration switches to a waitlist automatically when you are full. Anyone waiting is notified if a spot opens up.
Custom Fields
Collect exactly what each event needs
Add custom questions to any registration form — age range for a children’s reading, which session for a multi-week book club, whether someone has bought the book — and see it all in your attendee list.
Who It Fits
Useful across your whole events programme.
Turnout works well anywhere your shop needs people to commit to a spot ahead of time and you need a clear view of demand.
Author readings and signings
Where you need an accurate headcount for seating, books to order, and the author’s preparation.
Book clubs
Recurring sessions with a consistent group, where you want to know who is committed before the night.
Launch nights
Where a confirmed guest list shapes the feel and logistics of the room.
Children’s events
Story times, reading groups, and holiday programmes, where capacity and age-range information matter.
Why Switch
Why not just use Facebook Events?
Facebook is a sensible place to promote, but it is not a registration system — and Eventbrite solves that by pulling customers off your website into someone else’s brand.
“Interested” is not a commitment
A button click on Facebook tells you almost nothing about how many people will show up. It is built for casual browsing, not the confirmed registration that produces a real headcount.
Eventbrite takes people off your site
Your events draw from your own customers and neighbourhood, so you do not need a discovery marketplace — you need registration that stays in your brand and keeps competing shops out of the sidebar.
You should own the list
With Turnout the registration data lives in your dashboard, ready to view and export, instead of inside a third-party platform.
Go live in a few minutes.
If you can paste a snippet into your site builder, you can add Turnout.
Step 1
Create your bookshop calendar
Add your upcoming readings, book clubs, and workshops, then choose any custom questions you want readers to answer when they register.
Step 2
Paste the widget into your website
Drop it into Squarespace, WordPress, Wix, Webflow, or a custom site using a code/embed block.
Step 3
Let customers register there
Your schedule stays on your website, readers confirm their spot there, and your dashboard shows the headcount in real time.
Try Turnout
Open your dashboard the day before and know exactly who’s coming.
Add your next few events, embed the calendar once, and replace the “post on Facebook and hope” workflow with registration that lives on your own site.