Hosting events (& not losing money)

I'm not a museum pro, I'm a museum amateur, and I'm trying to figure out the nitty gritty of running events like book signings or lectures which won't put a tiny museum further into debt.

We're a historical cultural museum in a rural tourist town. Our focus is our 19th century preserved farmhouse, with sides of local culture and nature preservation.

For various reasons (which I have no control over) there's no grant money and it's barely staying open.

I would like to open our space for events. But there has to be minimal upfront costs. I was thinking offering book signings for local authors who have written on our themes. I asked in some author subs here, and the response wasn't very helpful.

I'm looking for direction and ideas about how museums open their space for things like this, and ensure that the talent is getting enough to pay for their time, and the museum is not going to lose money on advertising and facility use.

For book signings, I understand publishers sometimes arrange it and cover costs. Communicating that we have space for this would have to be done. We could run lectures in our main presentation room in the evenings when the museum is usually closed. Or have book signings during the day in an outdoor location.

For the lectures we could sell tickets. And maybe split the proceeds with the speaker 50/50.

For a book signing I was thinking we could sell copies through our gift shop the whole day, and take a small commission. Or have a table fee and the author sells on their own.

We'd obviously do our own advertising for these things and the set up and tear down, and try to offer perks to the speakers or authors.

But I don't think increased traffic for these things will cause increased sales in museum tickets or in the gift shop. Maybe it should, but that hasn't been our experience in the past when we bring in local crafters or etc.

Are there other compensation or "profit sharing" constructions or ideas I should be considering that work well? Any best practices for making sure you're not taking advantage of the talent, and that the talent isn't taking advantage of you?