I had so much fun at Lisa Bullard‘s launch party for Turn Left at the Cow a couple of weeks ago at the Red Balloon Bookshop! She did a reading and then had the cutest miniature chicken plop bingo game (which features in this terrific book).
As I start working on promo materials/plans for my next book, I’m debating whether to finally have a launch party. For Stampede, I did an online party, which took hundreds of hours to plan and create materials for. For BookSpeak and A Leaf Can Be…, I didn’t do a launch either time. I have Mary Richards party skills–which is to say none at all. And?I find it SOOOOOO stressful. Launch parties terrify me. Don’t get me wrong. If a publisher or a bookstore or some organization said, “Hey, Laura, we’d love to throw you a launch party for your next book,” well, that would be super cool! And since?I wouldn’t be organizing it, I would probably have fun. But since that’s not going to happen, I will likely skip it. Even though I feel kind of guilty about that…
HA! I have those same Mary Richards party skills, so I feel your pain! The terror that no one will show up. The terror that they WILL show up – and then sit around staring at the walls with watery cocktails in hand. A launch party sounds pretty scary. But I’d be interested in knowing more about the online party for STAMPEDE. I have no idea how something like that would work.
Me too!
Here is a bit more of my thinking on it (back then) http://bubblestampede.livejournal.com/12086.html and here was my online invite http://laurasalas.livejournal.com/140731.html
Yes! Half of me wants everyone to come, and the other half wants nobody to come!
I did it on a ning, and had a lot of people show up, which was great. I doubt it did much in the long run, though, seeing as how Stampede sold about 12 copies. I had a guestbook, funny videos, silly pictures, teaching guides, conversation boards, simple ideas for “how you can help Stampede” (like requesting the book at your library), several giveaways, and stuff like that. Here’s a little bit about it:
http://bubblestampede.livejournal.com/12657.html
The ning isn’t live anymore, but I kept it up for several months right after launch.
It was an incredible amount of work, but not nearly as scary as a live launch party!
HA! I have those same Mary Richards party skills, so I feel your pain! The terror that no one will show up. The terror that they WILL show up – and then sit around staring at the walls with watery cocktails in hand. A launch party sounds pretty scary. But I’d be interested in knowing more about the online party for STAMPEDE. I have no idea how something like that would work.
Me too!
Here is a bit more of my thinking on it (back then) http://bubblestampede.livejournal.com/12086.html and here was my online invite http://laurasalas.livejournal.com/140731.html
Yes! Half of me wants everyone to come, and the other half wants nobody to come!
I did it on a ning, and had a lot of people show up, which was great. I doubt it did much in the long run, though, seeing as how Stampede sold about 12 copies. I had a guestbook, funny videos, silly pictures, teaching guides, conversation boards, simple ideas for “how you can help Stampede” (like requesting the book at your library), several giveaways, and stuff like that. Here’s a little bit about it:
http://bubblestampede.livejournal.com/12657.html
The ning isn’t live anymore, but I kept it up for several months right after launch.
It was an incredible amount of work, but not nearly as scary as a live launch party!
Peggy Eddleman did a great post on launch parties – not on her blog, but as a guess somewhere… I’ll see if I can find the link for you. But I know – launch parties fill me with terror too. What if you organize tons of books and snacks and activities and no one shows up? What if you go casual and tons of people come and your caught short on everything? Ack! 🙂
I threw up a little while reading that post (but thank you for sending it me). I like the way she casually throws around all these big numbers, and I’m just cowering in the corner with my fingers in my ears, singing, “Nononononono, I can’t hear you!”
Hahaha 🙂 I know exactly what you mean!
Peggy Eddleman did a great post on launch parties – not on her blog, but as a guess somewhere… I’ll see if I can find the link for you. But I know – launch parties fill me with terror too. What if you organize tons of books and snacks and activities and no one shows up? What if you go casual and tons of people come and your caught short on everything? Ack! 🙂
I threw up a little while reading that post (but thank you for sending it me). I like the way she casually throws around all these big numbers, and I’m just cowering in the corner with my fingers in my ears, singing, “Nononononono, I can’t hear you!”
Hahaha 🙂 I know exactly what you mean!
I do virtual book tours instead of launch parties. I start by sending out query emails to bloggers with readers in my target market. Generally, I’ve already interacted with the bloggers via Facebook or Twitter, etc. so they already have an intro to my work and know that my message is in line with theirs. Once I have a good lineup of bloggers who’ve agreed to host a giveaway and/or do a book review on their site, I send them all they need as far as a book cover image, author image and bio, sales page link, book trailer link, etc. as well as Kindle copies and print copies of my book. I also offer to do written interviews, provide chapter breakdowns or book excerpts, or write a guest post so that they have less work to do to participate in the launch. Then I create a permanent hub page on my site (which then becomes part of my press kit) with all of the book info and links to all of the reviews/giveaways as they go live. I usually schedule a virtual launch to run from 7-10 days with two to three hosts per day. During the book launch, I visit each host site and leave a comment on the review post thanking them for their participation. I also share each review/giveaway on my social media sites to drive as much traffic to my hosts’ sites as possible. When the virtual tour is over, I have the books sent out to the winners of the giveaways and I send a thank-you email to each of my hosts in which I ask them to pop over to Amazon and Good reads and leave a quick review and also ask if they’d like to be included on the list of reviewers to be contacted when my next book is released. It’s a lot of work, but the international exposure is far, far more valuable than the handful of people who attend a brick-and-mortar book signing, though I do those, as well (mainly because I can share the pictures and video clips on my social media outlets for more exposure!). Anyway, I’ve gone on and on, but just thought I’d share since I’m in the middle of a virtual tour right now before heading off on an indie bookstore tour. 🙂
Thanks for all that info! I agree about the online reach, and also about the pics from an in-person launch being fun. My problem with a blog tour is that most of my blog contacts are other writers, and I really need to connect with bloggers who are read by teachers/librarians. If I could figure out how to connect with those bloggers, I think I would dive into this. It sounds like you’ve got it down to a really smart process–using the hub page as part of your press kit is *brilliant*! Thanks for sharing these details. I’m going to give this some more thought. This sounds more effective than my online launch party.
I do virtual book tours instead of launch parties. I start by sending out query emails to bloggers with readers in my target market. Generally, I’ve already interacted with the bloggers via Facebook or Twitter, etc. so they already have an intro to my work and know that my message is in line with theirs. Once I have a good lineup of bloggers who’ve agreed to host a giveaway and/or do a book review on their site, I send them all they need as far as a book cover image, author image and bio, sales page link, book trailer link, etc. as well as Kindle copies and print copies of my book. I also offer to do written interviews, provide chapter breakdowns or book excerpts, or write a guest post so that they have less work to do to participate in the launch. Then I create a permanent hub page on my site (which then becomes part of my press kit) with all of the book info and links to all of the reviews/giveaways as they go live. I usually schedule a virtual launch to run from 7-10 days with two to three hosts per day. During the book launch, I visit each host site and leave a comment on the review post thanking them for their participation. I also share each review/giveaway on my social media sites to drive as much traffic to my hosts’ sites as possible. When the virtual tour is over, I have the books sent out to the winners of the giveaways and I send a thank-you email to each of my hosts in which I ask them to pop over to Amazon and Good reads and leave a quick review and also ask if they’d like to be included on the list of reviewers to be contacted when my next book is released. It’s a lot of work, but the international exposure is far, far more valuable than the handful of people who attend a brick-and-mortar book signing, though I do those, as well (mainly because I can share the pictures and video clips on my social media outlets for more exposure!). Anyway, I’ve gone on and on, but just thought I’d share since I’m in the middle of a virtual tour right now before heading off on an indie bookstore tour. 🙂
Thanks for all that info! I agree about the online reach, and also about the pics from an in-person launch being fun. My problem with a blog tour is that most of my blog contacts are other writers, and I really need to connect with bloggers who are read by teachers/librarians. If I could figure out how to connect with those bloggers, I think I would dive into this. It sounds like you’ve got it down to a really smart process–using the hub page as part of your press kit is *brilliant*! Thanks for sharing these details. I’m going to give this some more thought. This sounds more effective than my online launch party.
And me too! It must be an introvert thing but look how well your books did without a party.
Thanks, Catherine. I do think launch parties don’t do a whole lot marketing-wise, unless you have such a bash that it gets buzz in the press somehow. They’re nice for connecting with indie booksellers and give you a chance to show what’s wonderful about your book. But, oh, the stress!
And me too! It must be an introvert thing but look how well your books did without a party.
Thanks, Catherine. I do think launch parties don’t do a whole lot marketing-wise, unless you have such a bash that it gets buzz in the press somehow. They’re nice for connecting with indie booksellers and give you a chance to show what’s wonderful about your book. But, oh, the stress!