CHAPTER 14

The Celebration Announcement: Launch Parties and Virtual Tours

WINE CORKS POPPED in the middle of the days that we held company-wide parties for every single hot-off-the-press book at Sybex, before it became a Wiley imprint. Rodnay Zaks, owner and publisher, knew how to do this right. These festivities included unusual treats from the creative San Francisco Bay Area “foodies” growing the category of California Cuisine, and glorious short speeches with much applause made by our editor-in-chief, my mentor, the late Dr. Rudolph “Rudy” Langer. We told quirky stories about how things evolved with projects; we commemorated publications as a team effort; we had that sense of occasion that celebrated great ideas transformed into books.

Grand book parties had a fame and glory of their own during a time resembling a golden era in publishing, when entertainment budgets were breathtaking and contract signings were made with swizzle sticks at the Four Seasons in Manhattan. At Book Expo America in Chicago, Wiley once held an amazing and legendary Blues Brothers publication party, we enjoyed into the wee hours, renting out the top of the Sears Tower at sunset, with live bands, gourmet appetizers, and open bar, complete with black hats and sunglasses for guests. Microsoft Press rented the entire Chicago Aquarium on Lake Michigan, where we feasted on fresh seafood buffets and enjoyed live bands to celebrate Microsoft Press book releases. Addison-Wesley rented a Boston nightclub for a notable publication party; when Bill Gates arrived, I danced with him to celebrate books. We held lobster races through the halls at Apple headquarters (with critters flown in from Boston) before steaming them and then feasting in honor of Apple’s library suite of books. All these parties and countless more were created for the sole purpose of celebrating books.

Don’t let your own big moment slip away! This is your chance for the best celebration and marketing event in the life of your book. Here we give you simple strategies and models for you to use in customizing the launch of your own baby, your new publication.

Times have changed since popping champagne corks was the only option; with Web 2.0 tools, authors are now empowered to reach far more than a single group of guests in a physical location—you are enabled to reach thousands globally.

Your book launch party celebrates your inspiration as an author, plus your ideas and hard work writing, for which you’ve likely given up your social life, sleep, and leisure time for many months! We share your sweat and tears involved in the significant effort involved in writing your book, and its publication justifies appreciation for your loved ones, who suffered through losing you to your manuscript during the writing, rewriting, and editing process.

Use your book party as a time to honor your associates, friends, and family who supported you and missed you during the process—and enlist them as part of your team. You can also ask a friend to host your party and make the toast to your book. This joyful event fills your batteries, drained from writing, to carry you through to the next and last phase of the book publishing process: the celebration and launch.

Advantages to Holding Your Book Launch Party

Book launch party invitations are book announcements: People love to attend a party, so when people talk about the upcoming party, they also announce your book. First and foremost, your book launch party invitations should blast out to as many people as possible in the living world. No matter if they do not all attend; the point is that everyone loves an invitation. Like the opening of a new store in town, there is no better way to tell people the news than by inviting them to a fun live event.

Your launch party offers another opportunity for media coverage. For local newspapers and radio, an event gives journalists justification to mention it and may even attract reporters who want to enjoy and cover the event. Any media is good media, as write-ups beget more write-ups to reach more potential reviewers, booksellers, and readers. If you stream the event live or photo-stream individual shots, any journalist who was not able to attend is still able to watch and report on a live happening.

Show your fun side. People love to tell others about events, entertainment, and the inside scoop: A book launch party is a great chance to go viral by showing sides of your personality that are not otherwise seen. You can use it as a chance to tell something interesting about you that nobody knows, and that kind of tidbit in itself can go viral. Any party gives even more motivation for water cooler talk by commenting on what happened, what was said, what people wore, how others behaved, etc.

Excitement is not only contagious, but also a driving force. Your book launch party galvanizes your excitement and the excitement of your surrounding team that spreads to others. If you’re not showing excitement, nobody else will. A party is the perfect vehicle for contagious enthusiasm.

You’re in the limelight as a celebrity. Book authors carry a special panache; you as author with your book in hand as the center of attention gives you the limelight to capture while your book is still new. To make it a unique event, wear all white like the author Tom Wolfe if you have to, just try to create a novel experience in your own style.

Jump-start your book sales. With your book available for sale and a roomful of guests you’ve just entertained with wine and appetizers, you’re likely to get a good percentage of sales of your book.

Involve a global community through videoconferencing the event and/or live streaming photographs taken at the event.

Live Book Launch Party Strategy

Plan the party as a business event: Consider this as your grand opening to attract customers, and include ideas in your plan to maximize the business aspect of this event:

Build in appreciation. This is also a thank-you party, so include planning on how you will appreciate and celebrate those who helped you. When you graciously honor your supporters, they will honor you in return.

Involve media. Send your press kit and invitation to all media, including social networks, local papers, and radio stations.

Give reasons to tell friends. When it’s entertaining, fun, and interesting, and/or if there is something free like food, wine, and prizes or costumes, people have good reason to tell others about it.

Duplicate aspects of your party for your virtual “tour.” As described later in the chapter, you can position your virtual tour to gather momentum right after the party to keep the celebration announcement going.

Link all of your book launch activities. Use every web location possible, such as your own networks and the networks of friends. One added posting option is to pay a fee to announce your book launch in newsletters like “Bookselling this Week,” run by American Booksellers Association (bookweb.org).

Steps to Prepare Your Live Book Launch Party

1. Define your goals. Figure out what you want to achieve—for example, how many guests you want, how many books you’ll sell, how you’ll leverage the event on your networks and sites—and define exact steps to get there.
2. Make your support team list and your guest list. Use your entire Rolodex and all social networks to list friends and associates.
3. Get sponsors. Ask local restaurants and shops if they will contribute food, drink, or a raffle item in exchange for advertising their name at your event. Talk to local businesses you frequent and ask for a door-prize contribution in exchange for advertising their name at your party.
4. Secure a location. A bookstore is a natural location, since this is the ideal bookselling venue. Approach the owner of the store in person to introduce yourself in advance, and bring a leave-behind press kit. When approaching anyone for support, remember to talk about how you benefit their customers. A library, your home, or any location that fits your theme is ideal, so it’s fine to think creatively. If you can coincide your book event with a local conference, all the better, as you will likely find a large and interested attendee list.
5. Select food and drink. Wine, cheese, and fruit are standard and classy choices, or you can connect food and drink with your theme. We’ve seen launches with open bars and a special clever name invented for a drink that fits your subject. Budgets can be slim, so ask for help in bringing bottles of wine from your closest supporters if needed.
6. Plan a theme for your party that links to your book—fun and optional.
7. Do invitations. Send out two months in advance. Create mail-out invitations as postcards with your book cover on one side and a party invitation on the other side. Create online invitations using your book cover as the main visual at a website like Splashthat.com, mentioned earlier in this chapter. It’s important to give contact information and ask for RSVPs. Follow up to make sure that everyone did get an invitation and count the RSVPS to make sure you have enough food, wine, and books.
8. Post announcements in the form of flyers in your town in every possible location.
9. Create capability for visuals of the event to be posted live, while it is happening. Everyone has a camera phone, and people love to take photos and view others’ photos at events. Encourage guests to post photos live! You can create a photo station where a friend photographs your guests in a setting backdrop and then posts online; you can later feature these photos on your website. Also ask guests to send you their own photos for you to post later. Some authors use videoconferencing tools to connect to others during the party and will even take live questions from viewers.
10. Do giveaways. Have paper and pen ready to gather guests’ email addresses. Hold one or more drawings during the party, and give discounts on your book if possible. The grand prize is a signed copy of your book. Depending on budget, check online for shops that will use your book cover image to create T-shirts, magnets, bookmarks, mugs, etc.
11. Create take-home “goodie bags.” These can be a gift of any kind, including food, a toy or game, buttons, or a coupon from a sponsor —or anything that aligns with your party theme, if you have one. Include your business card, postcard book announcement card, and a reminder to post an Amazon review.
12. Sell books. A must at the end of your party. A bookstore will manage book sales at the end of your talk, of course, but elsewhere you need to have a bookstore employee bring books to sell or delegate a friend to do the work of selling your books.
13. Remember thank-yous. In your talk, show appreciation for as many people as you can, and follow up with thank-you cards or emails. An online service like Blue Mountain Cards (bluemountain.com) will allow you to set up thank-you e-cards in advance to send out to your specified list you type in, on the exact day you specify.

A Simple One-Hour Book Launch Party Format

We’ve attended many book signing parties using the following simple format. With too many choices, many authors don’t want to take the time to figure out how to go about creating a launch party, and so often they skip this essential part of creating an author platform. The format here saves time, so either use or customize further for your book launch party. The approximate schedule here assumes an hour-long book launch party with a 7:30 start time specified in your invitation and involves delegating to a few friends who will act in specified support roles.

 

7:15 p.m.	Doors open for early arrivals, cheese/crackers/sweet bites on tables, a friend delegated to pour wine. Background atmospheric music is an option. As the author and host, simply greet every single guest personally, and thank them for coming. Nothing more is needed at this point. Optional: Give each a name tag or a note card and small pencil and ask them to write down one question to ask you later if they wish.
7:35 p.m.	Making sure everyone has visited food and wine, move to the spot you’ll speak from casually; your spot can be near the food or in the center of the room.
7:40 p.m.	Appoint a close friend in advance who will play the part of master of ceremonies. This person will clink spoon to glass, then thank all for coming for this grand occasion and deliver a short prepared introduction for you. All is casual, with a warm sense of welcome and humor to keep the party atmosphere.
7:45 p.m.	You’re on! Start with a fun anecdote, maybe about someone who helped you or supported you on this book. People love stories about other people. It’s a celebration, so keep the fun-and-celebration mood in it. A visual is effective—a show-and-tell item surrounding the book if possible, even a large photo that links somehow to your book. Describe it with a sense of humor. Offer brief thanks by name to those who helped you, and maybe something that people didn’t know about you or that you learned about yourself while writing the book. Introduce something that pertains to your book’s topic, then hold up your book (never try to sell) and give a short, memorable reading. Then read some questions from the guests’ cards (with a few of your own thrown in) and answer in an entertaining way. Finally, thank all for coming to celebrate, tell them to enjoy, that you will be at the back of the room for book signings, and applause should follow.
8:10 p.m.	Music starts for background. Circulate, chat, pose for photos, then sign books near the exit point. Appoint a friend or employee to handle all book transactions; yours is a separate role to just enjoy your party, relate to your audience, and sign books. Ask something about each person who wants an autograph and then personalize your signature with a note or a drawing.
8:30 p.m.	Wind down until last guest has left, doors closing.

The Virtual Book Launch Tour

Now that we have both feet firmly planted in the digital era, most authors are first cultivating local audiences live and then also creating powerful virtual book tours online. These online “tours” are the alternative to multicity live, in-person book tours, with in-store book signings at multiple locations, speaking at conferences, media interviews, etc. The virtual book tour connects authors with a much larger audience than a store-to-store circuit would allow.

A virtual book launch tour is a planned combination of appearances, including social network capabilities for online events, articles and blogs, guest contributions to websites, online radio shows, chats, videoconferences, and appearances on other places on the web where the readers of your book might meet for discussions. This blitz of appearances is effective if it’s timed for 7 to 14 days before and another 7 to 14 days after your book is published. Like your book launch party, your virtual tour is a time to talk about your book, the inspiration for writing it, what you learned along the way, and to tell the stories of people who contributed to the project, in unexpected ways. It’s a time to be interviewed on others’ sites, in videos, and in any other way that you can use all collaborative networks available to you. When you help others in advance or offer to reciprocate and do the same for these supporters when they need online word of mouth for their projects and initiatives, you expand your networks exponentially. Here’s the time when your memberships and contributions to writers groups and publishing-related support groups works to your advantage.

If you have followed the steps in this book, you have already created a community support system that fosters and sustains a cooperative effort.

Advantages of a Virtual Book Launch “Tour”

The major benefit of having your book hot off the press is the opportunity to get people excited about the (long-awaited) publication of your book without you paying for travel costs.

More benefits include:

Web content that stays up for all time. Show the excitement surrounding your book launch, as it stays on the web permanently.

Enhanced visibility to your readership. Your name and book title recognition is increased by familiarity. Remember, it generally takes multiple exposures for a consumer to make the purchase.

Increased Amazon rankings. A blitz of appearances raises your Google search rankings and Amazon rankings as sales of your book increase with launch tour appearances.

Enhanced visibility to publishers, agents, and scouts. Establishing ties to your readership community attracts more opportunities. The editorial department at Mulholland Books, an imprint of Little, Brown, wants “authors who are engaged in the community, who reach out to their readers; authors who challenge the publisher on how to reach out further.” Steve Elliot, publisher at Elsevier, also seeks “authors with a voice in the community, someone who strives to be a thought leader, a visible speaker in the industry who stays active on networks.”

Strategy for Virtual Book Launch

There is every reason to appear as much as possible in person and online in the month spanning before and after the publication of your book.

Create local and virtual news. The strategy we advise is both to reach out, at least locally, with in-store book signings and a book launch party, and online through a virtual “tour.”

Repurpose photos and video. Authors can live stream their book launch party for those who were not able to attend and/or include and repurpose videos and photos of the party as part of the virtual “tour.”

Maximize the celebration announcement with links, tying in as many elements as possible between live appearances and online appearances at the publication of your book.

Create audience interactions with an event hashtag. Creating and using your own event hashtag such as #authorplatformparty everywhere you announce will give people a way to search and talk about the event easily and create buzz about it through social media.

Steps to Creating Your Virtual Book Launch Tour

As with all elements of your author platform, find the book tour models that appeal to you before you start planning your own. We’ve included the main elements in this chapter along with models, but you can search for and find many more. A simple virtual book tour includes the following elements, which can be expanded upon and customized. Authors regularly schedule their own online “appearances” themselves rather than paying a book publicist. Good publicists are also available to do the work for a fee. Here are the steps:

1. Make a target list of the sites and networks where you want to appear as a guest, especially sites where you may already be active and have a presence. For guest blogging, one option is to join a community of guest bloggers at guestblogit.com or myblogguest.com. About.com also has a guest blogging forum. A quick route to possible online appearances is to ask those in your network if you can do guest posts for them; reach out to your groups, colleagues, clients, and industry friends.
2. Contact your target sites. Tell the site owners that you have a book about to be published and a firm publication date, and ask for a guest appearance. Tell the owners that you love their site and why, that you have a lot to offer their audience, and that you want to make it a stop on your virtual tour. Offer to give them an interview or write a post that meets their specifications, even a review of someone else’s book or an editorial piece.
3. Set up posts of interviews and/or articles. See Chapter 7 for ideas on places to apply for interviews, and consult Chapter 10 on how to make interview videos to post on your site—and sites like YouTube—with your physical book in your hand.
4. Research audiences for each stop. Plan and coordinate the content you’ll use for each type of audience.
5. Create your schedule. As you receive responses to your guest post inquires, you’ll start to book dates for appearances. Maintain an internal calendar and keep a public version of it updated in the media room of your author website.
6. Post and promote the dates and online places of your virtual book tour. List your tour stops on all parts of your author platform and also blog about your book and tour. During the launch of your book, add a splash page to your website—where your book and a Buy button are front and center.
7. Write out your interview or agreed-upon posts for guest blogs, then send in your copy for approval from your hosts. You can ask your hosts if they would, for example, announce that they are happy to introduce you and your hot-off-the-press book for an expert question-and-answer session over a specified amount of time.
8. Be sure to include live links to additional articles that you’ve written; if your readers follow your links to additional locations where you have written, your rankings increase.
9. Double-check your byline. Make sure your byline includes your name, book title, a photo of the cover of your book, and a Buy button.
10. If a host wants to interview you, suggest questions. Give hosts some suggested questions, the words you’d like used to introduce you, and especially for video, make sure a copy of your book is in hand as you are introduced. Keep the focus on your ultimate goal of selling copies of your book.
11. Orchestrate book giveaways and contests. People love freebies, so consider some giveaways as part of your virtual book tour. Sites like Goodreads and LibraryThing host book giveaways (see Chapter 13). You might also want to give away copies of your book via your author website. To win a free copy, readers would just need to give you their name, postal address (for physical copies), and email address with the winner(s) named at the end of the virtual book tour. Collect your entries in a spreadsheet and use Random.org to select your winner. You would be responsible for delivery and shipping costs, unless your publisher is willing to participate in the promotion.

Virtual Tour Stops

The sky is the limit for appearing online, and authors tailor tours to their personalities, capabilities, and time constraints. Focus on the events and video capabilities of your social networks to coordinate an “event” at each of your online locations.

Facebook Events. From your Author Page, click the Event button to set up your date, time, and location. Schedule a live Facebook chat session, or a more formal Q&A on your Author Page. For the latter, announce that you’ll answer questions submitted to your page at a given time. Consider an ad campaign to promote the event. Perhaps you can offer a giveaway of your book to either a random questioner or just your favorite question.

LinkedIn group. Use your book title to create a discussion group. Attract new people and get them talking about you and your topic. If enough users engage in your group, you could become a LinkedIn Influencer. Read more about LinkedIn groups in Chapter 6.

Google+ Events and Hangouts. Google+ Events can be live and in person or strictly online. Always put whatever you’re doing on Events. Host a Hangout on Air to talk about your book and take questions from your readers. This feature allows up to 10 people to video chat at one time and for up to 200 people to watch the Hangout live (the Hangout is always recorded and posted to YouTube, so millions can watch it later). This group video chat is a perfect tool to use for your virtual book launch upon publication. See Chapter 4 for more about Google+.

Twitter chat. Create a hashtag and ask your Twitter followers to use it during an hour-long Twitter chat. Your chat can be a Q&A about your book, during which you can take questions from followers for an hour at a designated time. For example, tweet six questions, at ten-minute intervals, to create a chat. Remind participants to include the hashtag in their answers so that you can easily track the responses (using a Twitter platform like HootSuite or TweetDeck) and answer as many questions as possible during the chat.

Reddit. This user-generated Internet link site has a popular feature called AMA (Ask Me Anything). Everyone from Arnold Schwarzenegger to President Obama has used this forum to answer questions from users. Use this forum to promote your book, your current project, or your authority. People can ask questions about your platform or other random questions, and it generates user interest.

Pinterest. If your book lends itself to a more visual presentation, create a Pinterest board full of images related to your topic. Create an infographic of interesting and fun facts you generated while researching your book.

Instagram. This Facebook photo-editing site now allows very short (3 to 15 seconds) video clips. Use these to tease details from your book, or other spots on the tour.

Audio Tours: Taped readings, audio interviews, and podcasts at these sites:

• Writers Out Loud
• BlogTalkRadio
• Lively Words

Blog Tours. A blog tour means you’ll be posting on one blog after another. The quantity of guest blogging depends on your schedule, but some virtual book tours go so far as to include twenty blogs over a four-week period.

Blog reviews. Your book launch is the ideal time to announce your book publication to top book-review bloggers in your subject area, sending them requests for reviews plus an advance copy of your book. To find reliable blog review sites, look at the Goodreads website under Book Blogger Awards.

Regardless of how many elements you choose to include in your book launch, the blitz of your author appearances surrounding the “news” of publication of your book gives you a huge advantage in creating a spotlight and stage for your book to become highlighted, bought and read, and reviewed.

Successful authors make multiple appearances closely in advance of the publication of their books and often give away advance copies marked “not for sale,” like Barbara Kingsolver did with Fight Behavior to seed the market, giving her fans a chance to read first and tell their friends. We love watching the many authors who speak on panels at Book Expo America in advance of their new titles. Mary Roach, a best-selling pop-science author with ingeniously startling titles like Gulp, Bonk, and Packing for Mars, is an author who is clearly having fun, reaching out to widen the audience for her books right before they hit the market. Each time before her latest book is published, she speaks—mostly about embarrassing biological facts we can all relate to—at science centers and book conferences. We love her fun book trailers, especially the broccoli on the roller coaster for Gulp, and watching her enjoyment while appearing on television on The Colbert Report.

We are hoping time will be an ally, not a thief, so that you can use every one of the 14 steps in this book to announce your book to your newly created and ever-expanding audience. Our most successful author clients have found that the initial work that goes into creating an author platform pays off and, once established, works on its own, resulting in increased sales, a ready audience for future books, and opportunities to create additional related products and services.

May you enjoy creating your author platform and may you reap the benefits and rewards for many years to come!

Checklist, Step 14: Launch

Plan your launch to include a live book party and a virtual launch.

Send invitations two months in advance to give media time to schedule coverage.

Plan your virtual tour a couple of months before your book is published.

Create schedules for the launch party and virtual book tour to coincide with your publication date.

Post every aspect of your launch to your social networks and sites.

Query for guest blog spots and interviews, and create multiple virtual appearances.

Try to get reviews on prominent book blog sites.

Promote your book tour on all of your online locations.

On all guest blog posts, include your byline and a Buy button for your book for easy purchase.

Enjoy and celebrate every step of the way during your launch!