A Novice’s Guide to Launching a Book Part 1 by Georgie Tennant
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock in the last few months (and I wouldn’t blame you if you were), you may have noticed that my first devotional book, “The God Who Sees You,” was published by Kevin Mayhew recently. Those of us who have the experience of being published know how much you get sick of the sound of your own voice (or social media feed), trying to make your book known and, hopefully, bought.
It’s a steep learning curve. If you are ahead of me on that curve, I suggest you save ten minutes of your life for something more useful to you and stop reading now. If you are further behind, and in the process of bringing your book-baby to birth, read on and I hope my musings might be helpful to you as you launch your work into the world.
Diary of Events
March
Find out that my book will be released in March. Fly to Zimbabwe for three weeks.
Given that the former is a very rare event and the latter rarer still, it was unfortunate that these two coincided. What I did manage to do from afar was post on Facebook to begin a pre-order list, so that I could get an idea of how many books to order from the publisher for my own sales.
Learning point: try to ensure that you leave your calendar relatively free of other big events at the time of your book’s release so that you can give it a bit more attention.
April
Set a date for my book launch. Find out that lots of people who I would have loved to have been there can’t come. Panic that no-one will come. Ask my church leadership team to send out an email invitation to all of church, inviting them to the book launch and asking them to RSVP. People start to RSVP and I feel better about the whole thing.
The thing with your book launch is that you’re never going to hit everyone you want to be there. People have busy lives. For me, it was the only date I could do for months (another casualty of a too-full calendar). So, I had to go with the flow and accept that people might not be there and that was OK.
Learning point: if there are key people that you really want to be there, perhaps check they are available before you set a date
April Part 2
My lovely friend Maria offers her services to me for anything that might be needed, on the day or before. I go for a cup of coffee with her and she shows me some cake toppers made of sugar paper that she has had made with my book cover printed on the front and I cry!
Maria’s kind offer was a blessing sent from heaven. Whilst we might have a firm idea of what we want to happen at our book launch, we won’t be able to execute it entirely alone. In the run up, and on the day, Maria’s kind, hard-working presence really helped set my nerves at ease and ensured practical things were done in time.
Learning Point: no man is an island – humbly accept any support offered.
April Part 3
I make use of my husband’s excellent IT skills to set up a pre-order spreadsheet.
This was also a huge help. It had headings like name, different lines of people’s addresses, post or hand delivered, payment received, dispatched etc. Although it wasn’t fool proof, it enabled me to mostly keep track of things and have a clear idea of how many books I would need to order for the launch. More on that in a minute.
Learning point: spreadsheets are boring but essential. If you don’t know how to create one, find someone who does.
April Part 4
I attend Fran Hill’s superb book launch.
This is something I would highly recommend in the run-up to launching your own book. You can learn so much from observing what goes on at other people’s events. The food, the order of events, where the author sits, how long the author-talk is…you can watch, enjoy and gain inspiration for your own launch, from attending other people’s. I even stole and adapted a competition idea directly from Fran’s event.
Learning point: immerse yourself in all things book launch and borrow great ideas from other people.
May
In possession now, of a list of about 40 people planning to come to the event, I send out a personal message on What’s App to each of them with further details of the event. I also bite the bullet and ask if anyone is willing to contribute a cake (previously having planned to bake for England myself) and I’m pleasantly surprised how many people want to do this for me.
This was a good opportunity to remind people who might have forgotten after their initial enthusiasm for signing up and generated a bit of a buzz about the event. It also put my mind at ease that people were still planning to come and hadn’t forgotten about it completely.
Learning Point: don’t be afraid to ask, so that you take the pressure off yourself to do everything
May Part 2
I order 100 books from the publisher – these are offered to me at half the retail price and I have to pay postage. I order 100 postcards from VistaPrint and 100 bookmarks, to give out with the books. I ignore my husband’s advice to order 150 of everything as I am worried about not breaking even and ending up with a big credit card bill. More pre-orders roll in. I order 30 more books, ignoring my husband’s advice to order 50 more. More pre-orders roll in. I realise that people at church that haven’t pre-ordered and aren’t coming to the book launch will also want copies of the book and end up ordering 20 more. I also end up having to pay premium postage on another 50 postcards / book marks. My husband revels in being right.
Learning point: Husbands can sometimes be right 😊. Also try to calculate as realistically but optimistically as possible the numbers of books and peripherals you might need so that you don’t waste hard-earned funds on extra postage.
So that the post doesn’t become too long and lose everyone’s interest, I’ll be back with Part 2 of my book-launch-novice diary in August, with you more of some insights and learning points from just before, during and after the event.
Georgie Tennant is a secondary school English teacher in a Norfolk Comprehensive. She is married, with two sons, aged 14 and 12 who keep her exceptionally busy. She writes for the ACW ‘Christian Writer’ magazine occasionally, and is a contributor to the ACW-Published ‘New Life: Reflections for Lent,’ and ‘Merry Christmas, Everyone.' She has written 8 books in a phonics series, published by BookLife and is a freelance writer for King's Lynn Magazine. She writes the ‘Thought for the Week’ for the local newspaper from time to time and also muses about life and loss on her blog: www.somepoemsbygeorgie.blogspot.co.uk. Her first devotional book, "The God Who Sees You," was published by Kevin Mayhew in March.
It’s a steep learning curve. If you are ahead of me on that curve, I suggest you save ten minutes of your life for something more useful to you and stop reading now. If you are further behind, and in the process of bringing your book-baby to birth, read on and I hope my musings might be helpful to you as you launch your work into the world.
Diary of Events
March
Find out that my book will be released in March. Fly to Zimbabwe for three weeks.
Given that the former is a very rare event and the latter rarer still, it was unfortunate that these two coincided. What I did manage to do from afar was post on Facebook to begin a pre-order list, so that I could get an idea of how many books to order from the publisher for my own sales.
Learning point: try to ensure that you leave your calendar relatively free of other big events at the time of your book’s release so that you can give it a bit more attention.
April
Set a date for my book launch. Find out that lots of people who I would have loved to have been there can’t come. Panic that no-one will come. Ask my church leadership team to send out an email invitation to all of church, inviting them to the book launch and asking them to RSVP. People start to RSVP and I feel better about the whole thing.
The thing with your book launch is that you’re never going to hit everyone you want to be there. People have busy lives. For me, it was the only date I could do for months (another casualty of a too-full calendar). So, I had to go with the flow and accept that people might not be there and that was OK.
Learning point: if there are key people that you really want to be there, perhaps check they are available before you set a date
April Part 2
My lovely friend Maria offers her services to me for anything that might be needed, on the day or before. I go for a cup of coffee with her and she shows me some cake toppers made of sugar paper that she has had made with my book cover printed on the front and I cry!
Maria’s kind offer was a blessing sent from heaven. Whilst we might have a firm idea of what we want to happen at our book launch, we won’t be able to execute it entirely alone. In the run up, and on the day, Maria’s kind, hard-working presence really helped set my nerves at ease and ensured practical things were done in time.
Learning Point: no man is an island – humbly accept any support offered.
April Part 3
I make use of my husband’s excellent IT skills to set up a pre-order spreadsheet.
This was also a huge help. It had headings like name, different lines of people’s addresses, post or hand delivered, payment received, dispatched etc. Although it wasn’t fool proof, it enabled me to mostly keep track of things and have a clear idea of how many books I would need to order for the launch. More on that in a minute.
Learning point: spreadsheets are boring but essential. If you don’t know how to create one, find someone who does.
April Part 4
I attend Fran Hill’s superb book launch.
This is something I would highly recommend in the run-up to launching your own book. You can learn so much from observing what goes on at other people’s events. The food, the order of events, where the author sits, how long the author-talk is…you can watch, enjoy and gain inspiration for your own launch, from attending other people’s. I even stole and adapted a competition idea directly from Fran’s event.
Learning point: immerse yourself in all things book launch and borrow great ideas from other people.
May
In possession now, of a list of about 40 people planning to come to the event, I send out a personal message on What’s App to each of them with further details of the event. I also bite the bullet and ask if anyone is willing to contribute a cake (previously having planned to bake for England myself) and I’m pleasantly surprised how many people want to do this for me.
This was a good opportunity to remind people who might have forgotten after their initial enthusiasm for signing up and generated a bit of a buzz about the event. It also put my mind at ease that people were still planning to come and hadn’t forgotten about it completely.
Learning Point: don’t be afraid to ask, so that you take the pressure off yourself to do everything
May Part 2
I order 100 books from the publisher – these are offered to me at half the retail price and I have to pay postage. I order 100 postcards from VistaPrint and 100 bookmarks, to give out with the books. I ignore my husband’s advice to order 150 of everything as I am worried about not breaking even and ending up with a big credit card bill. More pre-orders roll in. I order 30 more books, ignoring my husband’s advice to order 50 more. More pre-orders roll in. I realise that people at church that haven’t pre-ordered and aren’t coming to the book launch will also want copies of the book and end up ordering 20 more. I also end up having to pay premium postage on another 50 postcards / book marks. My husband revels in being right.
Learning point: Husbands can sometimes be right 😊. Also try to calculate as realistically but optimistically as possible the numbers of books and peripherals you might need so that you don’t waste hard-earned funds on extra postage.
So that the post doesn’t become too long and lose everyone’s interest, I’ll be back with Part 2 of my book-launch-novice diary in August, with you more of some insights and learning points from just before, during and after the event.
And for the seasoned professionals who ignored my opening advice and read this far...what is YOUR top piece of advice for novice launchers?
Georgie, this is SPLENDID! Such good advice and muchos wit too, which we should always employ if we possibly can. Great tips and I heartily concur with all of them. Having just done my own book launch, I would add, "Try to avoid the day of a major sporting fixture if you can" but as you say, that's the peril of a too-busy calendar. I very much look forward to reading Part 2
ReplyDeleteGreat advice, Georgie. We can never have too much.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant Georgie, I learned lots from this. I am in awe of anyone who has got to the heady heights of a book launch!
ReplyDeleteI think that might be the very competition idea I stole and adapted from Deborah Jenkins' book launch, so it's clearly doing the rounds! My top tip is to give people much more time for mingling and chatting than would seem natural. Don't fill the agenda with 'events' that keep them too busy to enjoy the social aspect.
ReplyDeleteLove this; thanks Georgie; especially as I think I'll have two launches before the end of the year in between juggling trips to the USA and S Africa. There is no 'sensible' space... Looking forward to Part 2.
ReplyDeleteA really helpful post reminding me to get going on mine. Thanks for this Georgie! And it it's any consolation, my husband said the same for couple of events and I also ignored him. But yes, they can be right indeed! My top tip would be NOT to sit by a table to sign books. I did this at my last one and there was a long queue, meaning people had to wait, and I felt I couldn't chat to each one much. I liked what Fran did at hers, stood around chatting and signed books if and when. After all, how often in life do we have our nearest and dearest in the same room? Not that often.
ReplyDeleteLovely post, Georgie! Some things to learn here! Thanks and blessings.
ReplyDeleteFound this very helpful, Georgie, thank you. Wished I'd read it before launching my two which I did without experience!
ReplyDeleteThis is so good and helpful Feorgie. Thank you. Iam planning my launch for Seot and feeling overwhelmed! Thank you fir sharing!
ReplyDelete