How to host a book launch

As the dust settles from launch week for The Book Of Secrets (Ateban Cipher #1), I finally have time to reflect and share some of the highlights!

On Saturday, I was lucky enough to hold my book launch in the brand-new space created by the lovely team at So & So Events. Small, intimate and perfectly lovely, it was a wonderful moment in which to take a small breath and share my new book with family, friends and even a few small fans. Rather than bore you with the details, I’ll just share a few photos from my event album.

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  The clouds threatened but the setting was perfect for a book that begins in a monastery.

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  We were even keeping the title of the book a secret...

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  The piano shelf, featuring a selection of books by A.L. Tait.

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  And a handy spot for signing books.

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  And, of course, there must be cake! This one was made by my friend Carol and tasted as good as it looked!

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  Other delicious food selections were provided by So&So Events.

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  All beautifully displayed.

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  A selection of drinks was on hand.

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  Reading from The Book Of Secrets: introducing the crowd to Gabe... and to Gwyn.

It was a wonderful day all in all, and I thought I’d share a few tips I learned along the way, in case you’re an author planning to host your own book launch.

1. Get some help. My first port of call when I was thinking about my book launch was my local bookshop. While many authors will simply get their own stock in for a launch, I wanted to a) support one of my local bookshops and b) not have to think about transactions on the day. This freed me up to chat to people and sign books.
2. Know your strengths. Event planning is not my strength. Talking about books and writing is one thing, but setting up a launch and the myriad details that go into that? Not so much. So I called in my friends Sonya and Simba from So&So Events, based on the south coast of NSW, and asked them to help me. Best idea I had all day! They are used to creating intimate, pop-up events for all kinds of arty occasions and did a brilliant job!
3. Decide on what kind of launch you want. Do you want to invite someone else to launch your book? If so, who will it be? In my case, I decided I’d simply send Gabe, Gwyn, Merry and Co out into the world myself. After all, who knows them better than I do?
4. Decide where your launch will be. This follows on from the point above, but once you decide on the type of launch you want, you need to decide on the best venue to give it the feel you want. A library can be a terrific choice because they will be used to hosting events, and will often have a mailing list to help publicise your launch, but will it give the feel you want? In my case, I was lucky that So&So Events have recently created their own tiny performance space, right next door to an old church – perfect!
5. Publicise your event. This seems obvious, but it’s amazing how easily it’s overlooked. Simply creating an event on Facebook is not enough. How will you let people know that you are launching your book? In my case, on top of my own efforts on social media, So & So Events shared the launch through their own mailing list (join it here if you’re based on the south coast, NSW) and created fliers, which we put up around town.
6. Keep it short. We put a time-frame of 90 minutes on the launch and the time just flew! I gave a short speech (henceforth known as my Oscars acceptance speech) and then read a short passage from the book (think less than one page). The last thing you want to do at a book launch is to drone on and on reading half a chapter of the book. Give them a taste and allow them to discover the rest of the book for themselves!
7. Ask someone to take photos*. Organise someone to take lots and lots of images for you. If you’re lucky like me, you’ll also have someone on hand to upload some choice bits and pieces to social media for you as the event unfolds.

Thanks again to everyone who attended the launch, which was just a wonderful celebration of a lot of hard work. I think as authors that we sometimes forget to really sit back and enjoy what we’ve created, and a book launch is a great way to do that.

If you couldn’t make the launch, you can read more about The Book Of Secrets (Ateban Cipher #1) here. Or, if you’ve read it, consider leaving a review on Goodreads here. 

*Thanks to Maxabella Loves and So&So Events for the images and social media magic.