This past Saturday I had the privilege of attending
a client’s book launch. Since my clients are scattered all over the US of A, it
is rare for me to be able to lend my physical support to them all, as much as
I’d like to.
Author Amy L. Sullivan did a stellar
job hosting a fun, creative and successful book launch both online and within
her local community. I thought I would interview her and pass along some do’s and don’ts in an effort to assist you in preparation for your launch
event planning.
Do’s
Do
Become Visible Online
Amy purposefully supported others online. She joined
groups, wrote articles for websites, completed interviews via Skype, committed
to pray, and became genuinely interested in the projects other people were
doing. She sought out those who had similar missions as she did and joined
forces to work on new endeavors together.
Do
Share Your Vision
Since Amy’s book is on generous living, in addition
to an online book launch, she wanted to host a local event where families and
nonprofits could meet one another with the hopes of becoming involved with each
other.
Amy prayed about a venue for her local event. She
wanted a place in the midst of her community where families could come and
children were welcome. Once the venue was found—a perfect place in answer to
her prayers—she assembled her event team—comprised of 6 local people. This team
met twice and communicated regularly through email.
Once Amy shared her vision with others, she was
surprised how many people wanted to rally and help her.
Do
Assemble a Team to Get Behind You
Three months before the book’s release, Amy also assembled
an online launch team. Amy had been building genuine online relationships for a
few years, and at this time, she simply asked people if they would be
interested in helping her spread the word about her new book when it released.
Three weeks before Amy’s book released, Amy gathered
the people who said they would support her in a Private Facebook Group.
Forty-seven members participated in challenges and online sharing about the
book.
Do
Plan Out What You Will Ask of Your
Online Launch Team
Examples of things she asked them to do were:
§ Share about
Amy’s book on their blog.
§ Tweet and retweet:
Amy provided them with already made tweets to share.
§ Share photos of
the book’s cover and quotes from the book online.
§ Amy sought 100 people
to participate in Thuderclap (an online platform which allows tons of people to
share about the same message) and CLAP her book once.
§ Pray. Amy felt
prayer was of extreme importance in her book launch’s success. One launch team
member’s sole contribution was to pray every day for the book launch and the
local event.
Do Brainstorm
Amy’s
wish list for her local event included a face painter, live music, a graphic
designer, fun decorations, and kid-friendly food. By the end of the first
meeting with her local team, all items from Amy’s wish list had been assigned
to others.
Don’ts
Don’t
Forget to Reciprocate. Amy made it a priority to share
about what others were doing. She made sure to highlight the successes of those
around her, and she worked hard not to make things all about her.
Don’t
plan to do everything yourself.
“Taking
on too much will burn you out and steal your joy. People love to help
out—delegate!” Amy knew she wanted to share photos with quotes from
her books on them so she asked her photographer friend for photos and a techy
friend to place the quotes on the pictures. This was the result.
Don’t
be afraid to ask people and agencies in your community to attend local events.
Although Amy’s book is Christian, she invited
nonprofits which were not, and guess what? They came.
Amy’s nonfiction topic related to the entitlement of
today’s children and how parents can help their children be more “others-centered”
lent itself to her inviting and building the event around eight nonprofit
organizations. The nonprofits were happy to come and share what they were about
with Amy’s community, and many of them provided the children with hands on
things to do. This photo is related to Project Linus.
Don’t
Exceed Your Budget
There are many venues in your community that you
might be able to use free or pay little for. Check with your church or
synagogue. Many of them prefer their buildings be used for community events.
Consider bartering, offering to help them set up and tear down for their next
event.
Amy
can you give us an idea of what this event cost you and how you budgeted for
it? Overall what did you spend?
“Prayer
was a huge factor –An online group I started called #RiskRejection presented me
with a donation of $800.00 to hold the event, and I stuck to that amount, but I
used every cent.
“Besides
showcasing the nonprofits, face painting, photo taking and snacks, I wanted to
hold a drawing in which one of the organizations would win a $100.00 donation,
but I ran out of money. So we held a drawing, and instead of a financial
prize—I gifted the winning charity with a media promotion I created and will
implement for them. Who can’t benefit from online promotion?”
That
is a crazy cool idea Amy, and I loved the scratch off cards you had that each
of the guests took to each of the nonprofits table and had scratched off. It
was a great way to see that each nonprofit was visited by your guests. Then
turning them in and choosing our favorite charity to gift the prize to- brilliant.
Nonfiction titles can easily have themes built
around them, but fiction titles could be fun as well. If your book is a Historical,
consider dressing in period costume, and preparing snacks relevant to that time
period. Check with historical groups in your area and see if they would be
willing to present a table about them and what they offer to the community. Ask
Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Pioneers or other youth groups if they would provide a
type of entertainment for your event.
I hope this interview with Amy has been helpful.
By the Way: Amazon just put Amy's book on sale today- the print version is now just $6.17
http://www.amazon.com/dp/
By the Way: Amazon just put Amy's book on sale today- the print version is now just $6.17
http://www.amazon.com/dp/
$6.17
$6.17
- List Price: $13.95
- Save: $7.78 (56%)
In Stock.
Your
turn: If you have published a book, tell about your book launch. We’d love to
hear ideas and strategies that worked for both online and local events.
