by Aishah Macgill

Many authors finish all the hard work, then it’s time to begin the book promotion and marketing phase. One obvious way of doing this is to hold a book launch.

A book launch is not only a great way of the author experiencing a sense of completion and celebration, it also says, “I’m ready to take on the world!”

I have been to a few book launches. The best ones were the ones that didn’t try too hard to impress. There is nothing like a room full of happy people, chatting and milling about after the ‘formal’ start to a book lauch.

Here is my checklist:

  • make it free entry
  • invite people and tell them it’s okay to invite whomever they wish to – a full room creates buzz!
  • invite your social media friends, facebook, twitter etc
  • hold it in a venue like a cafe, restaurant, club or similar that provides food and drinks that people attending purchase themselves. This way the venue are not usually fussed about how many people show up or not, the more the merrier!
  • get there at least one hour before start time to set up and to catch the early birds
  • have a vistors book to collect comments from friends – use these later on your blog etc.
  • have a registration table to collect emails for your blog/newletter/business if you have one
  • sell your book at the book launch for a special, low, low price. Tonight is not so much about making money, it’s about creating goodwill and gratitude
  • have a credit card facility for people to purchase the book or at least a cash machine in the venue for people to withdraw money. Most people don’t carry cash these days
  • lucky door prize – give raffle tickets to everyone when they come in. One person will win a free signed copy of your book. Do this just after your formal part and just before the mingling begins. You can have other prizes too
  • Make a short speech and a reading from the book. The reading is not mandatory if you are too shy. Get someone else to to the reading if you don’t feel up to it
  • after the formal part, sit down and sign books with a special message. If no one is buying any, hold an impromtu auction
  • afterwards, mingle, mingle, mingle. And have fun!
  • make sure you have some business cards or flyers as well
  • Have someone take photos and some video to use later on your website/blog/social media
  • You can have multiple book launches. Just change the venue, the town, city or country!

Important! You don’t have to clean up!

For more book promotion tips, click here.