Book Launch Learnings 6: Launching

PART 6 – LEARNINGS ABOUT WRITING AND PUBLISHING A BOOK SERIES – Launching

This post is likely going to be more about what I should have done as opposed to what I did. I really dropped the ball on my launch. I did a lot of research, but didn’t really know to whom I should speak about doing a launch. While I recognize now the achievement that is writing an entire novel, at the time it didn’t feel so terribly grand. Furthermore, hosting a party in my honour didn’t seem very, well, me. It felt like a frivolous expense to play to my own vanity. I’m a bit of an introvert, though not fully, and putting together a launch party wasn’t my forté.

The mistake

The biggest mistake that I made, and it is a pretty common one among first-time authors, was that I figured if a book is good enough, it’ll sell itself. My friends and family (most of whom have no literary connections – like me) would read the book, be amazed, feel compelled to share it with their friends who would be equally interested and it would catch fire and go viral, selling quickly and widely. I know that this sounds foolish… and it is. Unfortunately, this was my general mindset. To this end, why would I spend money and time promoting the book when I was confident that it would do it by itself?

Pre-launch Reviews and Pre-Orders

There is a bit of a golden period at launch. This is the time where a first-time author really can collect the stats to push the book. I did alright considering my own foolishness. At one point, three days after launch, I reached a high of #20 on the Satire charts on Amazon. Pretty cool, but I probably could have done better.

What I didn’t understand is how important a launch really is beforehand. I could have given out several ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) to friends, family, and a few assorted websites, with the hope and suggestion that I could really use honest reviews in return, or perhaps their assistance in spreading the word upon release. The whole review thing didn’t occur to me until far too late.

Mistake #2

A second mistake I made was I protected my book too much. I had some content in the book that I felt was timely and ludicrously thought that if I let anybody see the book, somebody would steal it, publish it before me and I’d be left in the dark. This is dumb. I only realize it now, but somebody would have to take a pretty crazy shot to do this. Stealing my IP would open them up to litigation, and it is crazy difficult to get a book off the ground, especially if you don’t have the passion that comes from creating it. Be a little free with your book. Trust that your friends and trusted online outlets aren’t looking for a way to screw you. Besides, your first book isn’t very likely to take the world by storm anyway, as previously mentioned.

Related to this was that I had some material, as was the case with Jonathan Swift, that was contemporary. I’ve hestitated to reveal this, but when I wrote the book, a certain neighbouring country was in the process of electing a buffoon to their highest office. I weaved in a fair bit of satire about politics, and a little about that particular cartoon character. One thing that is holding me back from writing my current book is I don’t want it to be heavily influenced by contemporary political oafs (especially one who will be gone by the time the book is published… please?)

Launch Party

I’ve read a lot about launch parties and street teams. I did sell copies to many of my friends. I have great friends and family and I truly appreciate their support. I should have given them time before the launch to read the book, to comment on it, discuss it, and help me push pre-orders. I should have done this, and I should have thrown a party, not for me, but for them and the help that they would give me right away. I guess that is where I lost the plot, I didn’t realize that the launch party wasn’t for me, but for them. Sorry.

Reviews

I keep alluding to this, and I’ll write an entire piece about reviews soon, but man are they ever important. At launch, you should have a bunch of reviews ready to fire. They may be your friends who are writing them (be aware of the terms of service that penalize close family from reviewing), but strangers aren’t very likely to respond well to a first-time novelist they’ve never heard of and a book nobody has read.

(Hey, please review my book.)

Advertising

Alright, this one is more about just not knowing anything about this stuff. I’ve since taken a bunch of courses in advertising on Amazon, Facebook (which I’m currently not doing), and Google. It would have been a good idea to advertise before launch to get pre-orders lined up and build excitement. I didn’t even know how to start with advertising. Since last year I’ve learned enough about advertising to know how little I actually know.

Summary

Put your launch a little later, collect your launch team, plan a party to reward them. Research advertising and marketing. Line up reviews before the book goes public. Be less guarded about your achievement. And shoot your shot, don’t let it fizzle. I let my launch be a day on the calendar with a Facebook/Twitter announcement and a bunch of author copies for sale at my office. You only really get one full launch of your first book. It is an amazing achievement to sling together 100,000+ words in a meaningful way. Understand the way the market works. Talk to somebody who has been through it and glean whatever you can from them.

I hope this helps prospective writers out there. If it does, let me know! (and hey, my book is available, give it a read – and please review it!)