Organizing a book launch

[Garpy]

This is something I'm doing right now. It's a somewhat nerve-wracking experience doing this kind of thing....you wonder if any people will turn up other than your mum, a best friend from nursery school and some small lost dog called Sean. My biggest fear is that the launch would be a damp squib.

I just wondered if any of the other authors here have organized their own and have any advice on banana skins to avoid....any tips, suggestions? Sheeesh, any advice would be warmly recieved.

[aruna]

This is something I'm doing right now. It's a somewhat nerve-wracking experience doing this kind of thing....you wonder if any people will turn up other than your mum, a best friend from nursery school and some small lost dog called Sean. My biggest fear is that the launch would be a damp squib.

I just wondered if any of the other authors here have organized their own and have any advice on banana skins to avoid....any tips, suggestions? Sheeesh, any advice would be warmly recieved.

I see you are published by Orion - are they organising it, helping in any way, or are you on your own? What's the budget? Can you work together with a bookshop?

I've had two memorable book launches: one was organised by a bookshop in Germany; the owner had read and loved it and she went all out in organising this do. As the book is set in India, the launch had an Indian theme, and was a huge success; it was an "Indian cultural" evening, with Indian music and dance (we got an Indian song-and-dance duo to come for a reasonable fee, Indian snacks, and a reading. It was well advertised in the town in which it was held, with a nice display in the bookshop window. About 100 people came, and there was a small entrance fee. They paid it, because they were getting something for their money: song, dance, a reading a question and answer session!
So see if you can get a bookshop to work with you; and if you have a strong theme, you could play that up. Print flyers (o bookmarks) to advertise it; if the bookshop is working with you, they could put a flyer in the bag with each purchase so customers get to hear about it.

[Garpy]

thanks for that Aruna. I'll have a look at finding an interested bookseller.