Jill Elizabeth Nelson here, hosting Maureen Lang, multi-published author of historical romance. Maureen has a wealth of information for us on points to consider when planning a book launch party. I'll let her share with you in her own words.
By the way, you can visit Maureen at her web site, http://www.maureenlang.com. Her World War I novel, Pieces of Silver, was a 2007 Christy Award finalist.
It's great to see such enthusiasm for book launch parties - they ARE fun! But I do have a couple of things for you to consider.
First, consider your location. If you hold yours at a local bookstore, it could be beneficial for you and the store. They can help with advertising, they'll take care of ordering your books, and their store will be the party location so you won't have to a) clean your house ;-) or b) pay a room rental fee either at a hotel for a hostess room or a local civic center, park district or other public facility.
The problem might be finding a book store willing to host your book launch, unless you want it to be a standard book signing - or you provide the food or pay for them to provide refreshments. (They may not let you bring in food from an outside source, even if you offer to bake/cook it yourself. Many places, including hotels, won't let people bring in food for fear of litigation if someone gets sick).
(By the way, if you do choose to host your party privately and you sell your books at a profit, you're subject to paying income tax. States vary as to the rules about this, so check with a local accountant.)
The general public needs a reason to come. You might consider a gift raffle - perhaps a basket of goodies that relate to your book, along with a free copy of your book. The downside to offering a free copy of your book is that many people will only sign up for the possibility of winning a free book and not BUY one. If you can come up with an appropriately related give-away that doesn't include your book, all the better.
Get free advertisement in your local paper by having a local interest story. Contact an Entertainment or Local People-You-Should-Know reporter who can do a story about you, the local resident who has a book coming out. Make sure it's coordinated as close to your party as possible, so people won't forget about it.
Depending on the time of day, you might call a nearby restaurant and ask them if they would give a 15% discount on a meal - brunch, lunch, or dinner to anyone who comes to their restaurant that day and brings in one of your fliers or invitations (or books!). If your location is somewhat remote, or if it's in a Mall and there is a popular restaurant willing to do this, it'll give people two reasons to leave their house and come to your party that day.
Invite anyone who has a natural interest in your book. This includes library patrons, local writer's groups, book clubs and any group that might have a special connection to the subject of your novel. In my case, my book The Oak Leaves revolves around a family learning their child has a disability, so I invited all of the therapy groups, special ed school staffs, drs., etc.
Keep in mind that the percentage of people who respond to cold-invites (i.e. people who don't already have a connection to you) is very small. You can leave fliers at your local library to invite people, hang a poster (you can have one made for a couple of bucks at Office Max) at your local grocery store, put in a paid advertisement in a local paper, but the percentage of those who respond to this sort of advertising is small.
Which means the majority of people who attend will have a connection to you - yep, friends, family, business acquaintances, neighbors, etc. For them, you might consider a personal invitation, either handmade and fancy or at least personalized in some way so they know how important this event is to you.
A few days before your book launch, call people to remind them to come. You might ask a friend to do this for you, someone who is excited about your book and the party. Not a lot of people get to come to book launches in their lives - and enthusiasm is contagious, so make the most of that. My friend Julie Dearyan suggested this to me, and I thought it was a GREAT idea!
If you decide to host the party yourself in some public place (I rented my local Civic Center), make sure you have enough food and beverages. I kept things simple and held mine on a Sunday afternoon and offered only coffee, tea (hot and iced) and a wide variety of home made cookies. I based how many cookies I made (and my sisters contributed) by how many cookies I WOULD EAT - which was of course way too many. Most people are more polite about cookie eating, at least in public, than I am, so I had lots of leftovers. But no one around here complained. My publisher (Tyndale) is local to me so I brought most of my leftovers there.
Most of all, enjoy the process. Enjoy making and distributing the invitations, planning your menu, working with the people who will help you. No matter how many books you sell, if you have fun with your book launch party, it'll be a success.
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