Book Launch Parties: A How-to

Now that in-person social gatherings are coming back, I’m looking forward to being able to hold launch parties for my upcoming releases again. Previously, I’ve given two launch parties, for my novels Vicious Circle and Threadbare, both of which went well, so I thought I’d write about what I did to make them successful.

Budgets and resources will vary, and I understand that, but hopefully you’ll find some ideas you can take away and make work for you. The idea here is to draw attention to your work so that your guests will buy other books from you down the line, as well as the one you are launching. And you should also take the opportunity to celebrate your hard work and success in getting a book published.

Invite Everyone

Don’t limit your invite list to other people in your reading/writing circles of friends. Invite everyone: coworkers, non-reader/writer friends, friends from your other interests, family, neighbors. You name it. Invite them. It’s a party. You’ll be surprised by the number of unexpected people who will show up just for a fun social outing, and many will buy a book.

And don’t waste your money on expensive invitations. A printed sheet explaining the time, date, location, and occasion is perfectly fine. Believe me, you’ll be spending your money on other things.

Location

Bookstores are great, but they can limit you, too. For one thing, they may not be willing to host you if you aren’t traditionally published or not with a major press. Or they’ll host you, but they won’t order in your books. You’ll have to provide your own. Your experience may vary.

They also have limits on how many people they can fit and what activities you can include. For me, my community has several venues residents can rent out for a very reasonable price, so I use one of those. Regardless, be sure you have room for everyone you’ve invited and permission to do whatever activities you want to have.

Food and Drink

People who are fed tend to be happier. People who get free drinks, even more so. Happy people buy books.

I like to keep the food offerings inexpensive but popular. We order in some pizzas with a variety of toppings, and we get a sheet cake with the book’s cover art on it from one of the local grocery stores. I have a friend who runs a small baking business out of her home who sells me some additional goodies.

However, we do invest in the drinks. We offer a variety of inexpensive wines and beers, and various sodas as well. Then we hand out two coupons to each guest, and they can trade the coupons in for whatever drinks they prefer. Enlist your family and writing group to help with serving things. My spouse usually ends up the bartender, and he enjoys it a lot.

Decorations

I keep this simple and inexpensive as well. Whatever the primary color for the cover art is, I buy paper plates, cups, napkins, and throwaway tablecloths in that color. My writing group will usually come to the venue early to help me decorate.

Raffles and Giveaways

When guests arrive, they each receive a raffle ticket (in a different color from the drink tickets). However, if they show a copy of the book or a receipt for their copy proving they’ve purchased it, they get an additional raffle ticket. They also got an extra ticket for each book purchased at the event.

These tickets are good for drawings held intermittently throughout the event. I give away lots of trinkets and gag gifts that are related in some way to the genre of my books. For example, I write science fiction, fantasy, and LGBTQ romance. I gave away socks with constellations on them, unicorn bookends, lots of rainbow-themed items, journals, toy laser pistols, plastic dinner plates with unicorns, and anything else I could think of.

Books A Million and Barnes & Noble have a lot of great stuff in their clearance sections that are perfect for these sorts of giveaways. I also gave away writer-oriented gifts that cost me nothing, such as a free query critique or first chapter critique.

Notice I did not give away my books. I wanted my guests to purchase those. Regardless, be sure to spread out the raffle drawings throughout your event. This encourages your guests to stick around for the entire thing.

Activities

And finally, the entertainment. The one thing I learned at my first event was—don’t make writing-related activities be the only activities. Remember, you’ve invited a wide range of people who may or may not be interested in writing. Break things up.

Do a fifteen-minute author Q&A. I had my guests write their questions on index cards as they arrived so that I could pick and choose which ones to answer and have some time to think about my responses as well as taking some spontaneous questions from my audience.

Then have some karaoke or some other activity that’s not writing-related. I have a friend who is a DJ, so he hosted line dancing and karaoke on and off throughout the party. Give a quick reading of your favorite scene from the book, but not over ten minutes. Or have a friend give a funny reading of their interpretation of a scene from your book. There’s nothing quite like asking your spouse to read one of the book’s sex scenes out loud.

Then draw some raffle tickets. Play some traditional party games like beer pong or pin the engines on the spaceship. Have a sale and signing of your books. Invite your guests to come up and tell a funny story about you. Draw some more raffle tickets.

The point is, have something for everyone to enjoy. It’s about you, but don’t make it all about you. Show them a good time and they’ll buy more books.

I hope you found some ideas that you can take from this and use for yourself. Or maybe this sparked some ideas of your own. Share them in the comments! I’m always looking for new things to try at my launch parties.