Publishing News Roundup Series: Planning Successful Book Launches and Giveaways
by Maureen Crisp • July 10, 2017 • Follow
Published in News • 9 comments
Some of the most fun parts of book releases are the launch parties and giveaways.
They are also some of the most important marketing techniques to get a book into reader’s hands. It’s all about first impression with many readers, which is why it is essential to get the books right in reader’s faces as soon as books are published, and even before. Parties and free books are the number one ways to do that. After all, who doesn’t love free books?
Party Details
This week I hosted an hour of an online FB Book Launch Party for a YA thriller by Helen V Fletcher called Broken Silence (Promo: grab the ebook for 99c.) I felt a bit nervous as I have never done anything like this before but Helen said she would hold my hand and so I jumped in. It was a blast! I started with party music and the hour just flew by. Lots of authors joined in the launch. They talked about their books and had giveaways and mini competitions for prizes.
Helen’s book is contemporary Young Adult. Anne R Allen has a great post on her blog about writing contemporary fiction. I had no idea that the word lengths were getting shorter. Anne writes about the reasons you can’t write War and Peace anymore and expect it to sell.
If you were writing a huge novel you need time to beaver away. Where do you find it? Aha! Try this technique for working smarter, suitable for any writer. While we are on nuts and bolts of the writer’s physical environment check out Copyhackers best practice for setting up your home office!
A lunchtime break saw me riveted to the SFF marketing podcast. Lindsay, Joe and Jeff were interviewing Joanna Penn on her new book, Launch to Market 3rd edition. Joanna says that it is 60% different from the first edition, which I have so… It’s on my want list.
Cynthia Shannon has a comprehensive breakdown of all the things you need to do for planning and having a Goodreads giveaway. I have been watching the results of experiments in an author group I belong to and it seems like a good thing to try.
Kathryn Goldman has a comprehensive post on audio rights. Who actually owns them? This can get tricky when you produce your audio book. Performance rights… broadcast rights… translation audio… All the rights you didn’t know you had… (see Joanna Penn’s interview above for more options.)
The fabulous Kris Rusch continues her excellent series on marketing and brand discovery. Her in depth attention to detail posts are like a university course. I feel she should be required reading in a Creative
Writing diploma.
Writing diploma.
Writers Digest has an interview with Kristen Owens on 10 actions she has learned in her first year of professional writing.
In The Craft Section,
Avoid opening page info dump– Jami Gold – Bookmark
How to skip the boring parts of your writing– K M Weiland
The power of the unlikely protagonist– Writer Unboxed – Bookmark
What is irony?– a cool post from Reedsy
8 tips for writing in cafes– Louise Marley
How to add meaningful subplots– K M Weiland – Bookmark
Saving the day by solving the problem– Beth Hill- Bookmark
In The Marketing Section,
Using your official name on Twitter– Roz Morris
Digressing slightly to shout out to Kevin Tumlinson who writes such great content for the Draft2Digital site. Here are three recent posts.
8 elements of a good title– Bookmark
Author overheads-What you need to know. Kevin is also the host of the Wordslinger podcast, which is one of my new great podcasting finds!
To Finish,
Today has been a day about organizing… Helen organized a fun online book launch but it wouldn’t have worked without attention to detail. What were the secret schedules of the great authors… did they work the same way? Check out this article and be surprised!
maureen
@craicer
About Maureen Crisp
Maureen Crisp has been writing her weekly publishing roundups for over seven years. She is a traditionally published children's author as well as indie-published. She lives in New Zealand and is heading the team organising the 4th National Conference of Children's Writers and Illustrators. She is currently trying her hand at writing a children’s book series if she can drag herself away from forever tweaking her Mars novel or obsessing over space.