Book Launch Party Recap

The book release party for Scar of the Downers was Saturday. Going into it, my wife and I googled around quite a bit to see what other authors did for their parties, but, having never been to one, we had to put our imaginations to work in planning it.

(Normally, I wouldn't really include details like this, but since we learned a lot about launch parties from Author blogs, I thought it might be helpful to have this out there for other people who might be researching the same thing.)

Reserving the Community Room at a local library seemed practical for three reasons: A library seemed like a fitting place, it’s in a central, well-known location, and it was free. The room could hold 40-45 people, and so, not knowing how many people would attend, we opted to do a drop-in, reception-style arrangement.

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We decided to have two scheduled times for book readings and Q & A sessions, and we put those times on the flyers and invitations so that people would have a choice as to when they would attend. And we also decided to have some door prizes. We gave away two books, two mugs (we had them designed with the cover and a quote from the book), and four $5 Starbucks gift cards.

For food, we had the basics: fruit, vegetable tray, cheese & crackers, cookies, pretzel mix, and punch. Also, a friend made us a crock-pot full of soup, which was nice for those who stayed a while, or who were there around lunchtime.

Overall, we had between 75-80 people show up, I sold 25 books (and signed even more, since a lot of people brought theirs), and I even made a few contacts with a couple of other local authors. Some good friends made us a cool cake, and my sister and brother-in-law sent flowers and balloons since they live far away and couldn't make it.

Liz introduced me before each Book Reading, and I read a selection that was about 6-7 minutes long. Then, the guests asked me questions. Honestly, there were a lot more questions than I thought there would be, which was a good thing! People who were reading the book asked me specific questions about the plot, the characters, etc. Then, I also had questions about the writing process. It was kind of a blur, so hopefully I made sense when I was talking.

How were the four girls during this time? Well, the older ones did fine, and eventually made their way to the children’s section of the library, hanging out with their cousin. The younger ones were a bit harder to deal with, but they were okay. Considering there were no naps, and we were there from 9:00 until almost 3:00, it was as good as could be expected.

Afterwards, we were all exhausted, which I'm sure you can imagine. We feel the party was a success, though, and we were thankful for all of our friends and family who showed up and supported us!

After the clean up, this was the favorite part of the day for the girls - being chased by one of our good friends with balloons.