Hosting a Successful Author Event

As a publicist at The Book Guild something I get asked a lot about is author events, book launch parties, readings and/or signings can be a great way to get word out about your new release, not to mention that it is also an opportunity to celebrate the fantastic achievement of getting your work published! 

But how can you make your event stand out? I have interviewed two Book Guild authors who have held wonderful themed events for their books and are willing to share their experience.

B Fleetwood, author of Dancing Fools and All That Jazz 

B Fleetwood's contemporary women's fiction novel follows a group of mature women from Manchester, united by their love of dance, who head to Paris for a prestigious competition. Amid personal struggles, secret marriages, and budding romances, they face betrayal and sabotage.

B Fleetwood is part of a dance group herself, so when she arranged to have a book signing at her local Waterstones she enlisted the group to help her with a flash-mob outside the store!

Caroline Swinburne, author of Solo

Caroline Swinburne's novel follows a former star musician who, humiliated by a disastrous performance, abandons her career. Years later, she mentors a gifted but underprivileged teen horn player. As her protégé's big break approaches, Cate must confront her past and seek redemption through the music that once broke her.

As a music teacher and former horn player, Caroline has many friends, colleagues and students with a musical background. To celebrate the launch of her novel, she hosted an event at an art gallery in London, where as well as an author Q&A, there was a live music performance from the all-female French horn ensemble Cor8.

How did you go about choosing a bookshop to host your event?

B Fleetwood - Initially, I approached a very successful independent bookshop, but soon realised they are only interested in best-selling and celebrity authors.

I then went to the nearest Waterstones (Wimslow) 2 months before publication and told the manager I had a book coming out based on a fictional local group of women. She looked up the book on their system to see it was for real and said to contact her nearer the publication date.

In the meantime The Book Guild sent out - at my request - advance digital copies to my launch team (35 people) to garner reviews. I asked the team to post reviews on both The Book Guild site and the national Waterstones site ahead of publication. By the time I returned to Waterstones there were a dozen glowing reviews on the system which really helped.

I committed to getting a minimum of 20 pre-orders and told my family and friends to call or email the bookshop with their orders. Once the shop could see there were over a dozen orders, they made the event official and publicised it on their website a few weeks before.

In addition, I organised a flash mob outside their store in the precinct to raise the profile. The manager was delighted with this and put "come early for a surprise" on their website.

B Fleetwood's flashmob outside Waterstones

Caroline - With difficulty! I live in South East London and could have probably persuaded one of the local branches of Waterstones to host a traditional launch event. But I wanted to include some live music (I am a musician, my book is about a French horn player, and this seemed like a great way to give the event an edge); none of the bookshops I spoke to were keen on this idea. And also, I wanted to invite musicians and others who would be more likely to attend if it was held in central London.

I approached some central bookshops to ask if they would host, but got nowhere; even if it hadn't been for the added complication of live music, my impression was that they were only interested in big names.

Eventually, I realised that if I insisted on holding the event somewhere central, I would have to pay. I hadn't planned for this, but in the end it wasn't too bad, as I was lucky enough to find a lovely art gallery which was ideally located, and with which I had a vague personal connection; I got a good deal and they had no problem with the music.

In your experience, how do events like these contribute to the success of your book?

B Fleetwood - The book signing was so successful, folk had to queue up for 45 minutes to buy a copy - and approximately 70 people came. Several of them have since purchased more books for their friends and I have used the photos of the event for publicity. The store has also sold a further 5-10 copies and I have been in to sign the 2 left in store for a 'signed by author' sticker.&

Caroline - It's still early days but the event was well-attended, I sold lots of books, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves - not least because of the wonderful horn quartet music. I did a Q & A with my mentor and writing tutor, and then we opened it up for audience questions and got a great discussion going.&

I invited many more people than there would have been room for - it was just as well they didn't all come, as the venue would have had to turn them away. But I asked people who I knew were unlikely to accept for one reason or another, not least because the invitation was a good and subtle way to tell them about the publication. Quite a few of those who declined later got in touch to say that they'd bought the book.

What challenges did you face in pulling off such a unique book launch event?

B Fleetwood - Getting folk to pre-order was hard work! People are under the impression books will just 'be on the shelves' so I used the incentive only those who pre-ordered a book would be guaranteed a copy. Even so, the last 30 books were only ordered a week before! Be prepared to smile sweetly and even offer to ensure you get every order by ordering on their behalf/pick up the books for them if they can't attend on the day. 

Caroline - Not everywhere was either suitable for or willing to host an event including live music (especially a loud horn quartet). It was also hard to find a suitable date. I was worried about doing it too close to the planned publication date, as I'd been warned that sometimes things slipped and the books weren't ready. But I didn't want people to want to wait too long because the buzz would have died down. I also had to take into account the limited availability of the venue, the musicians, and a few key people, including two other speakers. 

It was also stressful trying to get the numbers right. In the end, it was just about right, but I was worrying about it until the last moment. Another worry was that I wanted to include audience questions, but obviously that meant I didn't know what I'd get thrown at me. But I was persuaded that the audience were there to support me - no one was out to get me. It was fine - I had a great time in the end. 

The horn quartet at Solo's launch party.

How important do you think it is to involve the local community in events such as this? 

B Fleetwood - Important but not easy. A big incentive for the store was not only that I was a local author, but the book was about a local - albeit fictional - group of women and set locally. It was hard to get local groups to include this on their social media. 

Caroline - As I've said, I always wanted the event to be held in central London - I'm not sure if that counts as my "local community". I have musician friends all over the place and although I've only been living back in the capital for the past four years, I do very much consider myself to be a "Londoner". That said, I have had a very good response from local bookshops, and do have friends closer to home who weren't too keen to trek into the centre of town to attend the launch, but who'd have liked to be involved. So I would also like to do something smaller and more local at some point, and am hoping to hold a signing in a Waterstones branch soon.

What advice would you give for authors planning their own book launch event?

B Fleetwood - try to go into the store - in person - once the book is live on the ordering system and plan to go in closer to publication with more information and at their convenience. Get advance reviews - a launch team is great. Get a larger banner to go outside the shop - if allowed. Stay in contact with the store but don't badger them! 

Make sure you thank them - I took in chocolates and a thank you card telling them it had been a dream come true! I am still going in to say hello and get updates/ sign copies on the shelves. 

Caroline - Start planning early. Bookshops have full events programmes, other venues get booked up too. Are you prepared to pay, and if so, how much? Be clear about your motives in holding the event. Are you trying to sell books, or have a party? 

I wanted both; this meant that most guests fell into one of two categories. There were people who I hoped would not only read the book themselves, but promote it to wider communities (musicians who might promote it to other musicians, bookshop managers who might give it publicity in store, etc). There were also my personal friends and family, who'd come to celebrate the publication. Because this latter was always part of the equation, I didn't resent spending at least a little unplanned extra money. 

Both Dancing Fools and All That Jazz and Solo are available to purchase from The Book Guild bookshop.