With social media dominating the marketing front these days, a lot of authors don’t give as much thought to publicity through events. And that’s understandable—events take time, money and, well, a certain amount of risk. After all, there isn’t always a lot of guarantee that folks will show up to a book-signing or launch party.
But done right, events truly can have a great impact on your platform—especially at a local, grassroots level. And you want this!
The stat you’ll always hear is that 80% of books are still sold by word of mouth. And most people are more likely to trust a recommendation from a family member or friend they know in person than random folks on Facebook. So even if you’re from a small-town, getting local people excited about your book is huge—these are the people who are going to buy books for their friends at Christmas, tell their coworkers about you, recommend you as a speaker at the local library or book club, etc.
Events are great for this kind of thing. But how do you pull of a successful event? Well, I recently held a launch party in celebration of my debut novel. It far exceeded my expectations in both attendance and number of books sold. And I’m still getting positive feedback about it over a week later.
I came away from that experience with 10 tips for successful event marketing. We’ll discuss the first five today and then look at the second set in two weeks.
1) Find someone to coordinate the event if it’s going to be a big event
Because this was my very first book launch, I wanted to celebrate in style. But at the same time, I was deep in the throes of editing my second book, preparing for a big conference and a couple different speaking engagements while keeping up that pesky ol’ day job. I knew I didn’t have the time to coordinate a big shindig on my own. When I saw how masterfully my sister coordinated her own wedding, I knew I’d found the person to take on this event. I gave her free reign on most of it and she did a fabulous job.
If you’re busy, if you’re not a detail person, if you’re just plain intimidated by tackling something like this on your own, ask for help!
2) Budget
It’s super easy for party expenses to get out of control. Book-signings probably don’t require quite as much, but launch party expenses can balloon when you start talking food, decorations, facility rental, etc. That’s why it’s important to come up with a budget right at the outset. I pulled funds for my party from my advance. How much should you spend? That’s up to you, of course. I knew I wanted my book launch to be memorable for those in attendance, but I also knew what my limits were.
Expenses to think through: decorations, invitations, food, facility rental, event promotion, books to sell (if you’re not holding it at a bookstore), giveaway items. That last one was one of my bigger expenses—but I had a specific reason for doing a pretty nice giveaway during the event. We’ll talk about that reason next week.
3) Look for themes in your book for decoration ideas
My debut novel is about a homebuilding TV show host, so my sister pulled both construction and TV together for a really fun party look. We had caution tape, saws, ladders, sawhorses, tons of tools, TV director clapboards, a Made to Last marquee. My parents and friends helped decorate and the place look a-ma-zing. The really cool thing—other than the caution tape and a few odds and ends, most of the props were things we found at home. We heard LOTS of comments about the décor.
One of the neatest things we did was a photo booth where people could stop and get their photo taken with tool and TV props and a foam board poster of my book cover. This was intentional as a way of post-event marketing as we posted photos online in the days following the party. 🙂
4) Be diligent about spreading the word before the event
A party isn’t a party without people, yeah? We ended up with around 115 people at our party. We spread the word by sending out invitations, yes. But I also made sure to contact local media. I was in the newspaper and on the radio. My family was amazing about spreading the word, too—hanging up fliers at church, their workplaces, talking about the party online, etc. I also created a Facebook event and blogged about the party before the event. And my sister/coordinator took photos of her progress with planning and decorations and posted them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to get people excited.
You’ll want to plan for this, not simply hope people show up. 🙂
5) Give online friends a chance to participate
I knew a lot of my long-distance friends, family and fellow writers wouldn’t be able to attend. (Although, I have to say, I had friends come in from Arizona, Minnesota and Texas—how amazing is that? Love you tons Linz, Gabe and Alena!) So I wanted to create a way for people to participate from a distance.
On my blog the day before the party, I invited people to participate by tweeting/FB-ing/Instagram-ing a photo of themselves with my book with the hashtag of my book. I also invited them to sign up for my e-newsletter. By doing so, they got to be a part of the giveaway going on during the party.
And as I mentioned above, more about the giveaway and the purpose behind it next week, along with the second part of my event marketing tips. In the meantime, do you have any questions about event marketing?
Melissa Tagg is a former reporter turned romantic comedy author. Her debut novel, Made to Last, is out now from Bethany House. In addition to her nonprofit day job, she’s also the marketing/events coordinator for My Book Therapy. Connect with Melissa at www.melissatagg.com and on Facebook and Twitter (@Melissa_Tagg).