This is very easy to do and best set up via a Facebook Event.
On-line launches, also known as cyber launches can be great
for inviting to your book launch a lot of people who are not geographically
near to you, who are pressed for time or who don’t like travelling.
Logistics
Use Evenbrite or
Facebook Events to create the invite. Use your own time zone but make sure that
is clear to everyone. You can make the event all day long or just restrict it
to a couple of hours. If the latter, a good time is 6.30 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.
Invite all of your friends and put it on your Facebook timeline and on Twitter
at least once a day, at different times of the day. If you use Eventbrite
you’ll need to create a Facebook page for the event as well. This page will
remain active after the event. If you use a Facebook event, you might still
like to create a page as well for post-party discussions and the party anyway
is a great opportunity to invite people to like your page.
Prepare in advance
Get as much ready as you can in advance. Save all of
your links into a file and all of your files into a folder. You can actually
start posting ahead of the event. Whet your guests' appetite.
Some activities:
Pub Quiz
Make up about half a dozen questions to do with the
book. The answers shouldn’t be only found in the book. They can be to do with
the background of the book or easily look-up-able in the Look Inside bit on
Amazon.
Here is an example for Salford Stories:
Pub quiz questions:
1. Look at the cover of the book. Where is this photo taken
from?
2. Can you name a story that is to do with water?
3. Can you name a pub mentioned in the book? Hint: you don’t
need to have read it yet.
4. Salford always was a very forward-looking city. It was
the first to provide three public amenities. What were they?
5. Easy one now. Famous painter from Salford. Hint: look at
the pictures in the "Dirty Old Town" video. And Salford's theatre?
6. Here's a tricky one: why is the Ship Canal called the
Manchester Ship Canal when most of it's in Salford? There are many acceptable
answers.
Notice how number 6 is a tie-breaker?
Notice also how there is also a subtle call to action here.
The link on the title of the book takes them straight to the Amazon page.
If you’re working on an anthology, encourage each
contributor to offer one prize and one question. Suggestions for prizes:
another of the writer’s books, stationery, an object to do with the theme of
the story, a service.
Raffle
Assign each guest a number as they come into the
“room”. About twenty minutes before the end use a random
number generator to pick a number. Again, if working with an anthology, you
should be able to get a lot of prizes. However, don't offer this book as a
prize. You may prevent people from buying it. Offer something from your back
list or perhaps a short story. Or you
might have some merchandise – a mug or T-shirt with your book cover on.
Entertainment
- Find music that goes with your book.
- Find excerpts of films that are similar
- Post a few extracts of your text. Imagine doing one five minute reading every hour.
- Give some back ground to the book – just as you would if you were chatting live at a party.
Food and drink
This sounds a little crazy, I know. But yes, post up
pictures of the food and drink you would like to offer at this party. It helps
to set the mood and you never know if you put up a picture of something your
viewer fancies and they go and find that or something similar, they might be
more inclined to stay longer and buy a copy of the book. Take care as always
about copyright. Free pictures are available from Pixa
Bay
Call to action
Make it easy for your visitors to buy the book. Avoid
“Buy Now” buttons though you can have one of those on your Facebook page.
Perhaps have a pinned notice at the top of your Facebook event or page linking
to Amazon and every time you mention the book create another hyperlink.
How to be a host
Try to respond to every comment. If it gets hectic, at
least “like” comments. If it’s slow, try to post something new at least every
ten minutes for a short launch, every twenty for minutes for a longer one. You
can also post on your Facebook timeline and your Twitter feed reminding your
followers of the invite.
Give a good sense of starting and ending the party just as
you would in real life.
How to be a guest
You don’t need to be there the whole of the time but do
pop in. If you intend to buy your friend’s book, this is probably a good time
to do it. Seeing the sales go up will boost her morale. You can set your
Facebook to notify you of all messages and you can get on with something else,
only responding to what really interests you. You can also of course take along
a contribution to the food or drink. Again use Pixa
Bay.
Milk it
Make this a real opportunity to network. Invite your
guests to sign up for your newsletter / mailing list. Do you have one? I
recommend Mailchimp. The free account goes
a long way and by the time you need to pay you can probably more than afford
it.
