“Wear the old coat and buy the new book.” —Austin Phelps 

The purposes of a physical book launch party:

• Celebrate and thank others
• Get the word out about your book
• Sell books

Here’s a checklist of items to consider for a local, non-bookstore party like I’ve done for Calculated Risk.

1. Set a Budget. Consider:                                              

• Room Rental Fee
• Food
• Decorations
• Flowers
• Postage for invitations
• Prizes and helper gifts
• Promotions
  • Ad: an expense, but will be published
  • Press Release:
    • Free, but published if newsworthy & space is available
    • May be edited
  • Flyers

2. Set Date, Time, and Place. Consider: 

•  Scheduling before holidays like Christmas and Valentines Day may encourage gift sales, especially if the holiday is in your story.

•  Scheduling after mealtimes, 2PM to 4PM on a Saturday or Sunday or after 7PM on a weekday, lowers food costs. Cake, and possibly snacks, are sufficient.

•  Reserving a place other than someone’s home is best for security reasons. Options:

º Church

º Community center

º Rescue squad building

   If a marquee is available, ask to have your event featured.                                                

3. Enlist Planners. At least two motivated friends to help in planning and completing tasks. Consider whether they:

• know your area and are involved in it
• wanted to be party planners since they were 6

4. Promote. Consider:

• People reached.
  • Public options:
    • Churches
    • Beauty Salons
    • Local Stores
    • Libraries
    • Book Clubs

  •   Individuals:
      •  Notify or deliver/send invitations.
      •  Option: hand out stamped invitations to avid readers to send to their reader friends.

• Materials.
  • Invitations. Option:
    •  Use your promotional postcards exhibiting book cover, blurb, and website.
    • Add party invitation information (printed adhesive labels work well).
  • Flyers – include your cover photo.
  • Bookmarks – add to promotional materials you leave at libraries

• Distributors. With your planners:
  • Brainstorm people willing to help distribute materials 
  • Enlist distributors and deliver packets to them
  • Assemble packets in advance with cover sheets giving: distributor, venue, and number of materials in packet

• Ads & Press Releases. Options:
  • Local newspapers.
  • Online flyers, for organizations willing to email them to their members

5.  Offer Refreshments. Consider

• A book cake. Option: Machine-iced with your exact cover.
• Extra homemade sheet cakes. Use these before cutting the book cake.

6. Decorate. Consider:

• Book-related items, flowers, and balloons
• Tablecloths
• Your banner and poster
• Tables:
  • Welcome. Guest book, tickets for prizes.
  • Food
  • Book Signing & Sales
  • Fun Activities. Option: Free gift-wrapping
  • Giveaways. Options:
    • Your and other authors’ bookmarks.
    • Your book-related promotional goodies.

7. Add Events. Consider:

• Background music. Option: book-related songs
• Short talks (5 minutes) from you. Options:
  • Welcome
  • Author-related. Your writing journey.
  • Book-related. Story behind the story. Excerpts.
• Drawings for prizes. Options:
  • Books
  • Basket of book-related goodies

8. Recruit Helpers. Consider:
   • Welcoming team
   • Kitchen help
   • Punch servers
   • Activities leaders (option: teens)
   • Photographer
   • Book sellers.
   • Clean-up team

   Provide small gift or thank-you notes for helpers.

Make sure you schedule all tasks for a local book launch party. Click to tweet.

What would you add to this checklist?