Book Launches by Betsy Ashton

I LOVE BOOK LAUNCHES. I really did mean to shout. I love hosting book launches. I love launching my own books. They are happy times when an author, especially a debut author, holds up a book, reads from it, answers questions, and sells copies.

I've hosted two events at my house in the past eighteen months or so. The first was for Kimberly Dalferes when her second book, Magic Fishing Panties, was released. I filled my house with friends, both hers and mine, asked her to talk about the humor essay collection, and read. She left them laughing with her title story about her mother-in-law who gave all the women in the family magic fishing panties. You see, the family did annual salmon fishing outings in Alaska. If the women wore these magic panties, they caught fish. If not... The funniest section was when Kimba wrote about trying to use the "bucket" on the pitching fishing boat. Not easy to shed foul-weather gear, squat, and not fall over. Kinda like Erma Bombeck reminding women not to wear a jumpsuit on an airplane. Lots of cake, salty snacks, wine.

Last month, I hosted my critique partner's launch. He refused to let me take a picture of him with his book--ugh, so hokey--but did let me take one of the books laid out on a table. M.C. ("Mark") Young's book, No One Has Or Ever Will, is a coming-of-age tale about four friends from high school who grow up against the backdrop of the turbulent Sixties. No spoilers here, but none of the foursome makes it through high school and college unscathed by the events that shape their lives. The loss of Camelot with President Kennedy's assassination is the first smash-in-the-face reality check, followed by the war in Vietnam, Watts, Detroit. So many dark events, but still the main character keeps his sense of humor. On one triple date, he realizes he's going to have to date dumber girls. Lots of wonderful cake baked by Mark's wife, salty snacks and plenty of wine.

Nothing in my memory has equaled my release day for Uncharted Territory, the second Mad Max mystery. I was in a dentist's chair getting my teeth cleaned and polished. Yes, at the dentist on release day. I don't remember having a launch party. I think this image of me with my bib on was more than enough launch excitement. Did I forget to say that this was tax day? It was. What's not to like with a dental visit on tax day? My little heart was going pitty-pat.

I have a new book launching next month. Eyes Without A Face is different from anything I have done before. I'll give you more of a preview in my next post. Leave it to say, this stand-alone psychological suspense novel is dark.

Reaching Readers Through Telepathy by Betsy Ashton

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The

important thing is to not stop questioning. ~ Albert Einstein

On January 22, Leah St. Thomas had a great post in this blog about overcoming the fear of public speaking. After she completed and published her book, she was faced with the Now What moment. Now what do I do to tell people what the book is about? Do I have to do it in public? Or will osmosis sell my book.

Source: Wikipedia

I'm here to tell you neither osmosis nor telepathy will sell your books. Unless you are a David Baldacci or a James Patterson, your book is going to "get found" only when you get down and dirty with marketing and promotions. In today's book environment, most publishers are not going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising, television interviews and book tours. The return on their investments for most newbie or relative newbie writers is non-existent. Not that most of us wouldn't want our lives to be managed for the first six months after our book launches. But, it so doesn't happen.

For us to have hope for tomorrow, we have to set up a plan to get our messages out without spamming our readership. That line between sensible marketing and spamming is so fine that a mistaken step will send a writer sliding down the razor blade of life. (OMG, that's a cliche! I'm damned proud of it.)

My first book launch taught me many lessons, some of which I plan to apply to my next launch, which is coming up in June or slightly before.

Lesson one: Don't listen to people who say you have to be active on every social media site. You don't. If your readers don't use Pinterest, you don't have to have a presence there. If they are active on Facebook and post reviews on Goodreads, you'll want to be more active there. Twitter? It never hurts, although 1800 followers must find some reason for following me, even though I still don't know what I'm doing. I also find LinkedIn groups very helpful. I spend about an hour a week there commenting on the forums where I have the best likelihood of finding readers. Total amount of time a week setting up my multiple feeds: 2 hours. Most of that is on Sunday afternoon when life is quiet.

Lesson two: After Mad Max 1 launched, more of my readers bought my e-book than my trade paper book. Like ten to one. So, when my publisher asked how I felt about launching Mad Max 2 as an e-book first, it made sense. And it made life a lot easier because I could set up my marketing campaign in advance. I now need to execute it.

Lesson three: There is NOTHING like meeting readers face to face. Book clubs have been very kind to me. Seriously, with 25 around the lake where I live, I've reached hundreds of readers. Local libraries have helped. Book clubs out of my region often have Skype options, so I don't have to spend a day traveling to a group of 20 women. I will tell you from experience, libraries out of my immediate region have been a waste of time. I'm not going to pound on them again.

Lesson four: I look at Mad Max 2 as a whole new beginning. I am so enthusiastic about it. I can't wait for people to read it. I hope they will be as excited as I am. I won't know until I track online sales promotions.

In looking back at the Einstein quote, I want to amend it. The important thing is not about questioning. It's about the quest itself. May those of us who write because we are inspired by words and driven to reach readers accept the quest and go for the Holy Grail, whatever it might be. Onward.

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Betsy Ashton is the author of Mad Max Unintended Consequences available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The second book in the series, Uncharted Territory comes out in e-book in June 2015.