Welcome to Part 2 of my new series. I’m talking to various authors about the challenges they’ve faced launching books in lockdown.
As well as sharing my experiences (see last week’s post), I’ve talked with writers from the Association of Christian Writers, Authors Reach, Swanwick Writers’ Summer School, and Bridge House Publishing/CafeLit/Chapeltown Books.
Everyone agrees 2020 was extraordinarily challenging!
But books still needed to be launched.
This week I speak to friends from the Association of Christian Writers. (I am the Membership Secretary and our aim is to equip, encourage, and inspire. Three splendid aims!).
ACW had to alter its plans significantly last year. Our writing events moved to Zoom though one positive outcome was some of our Overseas Members were able to come to our online “days” in a way they could not have done if we’d held the usual “physical” events. Every cloud etc….!
Firstly, over to Maressa Mortimer. Maressa is the host of ACW Zoom meetings where ACW members can chat. These are always fun. Even the social side of the writing life has moved online!
Maressa Mortimer
1. What book(s) did you launch in 2020?
The book I launched in December 2020 is called Walled City. It’s the first in a series, called Elabi Chronicles.
2. How did you do this?
I decided to have an online launch party via Facebook Live. I hoped some friends would pop in, as it’s reasonably interactive. Several kind friends came, and asked wonderful questions, really engaging, I thought. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but was glad my friends reacted, otherwise I would have been self-conscious, talking to the screen by myself!
3. Why did you pick those options?
I picked Facebook Live, as it meant I could download the video at the end, and put it on my YouTube channel for others to see. Instagram does a Live as well, but I find it’s not as interactive, and it’s harder to download at the end, so it put me off.
I thought of Zoom, but it’s a little more complex, and I wondered if it would be easier for people to access Facebook Live. Again the recording and downloading might have been more complex if I had used Zoom.
4. How do you think these events went?
People were kind, sending me lovely messages afterwards. Some people watched it later on YouTube, and a few people told me they watched the launch several times! They’re my star followers, ha ha, but it does seem lovely a wider range of people can access a launch.
Of course, a proper, physical launch in a lovely shop, hugging and shaking hands with people is wonderful, but the fact more people could be reached was great.
5. What have you missed most about not being able to hold signings etc in the usual way?
I missed the human touch, face-to-face interactions, and the signing and handing out of books on the spot. As it is, this worked out well, as my books hadn’t arrived! It’s lovely sharing cake and drinks together though, and to chat with friends, so maybe once things open up again, I will have another party. It might be for the sequel, which hopefully will be out in the spring!
6. What have you learned from your experiences here?
I learned there’s a positive to be found. Counting your blessings is important, and I feel blessed there are so many options. Facebook Live held up, I was able to answer questions, and it made it easy to pretend there were others with me. I knew the friends watching live, so I could just picture their smiling faces and kind nods! Nothing is ever perfect, and I would have been extremely stressed over my books not arriving in time, whereas instead I was just mildly put out, ha ha.
7. Name one top tip based on your experience of your launch(es) in 2020.
Don’t waste energy over things out of your control. Roll with it, pray about it, enjoy it, think of ways that will work for you. I love chatting to people, and being able to imagine them there was enough for me. If you find that harder, maybe prepare something in advance? Try things out beforehand, set up early. I drove my family to distraction by fiddling with lighting, chair position, where to place the cake… But I had given myself heaps of time to make sure I wouldn’t be rushed.
Author Bio
My name is Maressa Mortimer, and I’m Dutch. I live in the beautiful Cotswolds with my husband who is a pastor. We have four (adopted) children. I’m a home-school mum, so my writing has to be done in the evening, when peace and quiet descends on our house once more.
I love exploring questions of faith using novels, as it helps me to see what faith looks like in daily life. My debut novel, Sapphire Beach, was published December 2019. My latest novel, Walled City, launched on December 5th, 2020, and I’m nearing the end of the first draft of its sequel! Visit my website www.vicarioushome.com to read my blog or to buy signed copies from my shop!
Now over to Fran HIll, fellow ACW member, who, in my view, came up with the funniest book title for 2020. See below!
Fran Hill
1. What book(s) did you launch in 2020?
I launched my teacher-memoir called Miss, What Does Incomprehensible Mean? which was published by SPCK Publishing in May 2020. The book aims to be funny but finding out lockdown essentially cancelled all launch events wasn’t so hilarious.
2. How did you do this?
I launched it via Facebook Live. I’d booked a function room in a pub in my home town, Warwick (also where the book is set), called The Wild Boar. I would have had 40 or so guests, some free prosecco, and my local bookshop, Warwick Books, would have been there selling the books.
3. Why did you pick those options?
It was one way to hold a launch, even if only from my living room, and to try to communicate some of the ethos of the book by providing free entertainment. I experimented with a few Facebook Live videos reading poems or stories first. I found out how to ‘schedule’ a Facebook Live event and how to invite people. I stirred up interest on social media and badgered everyone I knew – and some I didn’t – to come along to the party.
4. How do you think these events went?
The Facebook Live launch went surprisingly well, save for the initial five minutes of palpitations when I wasn’t sure how to start the video and was on the phone to my son, saying, ‘Help me, help me. I’m about to have a heart attack,’ then realised Facebook started the video for you just when they said they would. So I suddenly found myself on camera, with a small crowd of 50 or so already waiting.
This number grew to far more than I could have fitted in The Wild Boar. I had loosely planned an hour’s entertainment including a ‘live birth’ of the book from its parcel, a la Call the Midwife. We played a couple of games, I read a few short extracts, said and did some very silly things, sang an original song about being on break duty at school, and bantered with the audience via their comments.
The video is still on my Facebook page and has had nearly 1000 views now. I can’t see that people would have kept popping into The Wild Boar for a sniff of the atmosphere weeks and months after the event, so that was another bonus.
5. What have you missed most about not being able to hold signings etc in the usual way?
Frankly, I would probably have sold more books on the night had I been able to eyeball people, win them over with my charm, and remind them about the free prosecco. On the other hand, most people invited to the launch had already shown interest in the book and I am sure people who viewed the Facebook Live launch later may have ordered a copy.
It would have been lovely to have sat at a table and signed books for people but it has also been fun to engage on social media, building an audience, and I may not have done as much of that in a non-lockdown world.
I did miss not doing library talks and I haven’t been able to hold any signing events in local bookshops. Those are regrets, but perhaps the future holds those opportunities.
6. What have you learned from your experiences here?
I’ve learned having palpitations before an event, thinking the technology has failed, keeps the adrenaline going for an hour and results in a better live performance. I did have so many people comment afterwards I should do more live comedy and perhaps I will pursue this at some point.
I’ve also learned, when push comes to shove, I can take on new information and strategies for promoting and sharing my work, and I’ll take those into 2021. Another learning point has been it’s the relationship with the audience that makes an event special even if it is only via the internet.
7. Name one top tip based on your experience of your launch(es) in 2020.
My top tip is to bear a son who has a calm voice and can reassure you in times of crisis. My second top tip would be that the old adage ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ can also make a difference and help you keep perspective in any such situation. Had the technology failed and my launch been cancelled, the world would still have been spinning on its axis.
Author Bio
Fran Hill is a writer and English tutor from Warwickshire where she lives with her husband. A schoolteacher for 16 years, she self-published her first book about the teaching life – Being Miss – in 2014 and her second book, Miss, Does What Incomprehensible Mean? came out in May 2020, published by SPCK Publishing.
Fran is a member of the Association of Christian Writers and the Society of Authors. She was selected for the prestigious Room 204 Emerging Writers’ Programme run by Writing West Midlands in 2017 and has been a freelance writer for many years. She is currently writing a novel called Mended with a teenage foster child as its main character.
Now over to crime and non-fiction writer and children’s picture book author, Wendy H Jones. Wendy is the only writer I know who does write for all ages from the cradle upwards.
Wendy was one of the first I approached for this series and her keen response confirmed to me I hit a “zeitgeist” moment with this topic.
I asked Wendy to supply 750 words on the topic but what was great on this, as you will see, is she has shown some wonderful examples of different types of online launch.
Many of the types mentioned I’ve either been at as a guest, or in the case of a publisher with mulitple authors, I took part in a model like that as it was used by Gill James for interviewing Dawn Knox and I back in September. Good fun and an interesting learning experience for us all.
But now over to Wendy.
Wendy H Jones
When discussing lockdown it can be difficult to know where to start. What does one say to be inspiring and encouraging when readers’ minds are focused on a virus interfering with life as we know it?
Writers worldwide, whether traditionally or independently published, have faced a dilemma – should they launch a book or wait until a more favourable time?
Last spring, at the beginning of the pandemic, many traditional publishers and independently published authors made the decision to wait until the pandemic was over.
You don’t need me to point out the obvious here as we are still in lockdown almost a year later.
Therefore, a decision was made somewhere in the universe to launch all the spring books in time for Christmas, alongside all the Christmas launches, making October a month of a tsunami of books.
This meant readers had a large number of new books to choose from but this conversely meant individual books were difficult to find. I have no figures to support this but this may have meant some books were missed and not sold as many as expected.
Allison: I believe Wendy is right here and think it will prove true for the big name publishers as well as the smaller ones. There were hundreds of books launched on one day in October, to try and catch the Christmas market, and I mentioned this briefly when I interviewed Richard Hardie a couple of weeks ago. Usually while October is a busy time for publishing, it is not like this. An online article I came across said the figure was up by 24% for new books on the market in one go!
Wendy: I say this with my reader’s hat on. Despite this, I did find some excellent books which Santa subsequently placed in my stocking.
As a writer, I decided to carry on as normal – or as normal as possible given the circumstances. A launch in a bookstore was not possible. Even if they had opened their doors it would have been in a socially distanced way. No events were being organised and even if they were, packing 100 people into a bookshop would not be the best idea.
So an online launch it would be. I’ve seen several versions of lockdown launches. Some publishers have arranged them on Zoom with the author (or authors in one case) going live and the audience being present on screen and readers able to raise their hands and ask questions.
The publisher asked the authors questions and they asked each other questions, with readers being able to join in at any point. I loved the informality of this, and the launch went extremely well.
The only difference between that and a launch in a bookstore was there was no book signing at the end. Participants had to contact the author and ask for signed copies.
At another launch I attended, only the author and interviewer could be seen, and the audience were not part of the proceedings. As a reader, I found this less appealing as I felt I was at a lecture.
In a different scenario the author did a Facebook live event where they did a reading and the audience asked questions via the chat function. This worked extremely well and the author handled everything expertly and professionally.
Having looked at all these models, and taking into account my book’s genre, I decided to use yet another model. This was where I ran a Facebook event and the audience joined in in real time but without any reading or video. I did this alongside a social media blast targeting those who I felt would want to purchase the book and undertaking interviews on several different podcasts.
The reason I used this method was because of the subject matter of the book – Marketing Matters. I wanted to demonstrate some of the techniques outlined in the book.
The Facebook event was fun with marketing tips, questions and answers, competitions and people joining in over a two-hour period. Every ten minutes or so, I would mention the book and where it could be purchased so if people had to come and go, they still knew where to buy the book.
This mixed approach worked extremely well taking it to number one in several different categories on Amazon in numerous countries on the day it was released. The social media blast meant there was social media sharing with far greater reach than using one method only.
It also meant I didn’t have to be sitting in one place speaking to an audience and depending on them to buy at that point. I could reach them over a longer period and even if someone could only attend for ten minutes, they were still able to find out about the book, how it could help them as an author, and where they could buy it.
Most of all it was fun and that’s the important part. Yes, even in lockdown it is possible to have fun at your launch event.
About the Author
Wendy H. Jones is the international best-selling, award-winning author of the DI Shona McKenzie Mysteries, Cass Claymore Investigates Mysteries, Fergus and Flora Mysteries, Bertie the Buffalo picture books, and two books in the Writing Matters series – Marketing Matters and Motivation Matters.
In addition, she is the founder of Authorpreneur Accelerator Academy, which is an online membership to help writers develop their craft and the business of writing, the host of The Writing and Marketing Show podcast and the President of the Scottish Association of Writers.
Conclusion
Many thanks, everyone, for your fantastic contributions to this week’s section of this series. Next week I’ll be chatting to friends from the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School.
Related Posts:-
The Power of Why – Wendy H Jones in conversation with Allison Symes
Local Author News – Allison Symes – Podcast Interview by Wendy H. Jones
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
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Allison, the more we are locked down and shut off, the more you seem to be able to make contact with people. Amazing!
It all helps keep us going, Mike! And Zoom and social media do have their positive sides here.
An excellent series, Allison. It has certainly been a tough past 12 months, however I’m confident that from the 2nd half of the year onward things will pick up quite dramatically!
Thanks, Richard. I hope you’re right, we could all do with that!
Hi Allison. This a wonderful series. I will finally have my first book published this year and to have your last weeks post and this weeks are going to be invaluable resources for me. I’d never heard of Facebook Live, and I’ll certainly be looking into it! Thanks so much and I’ll see you next week :_)
Many thanks, Jim. The series runs for a further three weeks so there will be plenty of great information and advice still to come. A huge thanks to my guests so far. This is my “zeitgeist” series, I think.