Just a quick post from me this week to flag up my cyberlaunch for my second book from Chapeltown Books, Tripping the Flash Fantastic, on Saturday, 10th October 2020.
I’m holding this event on Facebook from 7 pm to about 9.30 pm. Would love it if you could join me. (And if you can only pop by for just two minutes, you’ll still be most welcome!).
The lovely thing about online launches? No worries about social distancing etc! And they give an author a chance to celebrate the fact their “baby” is seeing the light of day!
See https://www.facebook.com/events/1246876649024453 for more details. Meanwhile I am delighted to share a link to my book trailer. I share one of my stories from the new book here – Time For Some Peace.
Learning From Past Experience
This is the first time I’ve set up an event of this kind as for my first book, From Light to Dark and Back Again, my publisher, Chapeltown Books, did this for me. I was grateful for that as I had heard of online events, had even “gone” to some, but had no idea how to set one up. I’ve learned a lot since then! Also this was partly because my book was the first in their single author flash collections so they launched the event and I was co-host on it.
Now this was only back in 2017, hardly a lifetime away (!), but in the time since then, I’ve learned so much about marketing, have been on a podcast and have taken part in a couple of radio interviews (Chat and Spin Radio). It feels like a lifetime away to me!
And do check out Chat and Spin Radio expecially if you are a writer. Our own Richard Hardie has been on Chat and Spin Radio too again recently too. See https://chatandspinradio.com/ for more.
Where the “action” takes place on a cyberlaunch
Now with my events page, there is also a discussion thread. When the event happens on Saturday night, this is where the “action” will be. I will be your host!
See https://www.facebook.com/events/1246876649024453/?active_tab=discussion
Meanwhile I’ve been posting on the discussion page since last Saturday, 3rd October with blog and interview links and videos as a “warm-up” for the main event. Please do check these out.
The joys of technology
Technology has come to my aid here as it is so easy now to record yourself reading a story and videos can be a big draw. Certainly I love hearing a story and I hope those who look up my videos enjoy the tales I share there. Did I have any idea I would be making videos when I began writing seriously? Absolutely not!
Mind you, the smart phone as we know it now was not about now. I had the old style Nokia and the most advance thing on that was the old game of Snake! Anyone else remember that? It was a step on from the old “ping pong” tennis game but that is about all to be said for it!
One advantage I think flash fiction writers have is that our stories are easy to share as “advertising”. I sometimes share stories on my website and Facebook pages for that reason.
Showing someone what you can do writing wise can have a powerful impact.
What to expect from the cyberlaunch itself?
Well, I will be holding a quiz, a raffle, a caption competition and I am inviting questions in from anyone on aspects of flash fiction writing/working with a small press. There will be prizes too. I hope to share from reviews for Tripping the Flash Fantastic so far (and naturally I hope the cyberlaunch will end up generating more of those!).
And I will be sharing links to the podcast I was on as a guest with Wendy H Jones earlier this year. (It does feel a lot longer ago than that but then this year I think has distorted all sense of time passing for most of us. I refuse to believe that is just me!).
Marketing is not something you just do and then it’s done. As well as my creative writing, I will be marketing both of my books in different ways as an ongoing task. The nice thing here is you can be creative with how you market your books and that can be great fun. I’ve loved reading and recording the stories I’ve been sharing on my discussion page this week.
Making the book trailer was good fun too.
The importance of preparation
As with any party, good preparation makes a huge difference as to how well or otherwise it might go and I have spent this week (and before) preparing a lot of material for this event. I don’t yet know if I will use it all. I didn’t on the launch for From Light to Dark and Back Again but it did make me feel less nervous knowing I had a safety net of material to use.
If there is one tip I would pass on to any writer having a launch, it is this. Prepare, prepare, prepare. Give yourself more time than you think you will need. You’ll appreciate having a safety net there too. And I think that makes two tips shared! Seriously though, it does pay to think things through about how you want your launch to be and then prepare in advance as much as you can to put you in a better position to deliver that launch the way you want it to be!
So onwards and upwards and I hope some of you can come to my launch on Saturday. One other advantage? I will be putting on food and drink and all of it is calorie free! No washing up either!
Related Posts:-
Local Author News – Allison Symes – New Book, New Anthology, New Zoom Event!
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.
Never miss out on another blog post. Subscribe here:
Leave a Reply