My Book Launch

I’m a little late at reporting on this since the blessed event was just over three weeks ago, but I guess better late than never is a good policy. Plus it allows me to have some other data.

I launched my first published novel, Sanctuary from the Dead, on July 26.  Let me be honest, what I know about book launches can be summed up on a few paragraphs.  I had participated in one other launch a fellow writer friend of mine convened.  (He interviewed me.)  I did some homework, read some blogs, but really I went with what I knew and used my gut to guide me.

Here’s some particulars:

Pre-Promotion:  I placed announcements for the event on several different community of interest sites (e.g zombie sites) and on several different Facebook pages.

Venue:  Facebook.  I used my writer’s FB page instead of an event page, hoping to drive up my ‘Likes’ -- which did work to some degree.  I did get 12 new Likes.

Process:  The event lasted 4 hours.  I had a planned out schedule putting up a new post every 15 minutes initially and then going to every 30 minutes later in the event.  The posts consisted of announcements, links to free short stories, and links to my blog where I had author interviews.

Live Interviews vs. Canned Author Interviews:  The one launch I participated in, the host did live Facebook interviews with authors (with me being one of them).  He reported that it was a lot of work and was not sure it was worth it.  I used pre-written interviews and posted links to my blog where they resided.  I can say that having participated in another launch event where the author did live interviews and I might try that.

Giving Things Away:  I released links to three free short stories and a collection of flash stories on Amazon throughout the night.  I moved 227 free ebooks that night.   Hopefully people are reading those stories and liking them, ergo giving me more exposure more and new readers.

Final Tally:

227 free ebooks given away

12 new Likes to my Facebook page  

20 Books sold within 3 weeks of release

NOTE:  I figure quite a few people came to the launch because the amount of free ebooks that got downloaded.

Lessons Learned:

Do more up front promotion

Maybe do live author interviews

Consider an event page so that I can track how many people came