The Art Of The Book Launch Party, by Theresa Sopko

[Note:  This book was provided free of charge by BooksGoSocial.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.]

At some point some weeks ago–I cannot remember now exactly when–I downloaded this book to my kindle reader and expected to read it.  This morning, I turned on my laptop and realized I had never read this book and that the book was short and a subject of some personal interest and so I read it.  Sometimes that is all it takes for a book to be written.  I must admit I am not familiar with the author’s other work, but she is the writer of at least a couple of other books, both self-published like this one, and the author is writing to people who are self-published authors wishing to become more proficient at one of the marketing aspects of writing, and that is launching a book and signing copies and showing appreciation to one’s family and friends and fans.  Despite being a prolific author with a great deal of interest in writing and self-publishing [1], throwing book launching parties is not something I have ever done, although the way the author describes it does not sound too terrifying for this somewhat shy writer.

This short volume gives a systematic account of how to throw a book launching party from an author who has thrown exactly one of them as of the writing of this book.  To be sure, the author has more expertise in the subject than I do, but does not have a great deal of experience on it.  The author presents her story about the book launching party for a novel she wrote about the struggle with mental illness, something I can certainly relate to.  She commented on the absolute necessity for there to be people to help out with lines and taking photos and for the need to prepare remarks beforehand, which is always a good practice, and also commented on the different options that self-published writers could take advantage of to have book launching parties at hotels (as the author did), at bookstores, at cafes, or at private residences, and whether they could be public or private.  The author was full of appreciation for others and shows herself to be observant and alert.  With a few more launching parties under her belt, it is likely that this book will be significantly expanded with her expanded experience, and that would certainly be a good thing.

I have commented some already in that this author does not have a great deal of expertise in throwing book launching parties but has written a book about it.  Fortunately, the book is honest and entertaining enough that the lack of experience of the author is not a huge problem.  Although there are quite a few books that encourage people on how to create blogs or self-publish their own works, there are not a great many books that deal with the subject of how an author throws a party for the release a book to help sell more books.  The author, therefore, has found a niche where her slight expertise is of help to a great many people with no expertise whatsoever.  There is an art to throwing launch parties, and from the looks of it it is an art that is easier dealt with if one is good at throwing parties and soirees in general.  This makes sense, as throwing parties of one kind can better help throw parties successfully of other kinds.  I don’t consider myself an expert at such matters, but this was definitely a book that I thought could be of practical use, at least eventually.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017/03/31/i-read-bad-books-so-you-dont-have-to/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016/10/14/audiobook-review-how-to-publish-your-book/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017/05/12/on-creating-accidental-books-the-best-that-i-could-do-volume-1/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2011/10/10/an-accidental-book/