Two days before and the books for the book launch are now at the shop. That's the last part of this sorted, so now it's down to waiting.
The checklist was impressive and after the launch I'll put it up on here wit a list of what worked and what didn't. I've got some of the posters and bits I saved from the Fire Season launch at Salute, and copies of that book will also be available which should bulk the display stand out slightly. So far the snow has not materialised so several of the maybes should quickly become yes'es.
Everything is working out. The only thing is the small issue of photos and a speech at the start.
The gist as always is "Thanks for coming, books here, buffet there, thanks again", but I would prefer something a little more interesting.
I'll blog again after the book launch with shop photos, details, and more. At least when it is over, no matter how well or poorly it goes, I can get back to writing. I have three unfinished manuscripts to get to work on.
Showing posts with label book launch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book launch. Show all posts
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
Friday, 18 November 2011
Premature worries
It seems I shouldn't have been concerned. I finished work commitments early and went to the bookstore. No photographer showed up so I spent a very nice day at a bookshop, discussing next week, fixing a computer, and generally browsing.
It was something of a relief since last night I caught a cat with my face when it did a plunge off the wardrobe, and currently I look rather like I've gone a few rounds with a boxer with bladed gloves. Not exactly photogenic, although appropriate for The Docks.
I've a few more people to contact about the book launch, and in general it looks like its going to be quiet, local and interesting. I am still slightly nervous because right now I have a lot of maybes and very few saying a definite yes, but it seems if it's too quiet we can always migrate to the pub for the evening.
So,, with a sense of cautious optimism, I can report that we have plans, and more plans.
And, of course, for any South London readers, details are here:
http://www.vhfolland.com/book-launch
It was something of a relief since last night I caught a cat with my face when it did a plunge off the wardrobe, and currently I look rather like I've gone a few rounds with a boxer with bladed gloves. Not exactly photogenic, although appropriate for The Docks.
I've a few more people to contact about the book launch, and in general it looks like its going to be quiet, local and interesting. I am still slightly nervous because right now I have a lot of maybes and very few saying a definite yes, but it seems if it's too quiet we can always migrate to the pub for the evening.
So,, with a sense of cautious optimism, I can report that we have plans, and more plans.
And, of course, for any South London readers, details are here:
http://www.vhfolland.com/book-launch
Thursday, 13 October 2011
The Docks Book Launch - planning
Well, it's official. The Docks is going into print. It can now be pre-ordered from the website, and the distribution chain is kicking off. I was holding off on updating because I wanted to submit a picture of the actual book, but that won't arrive for another week. (For anyone curious, Paypal is being used for pre-orders as it accepts dollars and euros)
What I need to plan now is the book launch. I have options: ask Waterstones, ask an indie bookstore or hide in a room above a pub. The only option not currently available is the Fire Season method of a very large games convention.
I'd like to support an indie bookstore, but this leaves me with all the planning. As a low-budget release it's not getting much investment from the publisher. Weekends and evenings would be best for me, friends and family, but most bookstores want to do a launch on a week day during business hours. Catering I can arrange from local shops, depending on what the locations rules are on food. Is this supposed to be something where I sit in a corner and sign books, or a general meet and mingle? Also, if it is an indie event, how do I make sure they get the best out of it as well as me? And I need to do all of this with virtually no budget.
I love a challenge.
All I know for sure right now is that it will be in November, and in the South London area, and if the venue allows the wine supplier I want it will be a very merry evening.
Anyone interesting in attending, please drop me a note or use the comment box below.
Meanwhile, its a good day for features: Fire Season is being featured on Bargain ebooks today (here). At the same time The Docks is being featured on No Trees Harmed. I promise I didn't plan this!
What I need to plan now is the book launch. I have options: ask Waterstones, ask an indie bookstore or hide in a room above a pub. The only option not currently available is the Fire Season method of a very large games convention.
I'd like to support an indie bookstore, but this leaves me with all the planning. As a low-budget release it's not getting much investment from the publisher. Weekends and evenings would be best for me, friends and family, but most bookstores want to do a launch on a week day during business hours. Catering I can arrange from local shops, depending on what the locations rules are on food. Is this supposed to be something where I sit in a corner and sign books, or a general meet and mingle? Also, if it is an indie event, how do I make sure they get the best out of it as well as me? And I need to do all of this with virtually no budget.
I love a challenge.
All I know for sure right now is that it will be in November, and in the South London area, and if the venue allows the wine supplier I want it will be a very merry evening.
Anyone interesting in attending, please drop me a note or use the comment box below.
Meanwhile, its a good day for features: Fire Season is being featured on Bargain ebooks today (here). At the same time The Docks is being featured on No Trees Harmed. I promise I didn't plan this!
Thursday, 14 April 2011
Coming up to launch
With less than two days to go until the launch, a few things have happened I wanted to mention.
First, Amazon.co.uk now has the paperback in stock. Only two copies, but there are apparently more on the way so hopefully that distribution issue has been sorted. Even if not, the book is now up on Kindle so it can be purchased as an ebook and Amazon have successfully linked the books.
I've just received copies of some of my items for the launch, including giveaway pens, and small booklets containing Arrival. I'm a little surprised about the latter as I'd never intended Arrival to go into print in that form.
There's also a charity offer on for the launch, where if you buy the Kindle or paperback version through a dedicated link all profits go to XH558, to find her display season. (See http://www.fireseason.co.uk/book-launch/ for details)
On the writing front, I've half finished a new short story, which has given me two problems to deal with: an unlikeable protagonist and one that's not that bright. Presented in the right way it is intriguing, but done in the wrong way a reader will just put the story down so it's requiring a bit of careful handling. I just hope the muse doesn't strike while I'm on the stand, or I'll be frantically scribbling notes instead of talking about the book!
First, Amazon.co.uk now has the paperback in stock. Only two copies, but there are apparently more on the way so hopefully that distribution issue has been sorted. Even if not, the book is now up on Kindle so it can be purchased as an ebook and Amazon have successfully linked the books.
I've just received copies of some of my items for the launch, including giveaway pens, and small booklets containing Arrival. I'm a little surprised about the latter as I'd never intended Arrival to go into print in that form.
There's also a charity offer on for the launch, where if you buy the Kindle or paperback version through a dedicated link all profits go to XH558, to find her display season. (See http://www.fireseason.co.uk/book-launch/ for details)
On the writing front, I've half finished a new short story, which has given me two problems to deal with: an unlikeable protagonist and one that's not that bright. Presented in the right way it is intriguing, but done in the wrong way a reader will just put the story down so it's requiring a bit of careful handling. I just hope the muse doesn't strike while I'm on the stand, or I'll be frantically scribbling notes instead of talking about the book!
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Publishing v. Self publishing v Small press part II.
I am honestly too nervous about the book launch on Saturday to come up with anything interesting to say, so I'm going to push on with a terms clarification about the different types of publishing.
Publishing: These are the huge publishing houses like Hodder and Stoughton, who do offset printruns in the thousands, and probably release as many promo copies as a small press expects to sell in total. This is what most peple think of when they mention "Published". Some people also refer to this as "traditional publishing".
Self publishing: You personally own the ISBN, or have set up a company purely to publish your own works. Nowadays this usually involves lulu or createspace, to make the books available through POD, or using Smashwords or Amazon to publish as e-books. Unfortunately with no quality checks, while most authors deliver very good work, it also possible to take an unedited unformatted word file and release it in exactly the same way. For readers it can be difficult to tell the quality of the book, which is why reviews are important and why self-publishing has a questionable reputation.
Small press: May use a small offset run or POD (sometimes the same providers as the self-publishers) but have staff who can do cover designs, editing, typesetting etc, like the larger ones. Many university presses fall into this category. There are also an increasing number of e-book only small presses. Often these will focus on one area or special interest such as poetry. They don't pay as much as the larger houses, but as they can choose their manuscripts they do offer readers an assurance of quality which is missing from debut self-published works. Small Presses are often called "Indie presses", although that term has been co-opted by people who fall into the group above.
Vanity Press These are companies that allow an author to pay for their book to be published. Don't confuse these with printers, as they normally sell publishing packages. Some are reputable, some less so. Some provide good service, others don't. Recent spins on this are "subsidy publishing" where the author contributes to the cost, or "reverse vanity" where they buy your book, but then charge for formatting, layout etc. or commit the author to buying copies. As with any service, if you intend to go this route, you need to research it carefully, and authors who use it are rarely considered "published" by the trade.
For self-published books and vanity published books, there is rarely a quality check: if an author has the money they can publish. This unfortunately means that some very bad books get published as well as some very good ones and results in readers being somewhat wary. Also, because the manuscript did not go through the peer-review of small press or mainstream publishers, authors going this route have much higher odds to overcome before they are considered published - often when a mainstream house offers them a deal.
Regarding Fire Season, Ragged Angel Ltd publishes several other authors, and has commissioned work for hire before. The Principia Malefex RPG line is already in print from them, and has been available since 1996. Fire Season was launched largely through those channels in the same way an RPG would be. By mainstream print standards it is a very small press. It is also the first Kindle title for this publisher, and the first mainstream fiction title.
The fact that Ragged Angel are a games publisher first however, brings me back to Salute and the fact Fire Season is getting launched at a very large games convention in less than a week. A fact I am trying not to think about.
If you will excuse me, I'm off to the pub to drown my nerves!
Publishing: These are the huge publishing houses like Hodder and Stoughton, who do offset printruns in the thousands, and probably release as many promo copies as a small press expects to sell in total. This is what most peple think of when they mention "Published". Some people also refer to this as "traditional publishing".
Self publishing: You personally own the ISBN, or have set up a company purely to publish your own works. Nowadays this usually involves lulu or createspace, to make the books available through POD, or using Smashwords or Amazon to publish as e-books. Unfortunately with no quality checks, while most authors deliver very good work, it also possible to take an unedited unformatted word file and release it in exactly the same way. For readers it can be difficult to tell the quality of the book, which is why reviews are important and why self-publishing has a questionable reputation.
Small press: May use a small offset run or POD (sometimes the same providers as the self-publishers) but have staff who can do cover designs, editing, typesetting etc, like the larger ones. Many university presses fall into this category. There are also an increasing number of e-book only small presses. Often these will focus on one area or special interest such as poetry. They don't pay as much as the larger houses, but as they can choose their manuscripts they do offer readers an assurance of quality which is missing from debut self-published works. Small Presses are often called "Indie presses", although that term has been co-opted by people who fall into the group above.
Vanity Press These are companies that allow an author to pay for their book to be published. Don't confuse these with printers, as they normally sell publishing packages. Some are reputable, some less so. Some provide good service, others don't. Recent spins on this are "subsidy publishing" where the author contributes to the cost, or "reverse vanity" where they buy your book, but then charge for formatting, layout etc. or commit the author to buying copies. As with any service, if you intend to go this route, you need to research it carefully, and authors who use it are rarely considered "published" by the trade.
For self-published books and vanity published books, there is rarely a quality check: if an author has the money they can publish. This unfortunately means that some very bad books get published as well as some very good ones and results in readers being somewhat wary. Also, because the manuscript did not go through the peer-review of small press or mainstream publishers, authors going this route have much higher odds to overcome before they are considered published - often when a mainstream house offers them a deal.
Regarding Fire Season, Ragged Angel Ltd publishes several other authors, and has commissioned work for hire before. The Principia Malefex RPG line is already in print from them, and has been available since 1996. Fire Season was launched largely through those channels in the same way an RPG would be. By mainstream print standards it is a very small press. It is also the first Kindle title for this publisher, and the first mainstream fiction title.
The fact that Ragged Angel are a games publisher first however, brings me back to Salute and the fact Fire Season is getting launched at a very large games convention in less than a week. A fact I am trying not to think about.
If you will excuse me, I'm off to the pub to drown my nerves!
Sunday, 13 February 2011
Back to the Book Launch
Just because I'm under the weather doesn;t stop time to the launch ticking down. And with the difference between soft launch and national release, the horrible question of the book launch event raises its head again.
I would have been begging MurderOne if they were still open on Charing Cross Road. They were genre, I was a steady customer, and they are very much missed. They are still open online here, but it isn't the same.
It's right on the fringe of Forbidden Planet's range. Oddly my dead-genre novel is too mainstream for a company I often buy from.
Waterstones are keen - frighteningly so - but do not have a cafe, so I am not sure of the logistics for the "Party" part of launch party. I also can't afford to pay them to stay open or do a private opening.
Foyles? I did consider it, but my research went along the lines of: check it anyway, note the competition, note the price *Choke* look elsewhere.
Blackwells? My book is not academic, and in Central London there's not a lot of parking.
I did consider a pub and sandwiches, since if it gets snowed in again there are options, but fortunately my publisher had a better idea.
They are attending Salute, one of the largest wargames and militaria conventions in Europe, for their games line and book collectables. The book was going to be taken along anyway for trade connections. We're going to expand this: since Fire Season features a rather large, if grounded, bomber and fits the attending demographic, the book will be getting its national launch event there.
Oddly this works quite well. The distribution and review network should have the books on wider (possibly national) distribution at the start of April. This also means they can keep building publicity up towards the 16th April.
On the other hand, if you'd told me the book-launch would be in London Excel last year when I started this project, I'd have been stunned. Actually, I still am.
I would have been begging MurderOne if they were still open on Charing Cross Road. They were genre, I was a steady customer, and they are very much missed. They are still open online here, but it isn't the same.
It's right on the fringe of Forbidden Planet's range. Oddly my dead-genre novel is too mainstream for a company I often buy from.
Waterstones are keen - frighteningly so - but do not have a cafe, so I am not sure of the logistics for the "Party" part of launch party. I also can't afford to pay them to stay open or do a private opening.
Foyles? I did consider it, but my research went along the lines of: check it anyway, note the competition, note the price *Choke* look elsewhere.
Blackwells? My book is not academic, and in Central London there's not a lot of parking.
I did consider a pub and sandwiches, since if it gets snowed in again there are options, but fortunately my publisher had a better idea.
They are attending Salute, one of the largest wargames and militaria conventions in Europe, for their games line and book collectables. The book was going to be taken along anyway for trade connections. We're going to expand this: since Fire Season features a rather large, if grounded, bomber and fits the attending demographic, the book will be getting its national launch event there.
Oddly this works quite well. The distribution and review network should have the books on wider (possibly national) distribution at the start of April. This also means they can keep building publicity up towards the 16th April.
On the other hand, if you'd told me the book-launch would be in London Excel last year when I started this project, I'd have been stunned. Actually, I still am.
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
Planning a book launch
With six weeks to go until the book is released, people have started asking the question that I was hoping to avoid:
I have not even settled on a venue yet. Ideally I'd like a bookshop with a cafe, so they can handle the book selling part and I can get something to eat and drink. Unfortunately my local closed a few months ago, and I can't find another that fits the bill. I did consider going to the other end of the spectrum and asking Foyles, but when I checked the schedule that would put my little event head to head with the Poet Laureate. I know my limits.
It may yet be upstairs in my local with pub grub, friends, family and regulars attending, and a stack of books in the corner. To be honest, that rather appeals.
- "So, when's your launch party?"
- "I'll get back to you."
I have not even settled on a venue yet. Ideally I'd like a bookshop with a cafe, so they can handle the book selling part and I can get something to eat and drink. Unfortunately my local closed a few months ago, and I can't find another that fits the bill. I did consider going to the other end of the spectrum and asking Foyles, but when I checked the schedule that would put my little event head to head with the Poet Laureate. I know my limits.
It may yet be upstairs in my local with pub grub, friends, family and regulars attending, and a stack of books in the corner. To be honest, that rather appeals.
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