We welcome back Vivien Hampshire, a former member of Write Minds, to tell us how she organised an online launch party for her first novel, How to Win Back Your Husband.
Launching a new book is a bit like launching a new boat. Having spent so long building it, the last thing you want when you push it out into the choppy seas of the big wide world of publishing is for it to sink on its first day!
I had known for a couple of months that my new romantic comedy ‘How to Win Back Your Husband’ was going to be published on 18 January. I also knew that, although my publishers HQ Digital (formerly Carina) would be promoting it quite heavily on twitter, it was going to be up to me to do a lot of shouting about it too.
I have never been a great twitter user (although I do check it every day and retweet anything I like the look of), much preferring the more intimate feel of Facebook, so that seemed to me the best place to concentrate my efforts. And there, in the sidebar of my Facebook author page, I found a little button marked ‘events’. Having pressed it, it wasn’t too tricky to set up an event of my own: a party to take place online on publication day. If I advertised it early enough and encouraged people to share, I just might attract some interest, and acquire a few new friends and readers along the way.
I wrote a short blurb, explaining what was happening and when, including the lure of a few competition prizes to entice more people in, and added a big picture of my book cover as the banner heading. Knowing it was a mid-week working day, I decided to open at 10am and stay online to welcome ‘guests’ right through until 7pm. It would be a long day, but hopefully worth it!
Now I needed party guests. Sending invitations was easy. No trawling through an address book, rummaging for envelopes or paying for stamps. Facebook very kindly threw up a list of all my ‘friends’ and all I had to do was tick the ones I wanted to invite – pretty much all of them! Within a few minutes, people were pressing the ‘interested’ button, or even more pleasingly the one that says ‘going’.
Like any good party, an element of planning was needed next. It was no good me just sitting there at my computer for nine hours on the day, typing ‘Hi. Come in and buy my book!’ every time someone new turned up. So, I started thinking about what music I should be playing to kick things off, having some (virtual) cake and champagne on offer as people arrived, maybe letting off a few fireworks once it got dark, and – of course – those competitions with prizes that I’d promised.
I opened up a new folder on my computer and started saving stuff! Photos of balloons, champagne glasses, fireworks going off, cats partying, and lots of enticing cakes (I even found a pic of a cupcake with ‘Happy divorce day’ on top – perfect for the theme of my book), along with welcome and goodbye pictures, all of which I could dip into quickly throughout the event to help me keep things lively and fun.
Next, the prizes! I found a company that would produce some lovely ballpoint pens with an image of my book along the side and ordered enough to give a few away while still hanging on to a couple for my own use. Notebooks and post-it notes were a good idea too – perfect for both writers and readers. I found bags of heart-shaped confetti cut from romance novels, and some lovely heart-shaped stickers too, keeping one bag as a prize while opening the other so I could pop a little pink heart on the back of the envelopes when sending out prizes to the winners. Well, it is a romance novel, after all!
I had a few competitions in mind, although a couple more evolved during the party itself, and it was lovely to see people joining in all through the day. One competition involved choosing the right music to reflect both the divorce and ‘wanting him back’ themes. My own daughter won that one on the day, but I deny any nepotism as her choices were just brilliant! Another involved a picture of a tie – What did that have to do with my book? It didn’t take long for two guests to arrive at the right answer at much the same time. It was made from the Ross tartan – and Ross is the surname of my main characters! A pen to each of them. Who would play my characters in a film? How old did people think my character Gladys might be, based purely on her name? Again, a couple of guests were spot on – she is 89, turning 90 during the course of the book. And the age-old question: Who is your favourite romantic hero? Mr Darcy, Romeo, Prince Charming were all put forward, but in the absence of anyone suggesting Poldark, I went for Kevin Costner in ‘Dances With Wolves’ as the winner. I do so love Kevin Costner!
It was heartening to see so many people say they had bought the book and were looking forward to reading it, and I did try to keep an eye on the Amazon rankings as the party went on. It rose from being lower than 100,000th in the Kindle store at the start of the day to around 3000th at its peak, so I like to think the buzz being created was doing its bit. Now I just need the reviews to start rolling in to encourage others to buy it too, especially while it’s still only 99 pence.
It was tiring, staying by the screen for so long, especially as I was babysitting my little granddaughter at the same time, and I was having to keep popping over to twitter to keep abreast of (and retweet) HQ’s promotional efforts, including their offer of a free copy of the book to a lucky reader at 4pm. As soon as I knew who had won, I congratulated her and invited her to the party, where she later won one of my pens in the ‘Who should play them in a film?’ competition!
But, was it worth it? Well, what a fantastic way to reach out to readers! It’s hard to say how many sales the party helped me to secure, or how many people who had never heard of me (or my book) now have, but I did enjoy it, very much, and I hope those who came along did too!
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/VivienHampshireAuthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VivienHampshire
Link to buy the book: http://amzn.to/2cOjPIn
Author bio:
Vivien Hampshire was born and brought up in West London where she still lives and works. She has been writing short stories for almost twenty years, and regularly contributes women’s fiction to a variety of UK magazines, including Woman’s Weekly, The People’s Friend, and My Weekly. She loves cats, reading, taking part in quizzes and TV game shows, sitting in the sunshine and eating chocolate, and is an avid cryptic crossword puzzler. She is a Council member and the competitions co-ordinator for the Society of Women Writers and Journalists (SWWJ) and a member of the Romantic Novelists Association. ‘How To Win Back Your Husband’ is her first commercially published novel.
Book blurb:
Nicci has made one stupid and seemingly unforgivable mistake and, after eight years together, her husband Mark is divorcing her. Her best friend is determined to help her get over it, start enjoying life again and move on, but Nicci knows getting over Mark just isn’t an option – she still loves him and she wants him back! With no clear plan in mind and only thirty days left until the divorce is finalised, the race is on to prove her love, regain his trust and save her marriage, before it’s too late. A debut romantic comedy with a sprinkling of winter magic!
Thank you, Viv. We wish you all the very best for your novel.
Write Minds 