In House: The Local Book Launch

In this three-part series, author and publishing professional Vanessa Shields demystifies aspects of book marketing, like pre-order buzz, what a blog tour is all about, and how a book launch does more than just sell books.

There’s something about the word local that conjures a warmth in the belly and a woot in the heart. We love supporting the places and people in the community in which we live. We have personal relationships with small business owners because we frequent their establishments, or we exclusively support a local artisan for the uniqueness of their craft. It feels good to show up for the talent! 

So, what if you are the local talent? You’re a writer, and your first book is being published and released. Family and friends have been supporting your dream of holding your very own published book in your hands, and now the dream is coming true. One of the most rewarding and lucrative actions you can take at this time is to have a local book launch.

The local book launch presents like any other book event: people gather in a location (often an independent bookstore), the author’s book(s) are available for purchase and signing, and the author is present to read an excerpt from their newly birthed book baby and enjoy a conversation with the audience about the process of writing it and getting it published. Perhaps there’s some yummy baked goods and a couple of bottles of vino. There may even be other writers joining the reading stage. 

What sets the local book launch apart is both tangible and intangible. Let’s begin with the tangible.

The Tangibles

1. Lucrative book sales

People who you love, and who love you, probably live near you. And quite possibly, even your publisher is established in your community. This group of people you know is extremely unique. Your relationships are dedicated and supportive. You celebrate each other’s successes—and you want to, whole-heartedly. 

This unique group will buy your book. They’ll likely buy more than one! They will show up because they support your dreams and they support this local creative endeavour that is something to be proud of within their community. The local book launch is often the most lucrative event on the book tour because more people show up and more people purchase the book(s). 

2. Beneficial for the host location of the event

It is superb for the business that is hosting the event because the location will be filled with a large group of people who will likely not just purchase your book, but also other items sold in the store and/or food/beverages if it’s a cafe or restaurant. 

If there is not an independent bookstore in your community, then a local book launch can be held at a restaurant (Just ask the owner if they’d be interested in hosting a book launch!) or cafe or even a retail store (flower shop, gift shop, you name it!). Really, any space that can hold the number of people you think will show up is a possible location for a book launch.

3. Local press

We need good news. Local news outlets are always looking for positive stories to share, and a book launch is a great event to promote. There are many ways to get the attention of the local press. Tie your book into a holiday, local business, or cultural city event. For example, if your story is a romance about two duelling pizza chefs, you can have your event at a pizza restaurant and have them make heart-shaped pizzas. This event would have a trifecta of local angles: new author/new book, local pizza place to promote, and a themed, unique thing happening at the event. Or, if your book is about the history of your community, and there’s an historical anniversary happening, you could time your local book launch to the anniversary date, and perhaps invite an historian to join you at the launch. 

4. Libraries and Schools

We must continue to patronize our libraries! This system of book-sharing and literacy legacy is fundamental to the artistic and cultural health of a community. Holding your book launch at your local library is a wonderful way to gather readers and supporters alike. The libraries have internal communications that can help promote your book event across the branches. It is possible that holding the event in a library is free or would only have a nominal fee that goes directly back to supporting the library. And it’s a great way to get the libraries to order your book and have it available (plus, you’ll get a Public Lending Right payment, or PLR for short). 

If your book is written for youth (elementary and/or secondary), it’s possible that you could connect with the school board and request visits with schools to read your book and talk about living the life of a writer. There are grants you can apply for through The Writers’ Union of Canada, the League of Canadian Poets, and Poetry in Voice that can pay you for your time in the classroom. Or, sometimes the parent council at the school could allocate some funds to support your visit, especially if you’re including a teachable (workshop). 

Perhaps you already have established relationships with schools because your kids are (or were) in the school system. You can simply call or email the teacher and see if you can come to the class to read from your book and talk about writing. This may not garner book sales on the day, but you can guide students to the library or the bookstore to purchase your book, or even invite them to your big local book launch! 

The Intangibles

1. Love

People who you love, and who love you, probably live near you. And quite possibly, even your publisher is established in your community. Yes, this is a repeat from the tangibles section! But it has to be because one of the best things about a local book launch is that everyone you love will do their best to be there to support you. 

There’s few other experiences of loving awe and grateful abundance than looking into a crowd and seeing your partner, your children, your parents, and your publishers smiling up at you! For a writer, getting your writing published in book form is a dream come true. It has likely taken years of hard, gruelling, frustrating, and spectacular work to complete and publish the manuscript. But that all dissipates when you’re standing in front of people you love and people who love you, and you read from your book. It’s a truly phenomenal experience. 

2. Inspiration and Motivation

There’s a wild thing that happens after you give birth. I am speaking from experience here, having laboured and birthed two human beings. My labour for my first child took 27 hours. It was extraordinarily difficult. But when the nurse placed my sticky, yelping son on my chest (oof, here come the waterworks!), it was like nothing else mattered. I forgot. I literally forgot all the pain and suffering it took to grow him inside me and push him out. 

You don’t have to have given birth to a child to relate to this experience. Consider anything you’ve done that was so hard you told yourself you’d never do it again—if you’re a writer, then this response will definitely include writing a book. And think about how easily you forgot the hard parts when you were holding the thing it was so hard to create against your heart. 

The conscious act of sharing what we’ve worked hard to create and deliver into the world is a critical part of maintaining our inspiration and motivation to write. Feeling the love and support of those in our circles of community (home, work, friends, etc.) is the bliss that keeps us honing our craft. 

Although we don’t always need to be inspired to create, we absolutely need to feel the desire to do so, and that comes from the abundance of inspiration we receive when sharing our books and knowing that we are supported in our creative endeavours. 

Having a local book launch is a rite of passage. It’s the book event that will help energize and sustain your passion for sharing, for writing, and for being a creative human. No matter where it takes place in your community (heck, you can even do it at your home!), it will be celebrated, and you will feel the love. That’s pretty darn incredible. 

* * *

Vanessa Shields is a writer, mother, reader, laughter, and lover of chocolate and swimming. She’s had four books of poetry published, one memoir, and her young adult novel is dreaming its way into publication. She’s the owner of Gertrude’s Writing Room, a mobile creative writing school. She edits, teaches, and builds literary community in Windsor, ON where she lives with her family. 

* * *

Want to learn more about book marketing? Catch up on the series with part one – The Power of the Pre-Order – and part two – The Blog Tour.