Launch Frenzy by Chris Longmuir
It’s been a mad couple of weeks. I’ve been launching the
third book in my Dundee Crime Series – Missing Believed Dead.
I thought everything was under control, I was going to
launch the ebook and Amazon paperback, at the same time as my book launch,
which was scheduled for 11th July, in the
Silly, silly, silly! The first thing to upset the applecart
was the paperback appearing on Amazon for pre-order for 1 July. I hadn’t
approved it at that stage so I knew it wasn’t Amazon who had stuck it up there.
It could only have been Nielsen who did the deed when I registered my ISBN for
the book.
This resulted in a mad scramble. I would now have to get the
book online for the 1st of July, rather than the 11th. My proof orders from
Createspace became priority ones instead of the more leasurely expedited
delivery ones, which meant I was paying more than the cover price to get my
proofs. Oh, well, writers make a fortune anyway – don’t they? I muttered this
to myself as I made beans on toast for my lunch, and left the steak languishing
in the butcher’s window.
The first of the posts scheduled to appear to create a buzz
before publication, went live on 18th June with a Famous Plus Five post, Have
You Heard? They’re Missing Believed Dead. Shortly after, on 28 June, Brook
Cottage Books, featured a cover reveal. You can check it out here.
The aim had been to have several posts appear before the books went online, so
I’m not sure how much of a buzz, two posts made!
But the die had been cast. With my paperbacks still
trundling off the presses, I keyed into KDP and Createspace, and activated the
publication buttons. Anticipating a day or two for the books to go live, I’ll
bet you can guess what happened. The ebook was up there, live and ready to be
bought within two hours of pressing ‘Save and Publish’. The paperback appeared on
Amazon.com, but it was a bit more reluctant to appear in the UK . And guess
what? The pre-order paperback book vanished from Amazon UK , while it
waited for my approved paperback to go live. Oh, the joys of self publishing.
Meanwhile the blog posts continued to appear. Famous Five
Plus, featured Are You
Ready For It, on 1 July. Brook Cottage Books posted a review
of Missing Believed Dead on 2 July, and Bill Kirton interviewed me on 2
July as well. There’s still another one to go. My Canadian friend, Melanie
Robertson King, intends to put a post up on the day of my Waterstones launch on
11th July. on her blog Celtic Connexions.
The reviews have been appearing as well, on Amazon and
Goodreads as well as other places. There’s even one on Eclectic
Electric. Thanks Julia.
Oh, nearly forgot, in the mad rush to do things, I designed a new poster for the Dundee Crime Series, and I made a You Tube Video. One of my writer friends was good enough to offer to be the hoodie, and an unsuspecting friend of my late husband, allowed me to photograph his back. (I did tell him it was for a You Tube Video, but conveniently forgot to tell him the part he was playing!)
You can tell I’m writing this as I go along, can’t you?. So
I’ll take a rest now, and finish it after my Waterstones launch, so I can tell
you how it went.
Right, I’ve got my breath back now that it’s all over, so I
can let you know how things went in the run up to the launch, and on the night.
About ten days before the launch, I sent the press releases
out. The first one appeared in my local paper a week before the launch. However,
the Dundee Courier, which covers a larger area, didn’t bother to do anything.
They probably used my press release to light their ciggies, or maybe a few
aromatic candles. Who knows? I was severely tempted to end my subscription, but
I satisfied myself with a few muttered oaths.
Time was galloping now, and I woke on the morning of the
launch with the fearful thought that no one would turn up. However, I pushed it
to the back of my mind and went shopping for the nibbles. So, the big decision
of the day was, what would I get, and how many. I took my granddaughter with me
as my adviser, she’s eleven. She assured me that everyone liked cocktail
sausages, so a packet of forty chilled sausages landed in my basket. Sausage
rolls? I asked, and she agreed that was a good idea, so a packet of twenty-four
joined the sausages, then another packet of thirty, just in case there wasn’t
enough. I had a sneaky suspicion I’d be eating sausages and sausage rolls for
the next month. Nuts? She shook her head. But she doesn’t like nuts, so I took
a packet of mixed nuts and raisins. I didn’t buy crisps because I had two boxes
of Pringles left over from New Year, and they were still in date – I checked.
Cheap paper plates and napkins, and I was finished. And I was still trying to
ignore that wee niggle at the back of my mind that was saying no one would
come!
The hours rushed in and before I knew it I was setting up
the nibbles table at Waterstones. They supplied the wine, although they would
bill me for half the cost. My friend had supplied me with a tin containing
eighty pieces of home made tablet, for any non-Scots out there, it’s a sweet
similar to fudge, but harder. If you click
here you can see some mouth-watering images of Scottish tablet. I was still
convinced no one would come and reckoned if I had to eat all that tablet myself
I’d be the size of a whale.
Then the people started to trickle in, then more came, then
Waterstones staff had to look for more chairs. Then they ran out of chairs and
it was standing room only at the back. And I was juiced up and raring to go. So
I talked about my characters first, then did some readings, and before I knew
it an hour had gone. The signing was great fun because I got to chat with
everyone who came up. There was one guy who had me sign a book and then came
back because he couldn’t read all my signature, the end bit usually tails off.
So I had to go over the tail and make it legible. My bank manager wouldn’t have
recognized it though.
And then it was all over. The Pringles were gone, the
sausages had been eaten, and there wasn’t even a crumb left on the sausage roll
plate, leaving me to wonder what on earth I would have for lunch the next day –
I’d been convinced it would be sausages and sausage rolls! As for the tablet,
there was a grand total of nineteen pieces left. They’d eaten the other
sixty-one pieces! Oh, and the nuts and raisins were untouched. My granddaughter
was right. I should have listened to her.
For me, the highlight of the event was meeting readers who
were interested in my books, and I reckoned I made several new friends during
the course of the evening. It’s such a buzz to know there are readers who
appreciate the books we write, and it makes up for all the hard work in
bringing a new story to life.
 |
| One of my readers gives me a hug |
It was a fabulous event which left me hungry for more.
However, I’ll have to write another book before I can repeat it! I’m off to the
attic to write now – you may not see me for some time!
Chris Longmuir
Links
Comments
As for the leftover nuts and raisins - add to porage oats, butter and soft brown sugar and make luxury flapjack!
Apologies for landing on your blog spot. Panic+total ignorance.