Things I’m Doing To Prep for Twice in a Lifetime’s Book Launch Event

I’ve learned a lot over the last year about what works well for my book signing events. With Twice in a Lifetime’s book launch event coming up next weekend, I wanted to take some time to apply some of the ideas I’ve had recently. Here’s what I’ve been working on: 

​1. Prepping the Usual Merch: Bookmarks, stickers, art prints. As I’ve started making more money from my author endeavors, I’ve been able to start ordering these things printed for me rather than printing and cutting them myself, which saves me quite a bit of time!

2. Treats! I’ve started bringing treats to my book signing events, and surprise surprise, they’re always a hit. I have found that donut holes and cookies do better than other sweets. Even better than chocolate, which was surprising to me. 

3. Fun Facts about the book! I’ve had the idea to write out fun little facts about the story, the book, or the publication process. This week, I’ve been writing down these facts as they come to me so I can share them with people who come to the event. 

4. About the Author Q+A. I thought it would be really cool to answer some questions that people often ask me to share as well. I get a lot of people asking questions at my book signing events, so I’ve started to write them down and pair them with my answers. I’ve also added in some silly random questions and answers, too.

5. Mini-prizes. I want to engage my readers by incorporating little prizes for activities. One of the activities I’ve thought up would be a guessing game. I’d have a list of quotes or characteristics about some of my characters, and readers would have to guess who said what by matching the quote to the character’s picture. If they get it right, they get a little prize.

6. Day-of giveaways. At each event I host, I like to do a giveaway for anyone who signs up for my email list as a way to thank them for their support. I’d now like to be able to give the item away before I leave at the end of the event. I’m not certain yet how this will work in comparison. I know not everyone has time to spend hours in the bookstore, but I think it would be really cool if I could offer this giveaway as an in-person thing rather than shipping it later. I was able to test this out with a small bookish giveaway at my author event this last weekend, and it seemed to work okay! 

7. Author Merch! I've been working on expanding my brand and making t-shirts and book bags with my author info on it. As of right now, I've only given these things away, but I'm hoping to work toward offering this merchandise for purchase and make it more widely available.

I am so excited for Twice in a Lifetime to come out on Wednesday of this week, and to celebrate it at the Park City Barnes & Noble book launch on Sunday! That’s it for this week! For more book-related content, be sure to sign up for my email list so you never miss a blog post!