Hmmm, I thought way back in September. My next paperback is set in the town where I live. What a great opportunity for some promotion. And hey, what a great excuse for a book launch party!
Something simple, no big fuss, just an excuse to send out some press releases. It can’t be stressful…I’ll be on deadline. Anyway, January is after the party season so probably not many people will want to come. I’ll sign a few books, I’ll get a couple bottles of wine, we’ll go to the pub after. Great. Let’s do it!
I am a fool, because I forgot the essential rules of having a launch party:
1. If you are, like me, compulsively social, you will invite everyone you have ever heard of and end up with a guest list roughly three times the size of the one you intially conceived.
2. The book, four days after it is published, will go into reprints and therefore will not be available to be sent to the bookshop. This means you will spend nail-gnawing hours on your mobile phone with the bookseller, the warehouse, the publisher, your editor, and your agent and while you’re on the phone you’ll forget to do simple things like retrieve your credit card after buying something in a shop so you have to walk all the way back to the shop after you have got home and the shop assistant will look at you like you are some sort of pretentious weirdo for having an agent, like who do you think you are, Kylie Freaking Minogue?!?
3. You will spend the days before the launch worrying you have not got enough glasses, that you have not got enough crisps, that you are serving cheap wine, that you are spending too much money, that you will say or do or think something amazingly stupid in front of all these people. Or that you will get a zit.
4. Although you will invite hyper-sexy celebrities, they will not turn up.
5. If you get some spectacularly good news (as I did a few days before my launch) and are forbidden to reveal it until the very day of your launch, you will savour the opportunity to make a truly dramatic and exciting announcement during the evening, but in the end you will probably mumble it in between sips of cheap wine.
6. Between all this worrying and obsessively refreshing Amazon to see if your book is selling and whether someone has posted a better review than the last one, you will have no time to write the book that is due very, VERY SOON.
7. The local photographer covering the event will snap your picture just as you are about to snort cheap red wine out of your nose.
8. If you are very lucky, you will not forget that the point of the evening is to be with with people you love and who have helped you in your career and to celebrate the fact that your dream has come true.
My launch will have been the day before this post comes up. I’ll let you know how it went.
So how’d it go?
by Michelle Willingham January 18th, 2008 at 7:04 am
Sheesh, and I thought Cyber-Launch Book Parties were hard! All I have to remember for those is to not let the Klingons in and make sure there’s someone to scoop the Zombie doo-doo. 
by Kimber An January 18th, 2008 at 9:09 amI’m with Kimber An. I prefer Cyber-Launch parties. That way I can invite all my cyber friends and then attend in my pajamas.
Plus virtual crisps are virtually free!
Looking forward to hearing about it!
by Kimber Chin January 18th, 2008 at 9:25 amJulie’s got a very short description up on her blog, in which she reveals what her secret good news was.
by Laura Vivanco January 18th, 2008 at 9:39 amOkay not to sound all cheesy or anything but I can’t wait to have those stresses to deal with.
I know, I know I say that now but it sounds like fun and hey they are all there celebrating your success at being an author something we all want and have dreamt about. 
I’m glad it went well!!!!! Oh and congrats on the great news!!!!
by Sarai January 18th, 2008 at 11:56 amMichelle, it went really really well! The books showed up several hours before the launch (you should have seen me dancing around the house with joy).
The wine, though not expensive, was actually pretty drinkable. We did run out, but it was close to the end, so that was okay. And I didn’t snort it through my nose.
None of the hyper-sexy celebrities showed up, but I did have some guests who were pleasant surprises.
And most of all, I had a great time with my colleagues and friends! It was awesome, and worth all the stress.
by Julie Cohen January 18th, 2008 at 1:33 pmKimber An, that sounds like a GREAT party!!! I’d like to come to your next one. But would I be allowed to wear my favourite Klingon outfit??
Kimber Chin, you have a point about cyber crisps. However, cyber champagne is nowhere near as nice as real champagne. A lot less expensive, though.
by Julie Cohen January 18th, 2008 at 1:36 pmSarai, believe me, I know how very lucky I am to have these stresses. This is all a dream come true for me. I spent a lot of time last night pinching myself to make sure I was awake.
I’m not just lucky to have the book out, but I’m lucky to have such wonderful colleagues and friends and that the bookshop where I had the launch was so supportive.
And I didn’t even get a zit!
I hope one day you get to stress out like this for yourself!
by Julie Cohen January 18th, 2008 at 1:39 pmI hope you have a wonderful time!
I had a big party for my debut (not so much a launch). 100 friends and family members, a stack of books, lots of booze, and great food (one of my BFFs is a killer caterer who did the party for cost).
by Kalen Hughes January 18th, 2008 at 4:19 pmThat sounds fantastic, Kalen.
by Julie Cohen January 18th, 2008 at 5:35 pmSounds like so much fun, Julie. I’m glad it all went well. I think I’ll have a glass of wine tonight in honor of your launch.
by Susan Kelley January 18th, 2008 at 6:45 pmGood luck with the launch party! All in all, it does sound like fun. And congrats on needing to go into reprints so soon after the release. That’s amazing!
by Caryn January 18th, 2008 at 8:05 pmYou HAVE to let us know how it went! (And where we can see that pic with you snorting wine…)
Congrats
by Trish Ryan January 18th, 2008 at 10:27 pmThanks Susan, Caryn, and Trish. I have posted an account of it on my blog. I just wish I’d had some Klingons to turn away.
by Julie Cohen January 19th, 2008 at 6:28 am