I Thought They Would Come: What My First Client Book Launch Taught Me

The venue is cozy and beautiful. A coffee shop that is situated so that people can walk in, grab a drink, and have a great, relaxing time. 

When I chose this venue, I expected the crowd to show up. I wanted the conversations to flow. I wanted the people who crossed our path to know that they had crossed it for a reason. 

We were excited for this book. I believed in it so deeply that somewhere along the way, I think I assumed that excitement would be contagious. That if people knew about it, of course they would want to come. Of course they would want to read it.

But believing in a book and building an audience for a book are two very different things.

Rise Up and Live is a book that people need in their lives. It is a book about hope. It is a book about possibilities. It is a book about showing up for yourself when sometimes there is no one who shows up for you.

We have all experienced this. We have all been on the receiving end of nothing. That’s what makes this book so special. It connects us all. It shares the truths that some of us just don’t want to admit. It makes us look inside and say, I deserve more. But more than that, it walks you through how to get more. 

That’s where the magic is. 

I imagined photo after photo of people holding up their new book with Shelly.

I imagined a lineup of people wanting to know more about it.

I imagined conversations and truth-telling and emotional inquiries. 

I imagined celebration, fun, and laughing.

I imagined a crowd enthused to hear Shelly read from her book.

It wasn’t what I had imagined that day would be. As the publisher, I have to own my part in that. 

A BOOK LAUNCH ISN’T JUST AN EVENT

This was going to be my first client's book launch. A book launch. 

It is meant to be a party. A celebration. A way of bringing a book into the world that was once just an idea. And now, that idea is a physical product in your hand. 

That is meant to be celebrated. That is meant to be shouted from the rooftops because YOU SHOULD BE SO INCREDIBLY PROUD OF WHAT YOU ACCOMPLISHED!

And this is where my BIGGEST lesson lives in growing Oak & Ink Publishing. 

I walked away from that launch feeling like I had failed. Like I had let Shelly down. Like I had let Rise Up and Live down. 

That’s hard for me to admit, especially because I know how much work went into bringing this book into the world. But if I’m going to build Oak & Ink into the publishing company I believe it can become, I have to be willing to look at the moments that didn’t go the way I hoped they would. 

I have to ask why.

And, more importantly, I have to learn from them.

I chose the venue. Which, by the way, is an incredible venue, and I highly recommend going there. It is one of my favorite spots near my house. This post isn’t about them. This post is about me. The mistakes I made. The lessons that I learned. The growth that I am walking into. 

You can’t just choose a venue, announce a launch, make a few posts, and hope people show up. 

A book launch requires an audience strategy. These are the lessons I learned from the book launch of Rise Up and Live.

An RSVP Isn’t Optional

You need something more concrete than Facebook interest, likes, shares, or people saying they’ll come. An RSVP gives you a real audience to communicate with before the event. 

This isn’t only about knowing your numbers. It gives you a way to continue the relationship.

Reminders before the event. 

Sneak peek into the event itself. 

A thank-you afterward. 

A link to preorder the book. 

A request for a review.

Information about what’s next.

You want the people who show up to your book launch to stick around. You want to create a fan, not just a customer. You want them to experience something that other people who just bought the book didn’t get to experience. 

The Audience Needs To Exist Before The Book Does

Both the author and I have audiences, but I wish that we had started nurturing earlier. 

I wish that I had posted more behind-the-scenes moments with Shelly and what we were building at Oak & Ink.

I wish that we had started building Shelly’s email list from day one.

I wish I had started her Pinterest sooner. 

I wish I had gone live in her Facebook group.

I wish I had used my own community more.

Mostly, I wish I hadn’t waited until we had something to sell before really inviting people into the story. 

I now believe that audience building needs to become part of our publishing process much earlier. We need to show our already established audiences what it is we are working on, but also work on building up that audience. 

A Venue And A Venue Partner Aren’t Necessarily The Same Thing

This isn’t about blaming the venue, the author, or anyone else. It’s about looking at what I could have done differently as the publisher. The mistakes I made, the lessons I learned, and the growth I’m walking into. 

 I now realize that there are certain questions that need to be asked before booking.

1. What promotion is included?

2. Will the event go to their email list? Do they have an email list?

3. Will they post about it?

4. Can signage go up beforehand?

5. Do they have regular customers during that time?

6. Have book launches worked there previously? If so, what did those events look like?

Most importantly: are we simply renting space, or are we creating a partnership? 

There is nothing wrong with simply renting a beautiful space. Sometimes, that might be exactly what we need. But if part of my strategy is relying on the venue’s existing audience to bring new people through the door, I need to know beforehand whether that is actually part of what they offer. 

I didn’t ask enough of those questions. Next time, I will.

The Launch Starts Long Before Launch Day

The launch isn’t the event. The launch is everything leading toward that event.

It is the audience building.

It is the preorders.

It is the personal invitations.

It is the content.

It is the emails.

It is the behind-the-scenes stories.

It is the excerpts.

It is the reminders.

It is the partnerships.

It is the RSVPs.

The event is the culmination of all of the above. A true celebration of all the hard work that it took to get there. Launch day shouldn’t be where you start creating excitement. It should be where all that excitement finally has somewhere to go.

Maybe One Book Needs More Than One Launch

I am starting to wonder why I treated the book launch as one singular event. Couldn’t there be an in-person celebration and then an online launch? I think there is something to be done with an online book launch and an in-person book launch.  They accomplish different things.

An in-person launch gives you intimacy, photos, readings, conversations, and celebration. 

An online launch removes geography and has the potential to reach more readers.

I think having both allows those who want to be there but can’t to celebrate the book that is launched. 

Someone Has To Protect The Author’s Moment

At the event, it isn’t the author’s responsibility to worry about whether books are displayed correctly, who’s taking payments, who’s photographing everything going on, whether someone has been greeted, whether social content is being captured, or what needs to happen next.

The author should be in the moment. Talking to those who come for their book. Having conversations with the customers who are going to become fans. Talking about their book to the people who are there to learn about it. 

This doesn’t necessarily mean that I would be doing all of these things either. 

Maybe building a publishing collective isn’t simply something I want to do someday. Maybe experiences like this are showing me why I need one. One of the biggest things I’m learning while building Oak & Ink is that publishing was never meant to be a one-woman job. It was meant to bring together experts of all different types to give the book its best possible chance to get out into the world.

Decide What Success Means Before You Get There

This is a conversation that needs to be had before the event. This isn’t even just about the book launch itself. This is about the entire process from start to finish.

Ask the author:

1. What does success look like to you when it comes to this book launch?

2. How many books would you like to sell?

3. How many people would you like to show up?

4. How many reviews would you like to generate afterwards?

5. How many new readers would you like to add to your email list?

6. What moments would you like captured?

7. How do you want to feel when you leave?

Without defining what success looks like beforehand, you’re evaluating the event against an image that only existed in your head. That can be hard, especially when there are at least two people who will have different visions of what success looks like.

But what exactly had I decided failure looked like? 

I didn’t fail to meet a defined target because we never set a defined target. Instead, I failed to meet the picture I had created in my head. 

I was disappointed. I’m still disappointed. I wanted more for Shelly and for this book. But disappointment can either make me question whether I’m capable of building this, or it can make me better at building it. 

I’m choosing the second. 

I could have learned these lessons quietly. 

I could have made some notes, changed the way we approach the next launch, and never told anyone that I walked away from this one disappointed. But that isn’t how I want to build Oak & Ink.

I want to talk about what I’m learning while I’m still learning it. The things that work. The things that don’t. The ideas I get completely right and the ones that make me realize I still have so much to learn.

I am building a publishing company, but I am also building the kind of publishing company I wish existed for every woman brave enough to hand someone her words and say, “I want to put this into the world.”

That means every book teaches me something. 

That means every author teaches me something.

And sometimes, the moments that don’t go the way I imagined teach me the most. 

So, this is the first lesson.

And there will be more.