Justine Manzano When I found out I was going to have my first novel published, I desperately wanted to throw an incredibly fun and professional launch. I partnered with my favorite nearby bookstore, the wonderful Boogie Down Books. I made an appointment to tour the event space in a nearby library. I purchased a bunch of cool swag and such. I purchased special pens to sign books with.
And then there was Covid-19.
While the nation was tasked with dealing with people getting sick and dying, while my husband was cleaning rooms of Covid patients, terrified of bringing the virus home to us, while my job went full on work from home, while we lost a Partner at our firm to the virus, while my son struggled to understand remote learning when video calls made his sensory processing disorder kick into overdrive, I was tasked with an entirely different and increasingly stupid task to conquer.
I had a book to market.
It felt stupid. It felt useless and stupid. But this had been my dream for nearly two decades, and I wasn’t about to just…not sell my book.
So, I set about marketing a book. And I set up my virtual book launch. Here’s a few things I learned along the way. For some, they were probably just me being “old” and not used to some of the tech. And other things were just facts.
- Make sure you’re sure what method you’re going to be using and what device you will be using before scheduling a YouTube livestream.
I could have saved myself on this one by asking a few questions, had I realized I had no idea what I was doing. I was running my first YouTube livestream, so I went online to set up a scheduled video so I could send the link to absolutely everyone. It took me 24 hours to gain access to the ability to livestream, so I waited on that, thinking that was the worst of my problems. I then scheduled, and distributed the link.
But that computer died between the time I set up the livestream and the time I was due to go live. Had I set it up on the computer I had when streaming time came, that computer would have informed me that I didn’t have the relevant streaming software, just like it did FIVE MINUTES BEFORE THE STREAM BEGAN.
I don’t know if there’s a way to change a prescheduled stream is streamed. But I couldn’t find it in the five minutes before, nor could I find it in the five minutes after that. My husband played moderator, warming up the crowd as I desperately started a new livestream, and then he redirected some people to that.
We lost some people in the transfer. I was kicking myself hard.
- When you have a chat moderator–let them moderate!
I’ll be posting the video to my event, but anyone who watched it could see that I was uniquely flustered. I couldn’t see people’s faces and it led to this weird sort of spacey feeling where I didn’t know anyone’s reactions and I couldn’t focus the way I would in a real conversation.
In real life, if someone asked me a question, I would look at them and answer the question. I would not get distracted by other raised hands. In real life, when someone asks me a question, ten other people aren’t asking me questions or commenting at the same time.
With the chat box open on my screen and comments and questions rolling in, I didn’t seem able to keep myself on topic. I had asked my husband to moderate, but then I kept looking at what people were saying and not letting him roll the questions out to me one by one.
It didn’t help anyone including myself that the ADHD and anxiety disorder I’ve suffered with all my life is just totally magnified when I’m nervous (and nervousness is just a subsection of anxiety disorder), and who wouldn’t be nervous at their book launch party? - Nothing will go according to plan.
I had games and questions planned, made a schedule for how things were going to go, scheduled down to the minute. In the end, I let the people in the chat box run the show. I answered their questions, I spoke about the bits about my book that they wanted to. And everyone seemed to have a good time. The hour sped by. I didn’t need even one of my careful plans. - People respond much better to you when you’re genuine. I said above, I was a HOT MESS throughout the entire process of this launch. But my silliness and over the top inability to focus had people laughing along with me. When you speak publicly, you want to draw people in, and I think the one benefit of the insanity of my launch was that people got to know the real me, in all of my bumbling oafishness. And that’s a good thing.
- Your writing tribe can save your life. Seriously.I’ve been uniquely lucky in that I have been surrounded by several writing tribes. My family has writers within it, I met writers at my day job. I found great friends online who became my writing tribe. SO MANY of them turned out for my launch, and where they couldn’t, they’ve spread the word about my book. I’ve been so very blessed to be a part of such a unique crew of creatives, across the board. Not just writers, but creators of all kind.
And that brings us to the fact that we’re all here to help each other. It’s true for all of us. So if you ever need anything from me? Well, I’m right here. I’d love to hear from you. My comments, email, DMs are always open to provide advice and assistance. We’re all part of the same world. We should always be ready to help each other.
And now for my extremely embarrassing launch video! Check it out!
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Are you still here? If you are, please check out this wonderful feature article that went up this week. It really captures the core of Order, and who I am as a person, and I’m so truly lucky to have been the focus of it! Please check it out, see my postcard of the lesser known side of the Bronx, and look around her site for all of the other gorgeous postcard submissions!