My first book launch party

Five years ago today I held the book launch party for my first book. An exclusive do in a lovely hotel, preceded by an appearance on local TV, made it a great day!

With more than 70 people in the room, and the chance to share my story and experiences, this book put me and my business on the map.

Instead of being one of the crowd in the coaching community, the book enabled me to stand out. The book launch was just part of the journey, but it allowed me to create a buzz and it gave people something to talk about.

The Secrets of Successful Coaches was this book: it morphed from 11 interviews with very successful coaches sharing their business stories and advice. I had the opportunity to learn from them and share their nuggets with the world through my book.

Not only did I have a fabulous book launch, later the book got to number one on Amazon and it helped me to reach new clients all around the globe, get speaking engagements across the UK, and even a radio interview in Russia bizarrely!

But if I’d waited until I’d finished the book to promote it, then it would have been a totally different story.

Before I launched the book, I marketed it.

I built a community of people who wanted the book, I shared snippets on my blog and via podcasts, I’d been speaking about my experiences, and talked about my book to anyone who wanted to listen.

It was nothing complicated or costly. I just built a network of people who were interested – and couldn’t wait to get a copy!

Since then I’ve published three more books and had my fourth book launch on 22 April. And I’ve learnt a lot since the first one 5 years ago.

Now you might be thinking, it’s alright for you; you’re willing to put yourself out there.

So, I will openly admit that I was incredibly nervous at the launch. I asked myself questions like… Why was I doing it? What if people didn’t like it? But equally I knew that if I kept my book to myself then it wouldn’t help the people it was written for.

That’s the thing about marketing, especially when it comes to books. Many new authors think that the most important thing is writing it. But you can have the best book in the world and if the people who need to read it don’t know it exists, then why bother in the first place?

What do you think? I’d love your comments on this blog post.