Although some publishers don’t do book launches these days, both Escalator Press and Landing Press (two small publishers I’m involved in) believe in having great launches. It’s a celebration of the writer’s accomplishment of producing a very good book (that’s the most important thing) but it’s also a way of letting a large number of people know of the book’s existence, and of selling a lot of books! At the two launches for Because Everything Is Right but Everything Is Wrong, a Young Adult novel by Erin Donohue (Escalator Press) and for My wide white bed, poems by Trish Harris (Landing Press), between 80 and 100 books were sold at each launch. Both of these are books to be proud of – excellent books that will make a big mark.
I spend quite a lot of time on publishing work these days, and being part of a team (well, two teams) who produce books that really matter is very satisfying.