The second time isn't easier
You know what they all say. The first time is when things are pretty difficult. With anything actually. Especially with publishing a book. The first time was crazy, with me trying out my luck with nearly 13 publishers before I managed to get Kite Strings out there.
But the second time was relatively easier. With Blinkers Off, I found a publisher in around 5 months as opposed to the 4 years I spent fruitlessly waiting to get published with Kite Strings. Things moved quickly and soon we started editing and proofing and voila, Blinkers Off is out there in the market (not all the bookstores as yet, unfortunately).
However, plenty of people have already picked it up online and have messaged me on FB or Twitter telling me that they have bought my book which makes me feel so happy. I was nervous before the first feedback started pouring in, but now I'm okay. I mean, Blinkers Off is not the best book I've written and I know I'm really capable of much better, but still, it's an entertaining book and whoever has read it has really, really liked it so far! Has to mean something, right?
So, public feedback is pretty much out of the way now. It's the launch that has started to worry me. A lot.
See, I've attended plenty of book launches. I've seen nervous authors read out passages from their books, interact shakily with the chief guests and sometimes royally bore the audience. I'd like to think the launch of my first book was not like that. It was pretty formal with Wendy M'am giving her awesome critique of my book – she was my English lecturer back in college, and believe me, getting praised by her still ranks among my topmost favourite moments of my life. Then I got on the podium (I dislike this whole podium business by the way because it reminds me of assembly in school) and spoke a lot of emotional drivel which moved my mom and some others to tears but we quickly wrapped up and it was an enjoyable evening for me and hopefully some of the others.
Now, with Blinkers Off, I don't want to repeat the same thing. I mean, there's only so much I can say about accomplishing my dream and telling others to go live their dream right? So, what am I going to talk about? Inside my head, I'm like…help!!! This is so going to become one of those launches where the audience cannot wait to escape (without buying copies of my book) home and the chief guests and I will stare at each other red faced.
See, from what I know, there's not much that we can actually discuss about the book without giving away too much. There are plot twists and turns in it that I would like the readers to discover on their own. Also, I don't get it when the author and others on the dais talk about the book (which many have not had the chance to read as yet) endlessly and the audience has no idea what's going on.
So that leaves me with the question, what can I do at my book launch? You know, to entertain the audience while keeping my book in the frame, without boring them and making them hate my book before they even take a look at it?
Any ideas peeps? (My book launch is scheduled for early September and my book is a young adult novel about a young girl who dreams of becoming a screenplay writer. Err…as if you didn't know the last part already, I've said it that many times to anyone who's bothered to listen!)
So, any ideas? Please don't tell me to sing or dance since I asked about entertaining the audience. That is not what I had in mind. Really.
