Marketing Monday: Getting Teens to Your YA Launch Party

First off, I wanted to say thank you. The response to my new Marketing Mondays feature has been phenomenal. If you like what I’m doing, please be sure to like the post, share it, and comment below.

Teens: The Elusive Launch Party Guest

If you’re debuting a YA book and planning your launch party, you are probably making an invitation list of friends and family. Unless you are a buzzed about author, you can pretty much forget getting teens out to your party, right?

Not necessarily.

Library Packets

This suggestion takes a little bit of work, but it can pay off nicely. When I was planning the launch party for IF I LIE, I found myself with a lot of leftover invites because I went WAY overboard. And these were gorgeous invites that I designed and put together. I even used ribbon, people. So it broke my heart to see them go to waste. On a whim, I decided to do some outreach to my local libraries. I live in a big city, and San Francisco has numerous branches – several of them with thriving teen centers. Here’s what I did.

Hit the web to gather the addresses of your local library or library branches, especially those with teen centers. This could also work for the library at your local high school(s). If possible, get the names of the youth librarians or a specific person who works with teens.
Prepare a one-page press release that includes the information about your book launch, the party info, key review quotes (if you have them), and a short author bio.
Write a cover letter to introduce yourself to the youth librarian, explaining what is in the packet. Be sure to ask them to distribute the invites to teens who love books like (insert description) and include your contact info. If you’re having cake or giving away prizes, tell them so.
Stuff an envelope with the press release, your cover letter, 5-10 invites to your party, and swag that the librarians can use. Bookmarks are great for this! Since I had dozens of bookmarks from fellow Class of 2k12 and Apocalypsie members (we exchanged swag), I included these, too.
Hand deliver the packets (to cut cost on postage) or mail them off.

The success rate I had for doing this was awesome. I had two librarians contact me to ask about events, and two teens wrote me to ask about the party, very excited to attend. I had a lot of teens attend my launch party – some due to these invites and some there because a very supportive local teacher offers extra credit to the kids to go to book signings. I’m happy to say that every chair was full, and I had standing room only. I would do this again just for the contacts I made, and the minimal cost to make myself known to my local youth librarians.

Good luck!

MARKETING MONDAYS

I’ve worked in marketing for ten years, and prior to that, I was a graphic designer for eight years. The first Monday of each month I will discuss different marketing tactics for publishers and writers. Some weeks I will be preparing case studies of new releases and offering up launch solutions to help spark ideas for authors. If you are a debut young adult author and would like to be considered for a Marketing Monday case study, please use my contact form to let me know.

Have a question? Let me know in the comments!