On the morning before the book launch party for my first memoir, I looked at the 100 chairs set up in the main sanctuary of my synagogue and gulped. “Are you nuts?” I thought. “Why didn’t you reserve the seminar room, where 25 people would become an SRO crowd?”
But I was thinking bigger and bolder with the publication of my fifth book, The Skeptic and the Rabbi: Falling in Love with Faith. Since my memoir was about my unexpected detour from secularism to Jewish orthodoxy, and was in a sense about coming home, it was important to me to have my book launch at a place that felt like my spiritual home. That was my synagogue.
Still, it took some chutzpah to reserve the entire sanctuary, a space that is packed with 300+ people on the holidays and which could have been divided neatly with a pocket wall into a smaller space. This would have considerably lowered my risk of speaking to a lightly populated crowd, my voice echoing in the large sanctuary.
But this book was about finding faith, and I had faith that “If I booked it, they would come.”
And they did! Still, I took precautions. I had the chairs artfully arranged so that, with the addition of two book signing tables and two refreshment tables, the room looked fully furnished. People started streaming in 15 minutes before showtime, and I was thrilled that I didn’t know many of them.
In a twist on the old adage, woman planned, but God didn’t laugh; He listened.
For those of you with a book launch party in sight, these are the things I did that I found most valuable.
1. Choosing a venue where I felt so at home in every way, and where I had name recognition, was the right move. I didn’t want to have to ingratiate myself with an unknown manager of the few remaining indie bookstores. I had done that before–with disappointing results. I was also confident I could fill a space bigger than a friend’s living room.
2. To get the crowd more excited to hear me speak, I chose a woman to introduce me who is a dynamic speaker in her own right. She was well known to the congregation and she also managed a skillful Q and A with me afterward that invited audience participation. Weeks before the book launch, I gave her an advanced copy of the book and told her of my goals for the evening, the things I most wanted to convey. She was well prepped.
3. I had an ad designed that was shared on social media and displayed in the synagogue lobby. I submitted the event to a local Jewish weekly where my byline was familiar, and asked a colleague to write a friendly column about the book and to hype the event. I also prepared a written author interview that I submitted to several appropriate online outlets, and the synagogue posted my ad for the book launch on its Facebook page. Seeing the growing list of online RSVPs added to my confidence.
4. People are always busy, so I also sent emails and called all my friends to remind them that, short of having a loved one rushed to the ER that night, I expected to see them there.
5. I timed my talk to be no more than 25 minutes, and spent many hours rehearsing it. I wanted it only semi-memorized, allowing me to be confident in my narrative flow yet allowing for spontantaeity and making eye contact with the audience. I read some choice bits from the book yet edited even those segments down to no more than about three minutes each. I chose segments that would show the arc of the storyline and that included both humor and poignancy. This was a good move. The audience laughed when I hoped they would, and displayed quiet understanding when I hoped they would.
6. I splurged on the gold bags with the rope handles in which I tucked purchased books. They only came by the case, so I am well stocked with bags for the next five years.
7. Food, naturally. As a Jewish mother genetically incapable of planning an event without excess food, I served two enormous fruit trays, as well as coffee, quality teas, Perrier, and cookies. Not everyone left with a book, but no one left hungry.
8. Perhaps it was the spiritual karma of the synagogue, but I was remarkably relaxed and happy the entire evening. At the beginning of my talk, I expressed my heartfelt appreciation for being part of the community, and for everyone coming. My longstanding personal connection with this place added to the spirit of the event.
9. I did not expect to profit financially from the event. I paid to rent the space and for table linens, refreshments, book bags, and flowers. I sold about 40 books, but many attendees had already bought the book online and had read it, and brought them for signing. It was, I admit, a great feeling to have a line of people waiting for me to sign their books.
This book launch party was meant to be a feel-good event, both the culmination of the publication process as well as an ongoing part of the (endless) promotional cycle. From those standpoints, I could not have been more pleased.
Judy Gruen’s memoir, The Skeptic and the Rabbi: Falling in Love with Faith, was published in September 2017 by She Writes Press. She has also written for the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, L.A. Times, Jewish Journal, Aish.com and many other media outlets. Her website is www.judygruen.com.