Book Launch: Christmas Tales
During the months leading up to Christmas, I will be promoting a collection of short stories called ‘Christmas Tales’ containing three short stories. Each story will have a 3000– 4000 word count and all will each have a festive theme throughout. The promotion period will start from early September through to the end of December. During this four-month period, I will predominately use Social Media and various book launches to promote the product, as well as a fully functioning website with all information stored for the customers. There will be both a pre-launch period and post-launch period, both using different strategies to advertise and sell the product.
The book will include illustrations throughout the stories, being appealing to both adults and children. These illustrations will also help in the advertising process when posting on social media followers will see a glimpse of what’s inside by posting these illustrations. Christmas Tales consists of three short stories; the first story, Kevin’s Christmas, follows a homeless man through the nights leading up to Christmas and telling of the adventures he gets up to when the streets are quiet at night. The second story, Santa’s sidekick, is about Santa Clause needing a replacement reindeer and finds a stray dog. They, together, conquer Christmas Eve and build a loveable relationship. The third, and final, short story is about a lonely baker, who bakes a gingerbread man that comes to life. The gingerbread man goes on a journey to help the baker find love over Christmas, called Bakers’ best friend.
The pre-launch will be a 10 week process starting on the 1st of September through to the release date on the 10th of November and ending the post-launch on the 29th of December.
Pre-launch, week 1– 5: The first five weeks of the promotion will be solely Social Media based advertising. This is due to the pre-launch being a low-cost campaign. There will be Social Media accounts running under the product name ‘Christmas Tales’ as well as the authors name in the bio. Instagram, Facebook and Twitter will all be used throughout the launch. Each platform will post daily updates about the book, including release dates, costs, where to buy and images of the product itself. As well as images of the book, there will be posts of the illustrations that are inside the stories so viewers are able to get a preview of the book's content. Under each post, there will be a website link, directly leading to the author's website, but more specifically the ‘Christmas Tales’ section of the site. The website includes release dates of the book, where to buy, how to buy, pre-order information, how much it costs and dates of book launches for the post-launch campaign. This will also include a short blurb of the book and my elevator pitch:
Christmas Tales are a moving way to enjoy Christmas. Three imaginative thought-provoking and warm short stories, with loveable characters and enticing storylines, Christmas Tales will keep you entertained throughout this festive season. Enjoy!
In addition to the Christmas Tales section of the website, there will be links to author information and up and coming projects, promoting previous and future works.
There will also be a link to Emmaus charity. This will be a reference to the short story Kevin’s Christmas and followed by a short statement to encourage donations: Kevin isn’t the only person without a warm home this Christmas, donate to Emmaus to help people like Kevin have a happy Christmas this year.
Pre-launch, week 5–10: The next 5 weeks of the pre-launch campaign will expand to release short book trailers. There will be three, 40 seconds trailers for each of the short stories. This will give the viewers more of an insight into the product. Each trailer will be released weekly through the social media accounts and posted onto the website. The previous 5 week launch techniques will still be going ahead, with the added post of trailers. There will also be an increase in the Social Media postings and an emphasis on the release date of the book, as well as a link to pre-ordering the book.
Launch date: 10th of November, Christmas Tales is released and the first book launch will take place. This will take place in Waterstones, Piccadilly London. The book will be sold at a price of £8.99 each. The event will be held on a Saturday from 11 am to 3 pm. This will include author signings and talks, as well as more information on future projects and leaflets linked to the social media platforms and the website- this will ensure that everyone is kept up to date with the book launch and future launches.
Post-launch, week 1–8: The next 8 week post-launch process will be much the same as the pre-launch. There will be a continued increase in postings on social media but with a direct link to purchasing the book. There will also be postings of customers with the book, the book launches and captions with the reviews the book has had. Reviews will also be posted onto the website and kept updated. There will be a hashtag of #christmastales so customers can be linked and posted onto the social media sites. The rest of the budgeted money for the campaign will go into various book launches that’ll happen weekly, around England in Waterstones bookshops. The post-launch campaign will end on the 29th of December, social media accounts will be updated for future products, carrying the Christmas Tales fans onto the future campaigns of the author.
