Lessons Learned #5 — On Launching
During a pandemic. In a city that’s in full lockdown.
Look, I’m not quite sure what made me think it’d be a good idea at the time.
I think after seeing it finally be so close to the end, I got excited and jumped the gun. We are all really excited to get the books into the hands of our supporters too.
In the last month since launching, we’ve learned not just one thing but many. Things like:
- Our friends and family are all flipping legends
- The book community on Instagram is so wonderful and so supportive
- Not being able to launch a book in person is super tough (there are no readings at schools, no bookshop visits, no canvassing on the streets or markets on weekends)
- A lot of influencers and reviewers want to look at physical products, rather than digital ones, which has left us in a “come back to us later” cycle
- Being in pre-sales mode is exhausting, because it involves managing the expectations of all of your supporters to date, and building hype on an indefinite timeline
It’s been a roller coaster of a month to say the least, full of beautiful feedback (check out our reviews on Instagram) and support. One of the biggest wins was also making it into a pitch competition in Melbourne! I’m excited, and terrified, all rolled into one messy ball of emotions.
So, what are you saying?
We’re making a slight pivot with our launch. Instead of waiting until we hit 600 books in pre-sales, we’re going to lock in a print date for mid-November. By this date, either one of two things will happen:
- We’ll have enough orders to print our original print-run goal of 1500 books and it’ll be happy days
- We’ll have enough sales to cover a smaller print run (somewhere between 500–1000 books) with a small deficit overall
Either way, we’ll be able to focus on that date and build momentum with our community. We’ll also be able to guarantee our supporters that the books will arrive before Christmas. We’ll then also be able to start getting books our to our key influencers and reviewers to kick off more organic growth. So this feels like a good move (of course time will tell and we’ll keep you in the loop)!
We are really looking forward to pack up our orders and send them off with love. We’re also excited to be able to finally give people a delightful and joyful experience with our books.
What’s changing?
Nothing really. We’re looking at perhaps launching a fundraising campaign to support the pre-sales, as we’ve had feedback from a few people that they’d love to help but just aren’t in the market for a book.
I think I also underestimated the power of a time-based campaign on a platform like Kickstarter or Chuffed in launching something new.
We’ll keep you posted on if we go this way and how you can support us. People always seem surprised to hear that sharing a website or campaign is actually the most genuinely helpful thing to do — honestly, it means the world and really makes a difference!
Signing off for now, in the middle of a launch, in the middle of a pandemic. I can’t wait to write our next update from the other side of both!
Lessons Learned is a regular series about the many things I’m learning as I build Small Fires. Part reflection, part working in the open, these learnings are here to share what I’m discovering and also give an insight into the operations and thinking behind the organisation.
