My First Book Launch Party

If you follow me on social media at all, you’ve no doubt seen me say that I am still pinching myself and overwhelmed that I had a book launch party… and that it was actually for a book I wrote. Honestly, I am so humbled and grateful.

I thought you might like a glimpse into what a first time book launch party might be like. I will also be sharing my speech in a separate post. I have had so many people who heard it ask if I was going to publish it that I would feel bad if I didn’t. Plus, I put all that work into it so I might as well, right?

This book launch party was for my debut book, Coloring Gospel Truths: A Devotional Coloring Book and Journal. And it was also for my friend Vika’s debut bible study, Colossians: The Gospel, the Church, and the New Humanity in Christ. A joint book launch party turned out to be perfect because we know a lot of the same people, and it combined our expenses. We didn’t mind sharing the spotlight with each other at all!

Here’s how it all went down:

Welcome

Our church graciously let us use a room for our venue and our pastor and friend opened the night with a welcome speech and prayer. At the sign in table, we each displayed our books and collected sign-in information. This allowed us to send emails thanking our guests, and sharing our online buying links.

Food

Food is definitely an important aspect of a book launch party, especially something sweet. It is a celebration after all! We had a variety of gorgeous Georgetown Cupcakes as well as homemade gluten free treats! Other favorites were the baked brie and the charcuterie board.

Kids’ Table

We knew we wanted this to be a family-friendly affair, so we stocked a “kids only” table with crayons and coloring sheets. It worked like a charm at keeping the kids occupied.

Music

What’s a good party without music? I curated a special playlist just for the event. We wanted “Christian” music but not necessarily worship music. You can find the Spotify playlist below.

Decorations

Poster-size displays of the book cover are a classic book party staple and I’m so glad we got them made! The decorations were minimal with simple green table overlays over black table cloths and simple flower centerpieces. We bought the flowers at Trader Joe’s and friends helped with the arrangements.

Speeches

Of course we both wanted to thank our guests and share a little bit about our books and our inspiration behind them. We both shared a short 10-15 minute talk separately.

Book Signing

Next it was time to sell some books and sign them! I recruited a friend to help me sell so I could focus on signing and it worked out great! I was able to accept credit cards thanks to the Square Reader and Square Point of Sale app.

I was most nervous about this part of the night, because I was so afraid that I wouldn’t know what to write or wouldn’t know someone’s name. It turned out fine. And just a tip, if you are signing books, ask if they want the book personalized for themselves before signing because they might want to give it to a friend. If you aren’t sure of the person’s name (that you should be… oops), you can always asks for a spelling to make sure you aren’t going to write it incorrectly in their book. 😉