Last night saw a group of us going along to support Helen MacKinven on the launch of her debut novel, Talk Of The Toun. We met the lovely Catherine Hokin & two of my friends who are not readers joined us, with my book lover friend making it, this was her first launch attendance.
The event was held in Argyll Street Waterstones and the lovely team at ThunderPoint assisted Helen with providing themed cupcakes and refreshments, pink glasses as modelled by Bimbo (the poodle on the cover) and some fabulous music of the time.
The turnout was fabulous, not an empty seat to be seen which isn't something I see at launches of a lot of debut nights. Helen read 3 passages from the story, I think the presence and strength of a reading can impact on how a tale is received by prospective buyers. She brought the characters to life and despite already having read the book, I was lucky enough to get an ARC, I wanted to read it again and reconnect with the characters. The crowd responded to all of the readings, the room rocked with laughter and the Q&A had a good participation from the crowd.
This is one of the nicest launches I have attended, there was a bit of an emosh moment at the end when Helen presented, two of her close friends who have assisted with the book cover design and support, a small gift. Then her publicist produced a beautiful bouquet of flowers to Helen. The book was launched yesterday 29/10/2015, available on the kindle for £4.00 and in paperback form for £9.99. You can find my review here http://www.alwaysreading.net/2015/10/talk-of-toun-by-helen-mackinven_12.html
The blog tour for this book is now underway, please support an author & bloggers and stop by. I got my ARC copy signed last night and will put it up for competition when it is my stop on the tour. Please check the dates below.
Great post! I've only been to a sort-of party-book launch which was fabulous for Sewing the Shadows Together.
ReplyDeleteBook launches can be so much fun.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the tenor of a reading and talk can greatly influence the perception of a book.
I really want to attend more book launches myself.
What a great book launch, it sounds as though you all had a lot of fun. I really must start going to more of them.
ReplyDeleteLooks as if you all had a great time, Lainy. Like you, I always love hearing an author read from their work, even if I've already read the book. Hope this brings Helen lots of readers.
ReplyDelete