Have a new book? Well then you might be having a launch party. For mine I organized invites, crafts, and more. Here's a quick peek:
The Invites - I had the fabulous Donna Farrell design these flyers which I printed at Office Depot and handed out at summer camps, local stores, and well, pretty much anywhere. If schools had been in session I would've contacted them too. My genius writing buddy Lori Alexander suggested doing two on a sheet so you can save money on printing. I also blogged, posted, and contacted local print media.
The Crafts - I prepped (and practiced with real live children) two crafts. One was coloring sheets with crayons. Thank you Oriol Vidal for providing so many options! The other was a pink monster puppet. Thank you Monica Ladd for the inspiration!. The biggest thing here was to buy small plastic organizers to transport all the bits and pieces. Very helpful! And don't do anything with glitter. Store owners (and most normal people) hate glitter. Too messy.
The Decor - Here we are setting up. Barnes and Noble kindly provided the tables. I brought my big ol' poster (Thank you Sterling!), a small easel for propping up a book on my signing table, a table cloth to hide stuff under my signing table, a tub of monster toys for giving away at the signing table, colored sharpies for signing books, purple balloons because everyone loves purple balloons, and my winning personality.
The Activity - I designed a 3' x 4' plywood replica of my book cover with a hole cut in it so that parents could take pictures of their kids while waiting to get to the craft / signing table. My carpenter Sam designed it so I could take off the legs for easy transport, and I can paint the backside with my next book's cover. Who loves a two-for-one? I love a two-for-one! FYI - have a stool in case some kids are too short to reach the hole.
