Planning a launch poses so many questions. Where to have it? Who will launch the book? What activities can I have for the kids? What food will I serve? How many people will turn up? What will I say in my speech? Do I have to make a speech? Can I pay someone to make a speech for me?
Reading that paragraph you would probably assume that speaking to a large group of people worries me. Wrong! Well, sort of. While it’s true that making a speech to a large group sends sweat beads racing to my palms, it’s actually the thought of making a speech to only five people that is concerning me at the moment!
When I had my first baby lots of family, friends and workmates all came to visit me in hospital. I had cards and phone calls from just about everyone I knew. All this attention served to reinforce what I already knew… that I had given birth to the most beautiful baby in the entire world. (And that I had survived the most horrendous labour ever known to womankind – rather stoically too, I might add… Oh okay, Nurse Smartypants, maybe I was more hysterical than stoic – but, hey, I really thought I was going to die!)
Then came babies number two and three, and lo and behold, they were just as beautiful! Of course, by then enough of my friends had had babies for me to realise that 1. All babies were beautiful (although not quite as beautiful as mine), and 2. it was apparently quite common for labour to be horrendous (although not quite as horrendous as mine).
But what has this got to do with launches? Well, you see, as much as my hospital room was as busy as the lolly bowl at a 6th birthday party after baby number one, it was like the vegetable sticks and hummus dip after the next two. The cards and calls were much thinner on the ground too. It seemed that first babies were a big deal, but subsequent ones, meh – just more of the same.
So what if that happens to launches too! My first launch, for I’ve Lost My Kisses, was pretty well attended, but maybe all those people will think, ‘Meh, just more of the same!’
Which is why there will be plenty of wibbly wobbly lolly snakes and twisties on the table at Wibbly Wobbly Street’s launch – and not a single bowl of vegetable sticks and hummus!
Seriously, who could resist these?
If you’re in the Cairns area, here’s your launch invitation – come along!
