Two months until launch!
It’s amazing to think that suddenly we are just two months from the launch of A McAdam Station Christmas, the new Abigail Massey Christmas novella. The official launch event is scheduled for Sunday, November 9 at the McAdam Railway Station and Hotel and that means the project team is currently busy, busy, busy.
“To be honest, now that we’ve already launched three Abigail books, the launch itself is not that difficult to plan,” author Mark Walma said recently. “Sure, we want to keep things fresh and include new wrinkles each time out but the basic planning is already done.”
It’s the other aspects of the fall program that have people hopping.
First, there is the final preparation of the book itself: finalizing the layout, checking (and checking again) for typos, formatting errors and other small problems with the galleys, and arranging for a sample book to be printed so that it can be checked once more in its final form.
“Things got more complicated when we found out that significant changes at our original publisher mean we might need to find a new place to have the books printed,” Mark explained.
With illustrator/designer Lynn Walma taking care of the printing details, including scoping out new printing companies to compare price, quality and service, Mark has been focusing on promotions for the new book.
“I’ve been reading about a new concept in book marketing – video trailers – where you basically make the equivalent of a film trailer for your novel,” Mark said. “It’s an interesting idea that, I think, could really help to bring the book to life online and perhaps attract more people to it.”
As a result, Mark has been busily working on a short promotional video for A McAdam Station Christmas, which he hopes to have posted to the web soon. Then it’s a matter of making sure it gets seen by as many people as possible.
“In other words,” Mark laughed, “you have to find ways to promote the video that you’ve created to promote your book.”
And finally, since interest in the Abigail books is so high in New Brunswick’s capital city of Fredericton, the idea was put forward for the Abigail team to work with its principal sales partner, Artful Persuasion (an arts co-operative store located in the city’s downtown), to hold a joint event: a Christmas sale of the beautiful art and crafts produced by Artful’s many members and a second launch event for the Abigail book.
“We’ve been very lucky to have found so many wonderful partners among the local artists and crafts people who are members of Artful Persuasion in Fredericton, Simply Local Eh in Saint John and the Woodstock Farm and Craft Market,” Mark said. “People like Sarah Robichaud Smith-Stewart, Veronica Perrin and Carrie Allen-Golding have been staunch allies from the start, carrying our books in their various sales venues and including us in their promotional events. A joint event is a great way to join forces with them to bring our often different customer groups together.”
The details of the Fredericton event are still being worked out. Watch this space for more news and information as it becomes available.
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