Release Day Tradition Origins
I never know how many of you folks who read the blogs also follow along when I do book releases, but I assume there has to be some overlap, so at least a few of you know that I have certain traditions in place when I launch a new book. Though most of them are pretty straightforward, there are a few that are a little more unique to me and my way of doing things (read: shitshows) that stand out. And since people will often ask where these came from, I thought today was a good time to go through all of my traditions, or at least the ones I’m not sworn on a sacred altar of blood and Bud Light cans not to divulge, and talk about where they came from.
Tradition #1: The Morning Mimosas
I don’t know if this one really counted as a tradition back in the beginning, unless almost every weekend was somehow a book launch. The truth is I love mimosas, and champagne in general, so these have been my breakfast booze of choice since I discovered them. Thus, when book releases came around and I needed something to settle my nerves, mimosas were the drink of choice. And boy, were there some nerves to settle. Even now when I release a new book, I wake up a little scared that people won’t like it and I’ll have put in all that work only to disappoint my readers. That’s a natural fear that I don’t think is ever going away, and probably shouldn’t if I want to keep making quality work. However, that fear has nothing on the absolute terror of releasing in the early days.
Back then I had no idea what I was doing, whether the books were selling by luck or weird coincidence, or if the next step I took would be the one to plunge my fledgling career into ashes. That was when the release day mimosas were essential, not a tradition as much as a coping mechanism for the insecurity and fear trying to overpower me. They were there every time a book came out, all the way back to the beginning, and as time went on and I got less scared (and also learned to deal with those fears with ways other than booze) I kept them around because they’d been woven into the fabric of my releases, and it would have seemed strange not to have them.
Also because, as stated, I really like mimosas.
Tradition #2: Digital Release Parties
One day, I would love to hold a release party in person, with the opportunity for fans to come drink some mimosas and celebrate the launch right alongside me. I even tried to put something together for Forging Hephaestus, but all the dreaming in the world doesn’t change the fact that I’m still a relatively little guy in the literary pond. In a few more years, maybe that dream can become a reality. Until then, however, I have the digital release parties, which do have the upside of allowing everyone who wants to, regardless of geographic location, join in the fun.
The digital release parties grew out of the dream to hold a big event and the limits of my current prestige. I started by holding Q&A sessions on release days, but those got pretty messy as it was just one topic that kept popping up and filling people’s feed, plus the poor organization meant I missed a lot of things readers asked. I finally hit on the idea to put everything onto an event page, that way we could all have our fun and it would be easy to navigate, plus not bother anyone who didn’t care about the release. I kept the Q&A portion that I started with, slowly adding in more activities as new ideas came up or technology became available. Nowadays the parties include games and prizes, sneak peeks and tidbits, and recently even a video live-stream where I can actually talk to answer things instead of typing. Each innovation has made the process more fun, and I hope in a year’s time there’s even more going on at every one of them. Even when the in-person parties become viable, I think I’ll keep the digital component. I have too much fun to let it go, and besides that gives me an excuse for two parties!
Tradition #3: The 5-Star Shots
Oh boy. These things. So the first two were pretty self-explanatory, but to clarify for those who don’t know I’ll go through how this one works. On release day (before I pass out), every time someone posts a 5-star review I take a shot. Normally that isn’t too many, since my books are long and until Forging Hephaestus I never did Advanced Reader Copies, meaning the only ones who could leave a review were beta-readers and people who stayed up all night to read the book. Originally, I didn’t even tell people I did this, it was just a fun way to secretly cheers the readers who were that determined to start the books off on a good review footing. But, as one might imagine, between the mimosas and the shots discretion is not one of my strengths during a release day, so I happened to mention it during one of the parties. People were intrigued, I started posting pics of me doing the shots through the day, and from then on it’s been a part of my release day traditions.
I actually really like these, otherwise I wouldn’t keep doing them, but when Corpies came along I thought I might die. Since that one was a web-serial first, tons of you got to read it prior to release, and I think it reached somewhere around 20 reviews that first day before I fell asleep. It was a rough hangover, but a great start for the book, so I was more than happy to muddle through the next day. That said, I did decide to start keeping more than straight liquor around, some mixers and gentle boozes like Baileys and Rumchata were added to my stock so I could vary things up when the numbers got high. The traditions have to evolve, after all, if I’m going to find fun new ones to add to the mix.
Those are my big three for every release, and I’m curious to know if the rest of you have any traditions for big days in your lives. Maybe before a game, or a work presentation, or whatever you need to psych yourself up for. Talk about them below, and maybe the rest of us will see some good ideas to borrow.