Book Launch! – Journey From An Idea To Publication

A while back, I traveled to the Blue Marble Bookstore in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, for the book launch of Like a River by Kathy Cannon Wiechman.

Book launches are exciting affairs. Of course, they’re really exciting if it’s your own book that’s being launched. But the journey from idea to publication is such a long and arduous one (years of revisions, months of editors’ comments, more months of designing, printing, marketing) that being there to witness another writer’s triumphant arrival feels to me like a vicarious victory.

Book launches can happen in back yards (like the one for my biography The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton) or in a cozy place like the “Goodnight Moon” room at the Blue Marble.  Friends, neighbors, family, and generic lovers of books show up in force and it’s all a bit like a giant love-fest.

If you’re a reader, you come to learn fascinating things about how this particular book came into being. You pepper the author with questions. Where did the idea come from?  How did you pick the names for your characters?  How long did it take you to write the book?

If you’re a not-yet-published writer, you come to know it’s possible to publish…really, finally publish….a book.

I come for all of these reasons and one more: I come for the joy of holding a new book in my hands; I come to see the handsome cover, the blurbs on the back, the enticing jacket copy, the dedication, the acknowledgements, the publication date…I pour over all of it.

Some day I might purchase an e-reader. I’m not like the prolific (and very opinionated) writer, Penelope Lively, who calls Kindle owners “bloodless nerds.” But for right now, I favor the old-fashioned kind of book. Judging from the crowd at the Blue Marble, I don’t think they’re going away anytime soon.