Recently, I spotted an ad on my Facebook feed for an author’s online book launch event and immediately took note of the details to share with you. As nonfiction authors, we should all consider hosting similar events to inspire book sales and engage with readers.
Arthur C. Brooks teaches a popular course on happiness at Harvard and has previously authored several books. For his most recent book, The Meaning of Your Life, Brooks created an impressive landing page promoting a free event that readers could register to attend.
He offered two options:
- Buy the book on pre-sale, input your order number, and get access to the exclusive author Q&A after the event.
- Simply register to attend the livestream event, no purchase necessary, but no access to the author Q&A session.
Brooks has lots of famous friends and leverages them heavily in the event promotion. While most of us mere mortals don’t have celebrities in our back pockets, there is still much to learn here. Anyone can host an online event and attract readers with the right value proposition, since the key to all book marketing campaigns is to deliver value.
What Happened at the Launch Event
I briefly logged on to the live event Brooks held so I could see it in action. The camera featured Brooks standing up in a room, talking to virtual attendees about meaning. They used Zoom, which kept showing pop-ups on the screen alerting when attendees joined or left the event. Ideally, someone on their planning team should have tested the technology in advance and prevented those alerts from appearing as they were distracting and unnecessary.
I didn’t stay for the whole event because it conflicted with other commitments and I don’t feel I’m part of the ideal target audience. Had I connected more with the messaging, the event would have been a higher priority for me.
This is totally okay, by the way. No book connects with every reader, nor should you aim to connect with everyone. For all authors, our primary goal is to connect with our ideal readers—the ones who absolutely want what we’re offering. Brooks had plenty of ideal readers tuned in.
Book Launch Event Results
The book debuted at #1 on The New York Times Bestsellers List, making this event strategy a big win for Brooks.
And regardless of how many people attended the live event, the real success came from the book pre-sales Brooks amassed by promoting “VIP Access” in exchange for the book purchase.
Let’s look at how his event is positioned and how you can host your own online book launch, or re-launch of an existing book.
Dissecting The Book Launch Landing Page
Brooks used Facebook ads to promote his book launch event. It showed up on my Facebook feed just a few days prior, which was good timing because it had a sense of urgency to participate. Had the ad appeared weeks prior, I might have thought, “I can do this later,” and then forgotten about it.
The opening hook on the page touts, “Finding purpose in an age of emptiness.” While I can’t say this specifically spoke to me (I feel pretty clear about the meaning and purpose in my life), I can see how it would have wide appeal with the ideal readers for this book.
The top of the page has an immediate call to action: “Pre-order the Book and Get VIP Access” alongside an option to “Register for Free.”
Next, it speaks to the target readers’ pain points. “Your Life is Not a Checklist” is a call-out to busy people who may feel their lives lack something meaningful.
The image of Brooks in front of a screen full of faces watching a livestream makes the whole event feel big and important. (An image likely generated with AI, by the way.)
Next, celebrity guests are highlighted as additional speakers at the event. While this certainly adds some sizzle, it’s not a requirement to inspire people to register and attend. Remember, it’s all about the value proposition you offer to attendees.
The page continues by highlighting target readers’ pain points (“You aren’t lost. You’re just looking in the wrong place.”), followed by another call to action with sign-up buttons.
Next, several celebrity endorsements are shared. Don’t worry if you don’t have these (most of us don’t), but if you do get some good reader quotes, it can be helpful to highlight them as social proof that your book is a good read.
Next up is a dramatic quote, again speaking to readers’ pain points, and another call to action. When setting up any kind of landing page, it’s wise to repeat the call to action so that readers can click as soon as they’re convinced that they want to participate.
Then there is a list of the benefits of attending the event, which feels a bit late to me. I would put this higher up on the page.
And another call to action:
And finally, there is a clear call to action that outlines the three steps:
- Pre-order the book
- Register for the event
- Receive bonuses
Again, I would have put this higher up on the page and perhaps repeated it at the end.
Overall, the page is captivating and does a great job of inspiring participation. If the message even resonates a little bit with readers, then the decision to register for the event is an easy one.
Keep this in mind for your own book launch events. It’s essential to always speak to the interests, needs, and challenges of your readers, and then show how you can offer solutions. What we see from Brooks’ launch page is that he is going to show participants how to gain more meaning in their harried lives.
In part 2 of this post, I show you the steps you can follow to host your own online book launch.
