Guide to Hosting a Successful Book Launch with Baron Ryan

Last updated: August 23, 2024

I hosted a book reading for my friend Baron Ryan for his new book, A Comedy of Nobodies.

It was a huge success. The author was happy, the attendees were happy, the bookstore was happy, and it generated a lot of sales.

Here’s everything we did, what I learned, what worked well, and how you can do it yourself.

Setting the Scene

First, you need a venue. We hosted this at Book People, an independent bookstore in downtown Austin. They had plenty of space and chairs and microphones so everyone could hear.

Next, you need an audience. We had 45 people attend. Baron has a large audience on his TikTok and Instagram accounts, so it makes sense that a lot of people showed up. But this format I’ll describe could work with as few as 10 people.

Finally, you need a plan. And that’s what this article about hosting a book reading will give you. You could also use this same format to host an interesting book launch party.

Breaking the Mold

This wasn’t a typical book reading or book launch. We didn’t even have the author read a section of his book.

Instead, we did things differently to keep the energy and engagement high:

• I handed out name tags for everyone. I love using name tags for events.
• We had Q&A integrated into the discussion, not just at the very end
• There were a few small group discussion breaks for the audience

Name Tags

For the name tags, you might be wondering why we did this.

I believe passing out name tags at this author event helped in 3 main ways:

1. To create community for everyone who attended,
2. To allow me as the host to call on people by name during the Q&A, and
3. To make it easier for the author during the meet-and-greet afterwards.

Giving out name tags sounds easy, but I’ll still tell you how I do it.

I filled out name tags for everybody as they arrived. First names only in big black letters. I greeted each person and said hello and thanked them for coming.

I tried to make them feel comfortable and welcome. This helped me build a bit of a connection with everyone in the audience. And I think it helped to make the atmosphere feel more collaborative compared to a “sage on the stage” mentality. I didn’t want the audience to simply sit back to listen to the experts on stage. I wanted everyone to be ready to participate and ask questions.

Pro tip: If you are hosting a book event like this, do name tags for your attendees. It will create more of a collaborative environment, you’ll get better questions, and the author will appreciate it later during the meet-and-greet. As of August 2024, my favorite name tags are the Avery 5154 and the Cualfec 300s.

Once everyone had arrived and I gave them all name tags, we started the event.

Agenda

Here’s the timeline we followed for the event:

3:45 PM  Name tags as people arrive
Personally greeting attendees and fostering a sense of community

3:55 PM  Announce start in 5 mins
Tell audience we will do things differently to have icebreakers and more audience Q&A

4:00 PM  Activity: Tell a friend or stranger your life story in 2 minutes

4:05 PM  Author introduction – his life story in 2 mins
Then I interviewed him with a mix of prepared questions and natural conversation

4:20 PM  Activity: Tell a friend or stranger about the first job you ever had

4:25 PM  Audience questions

4:35 PM  Activity: (author question for audience)

4:45 PM  Final audience questions

5:00 PM  Photos with the author and book signing

Energizing the Room

I started our discussion right on time at 4:00PM. But a few minutes beforehand, I told the audience that we’d be doing things a bit differently.

I told them that there would be a few small group discussions, perhaps an icebreaker or intro, and that we’d be asking for questions from the audience sooner than most readings and not at the very end.

I asked everyone in the audience to try to have one question for the author prepared. Because it’s always a bit embarrassing or a buzz-kill when the host asks for questions and nobody raises their hand.

At the scheduled start time, I asked everyone to pair up and turn to talk to a friend or stranger seated nearby. To their left, right, front, or behind.

After they picked a partner, I asked them each to share their life stories in two minutes or less. They could share personally, or professionally, or whatever they felt comfortable sharing.

Doing this served multiple purposes:

1. To get people talking and raise the energy in the room,
2. To set the stage for Baron to share his own story, and
3. To create connections between the audience and the author’s experiences.

The Author in the Spotlight

Next I invited the author, Baron Ryan, to come on stage.

We made the decision to have Baron not be there right away because that would have been a little distracting. This was the correct decision. Him coming up a few minutes after we started added another layer of excitement to the room.

I asked him a few questions, including to tell his own life story in about two minutes.

We explored various aspects of his work and writing process.

I researched and prepared a few questions in advance which I printed out to have handy on stage.

Questions for the Author

Here are some of the questions I wrote out:

• Is it true from his bio that “Baron Ryan is a filmmaker, humorist, and Eagle Scout who earned all 139 merit badges?”
• The name American Baron – I heard from your friend that you’ve had this name for a long time. Can you tell the story of that?
• You watched a lot of movies growing up… talk about that. And how did it influence you? Should I watch more movies?
• What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
• Films – talk about filmmaking and your role. Do you want to do more of it?
• Specific discussion about his book– you wrote some of the stories a while ago, like 2017? Or 2018? Have you been writing this book for a long time?
• Can you share a bit about your writing process for “A COMEDY OF NOBODIES”?
• Your friend, Katrina told me that when she met you, that you literally had zero money, like not even enough money for a bank account. Can you tell us about that?

These questions helped guide our conversation.

They also provided opportunities for Baron to share personal anecdotes and insights.

Discussion and Audience

The last question, about him having no money, led to him telling us that his first job was driving a tractor.

This served as a natural transition to do another small group discussion.

I also felt that the energy was slightly coming down since the audience had been hearing us talk for 10 minutes on stage.

So I asked attendees to turn to a partner or friend nearby and share their first job experience. This was a short break, only 1-2 minutes, but it raised the energy and allowed me and the author to drink some water and prepare for our next discussion.

We talked some more, we fielded audience questions, and then we did a meet and greet with photos and a book signing. It was an excellent event.

• Staff at the bookstore said they’d never seen so many questions asked at an event
• The author talked to every single attendee after the event who wanted to get a book signed or a selfie photo
• A lot of books were sold

At the end, we snapped a quick group photo from the stage. Then we shuffled for a few minutes so we could set up for the book signing.

Book Signing and Photos

My best piece of advice for the book signing is to have a handler or host who limits the interaction for each guest.

Some of your attendees might want to talk for a long time, or even the author might want to chat with people. But if there’s a long line, like we had, you don’t want to make people at the end wait too long.

I set a timer for 1 minute and would motion for them to move on after the 1 minute time period. This helped us move through the entire line in under an hour.

A special Thank You to the Book People staff who helped to manage this event and staff the book signing. They provided someone to help take pictures of each attendee, using their own phone, with the author. That was pretty awesome.

Lessons Learned

Here’s what I learned from doing this book reading:

1. Start with energy. If you can’t play background music while people are arriving, use interactive elements like a “Talk to your partner” discussion question to create atmosphere. You don’t want to start with a silent audience.
2. Use name tags.  Personally distribute them to each attendee to foster a sense of community. This helps break the “sage on the stage” mentality where people just sit back and listen.
3. Keep the author offstage initially. I think this builds anticipation and allows for a dramatic entrance.
4. Integrate Q&A throughout. Don’t wait until the end to take questions!
5. Encourage interaction. Have audience members talk to each other about themes from the book.
6. Be flexible. When energy dips and it seems like you’ve been talking on stage for too long, pivot to an interactive element. If you’re bored, the audience is bored.
7. Prepare, but be ready to adapt. Have a loose agenda, prepare questions, but read the room and let the conversation flow.
8. Encourage post-event interaction. Allow time for photos and personal connections between the author and attendees.
9. Take a group photo with the author. Baron was too modest to get a picture on stage, but I pushed for it and got everyone to wave for a final photo. This captured a nice memory from the experience.

Conclusion

Hosting a book launch or a book reading like this doesn’t have to follow a traditional format. Just because everyone else does a 45-minute interview, followed by 15 minutes of Q&A, doesn’t mean that you have to do that too.

By incorporating interactive elements and focusing on audience engagement, you can create a memorable event that feels more like a gathering of friends than a formal reading.

Try these 5 things at your own book launch:

• Hand out name tags to everyone.
• Include an integrated Q&A portion throughout the event.
• Schedule a few small group discussion breaks for the audience.
• Organize a book signing and a photo op for the audience.
• Take a group photo with the author.

The key is to keep the energy high, encourage participation, and allow for genuine connections between the author and their audience.

With these strategies, you can turn a simple book event into a celebration of storytelling and community. And don’t forget to get a group photo!

Thanks to Trina for background and advice and inviting me to be the host. And thanks to Book People for producing the event and sharing to their audience.