How to plan events for your book

What your event should include, what to consider when planning it and how to make sure children will love it

My next picture book The Hug Button publishes at the start of July and later today I’m going to sit down with the illustrator Rebecca Ashdown so we can make a plan for what our event for this book will look like.

I’ve written before about the planning I’ve already done to promote this book six months and a month before publication. I’ve also written about what happens at literary festivals and events.

But in this post I thought it might be helpful to share exactly how I plan an event for each new book.

Over the last four years I’ve run hundreds of events and workshops in schools, libraries, bookshops and at festivals around the country. I’ve done them to audience sizes that range from thousands of kids to just two!

I used to feel really nervous about standing up in front of people and doing events but like anything, the more you do it, the better you get and the more you learn what works.

No two authors or illustrators will ever do an event in exactly the same way. There isn’t a right or wrong way to do one - we’re all as individual as our books.

I’ve learned a lot about events over the last few years from how to plan one, to what can make an event truly memorable for a child.

In this post I’m going to share what the essential parts of an event are, things to consider when doing one and what really elevates an event to ensure it’s a success.