Launch of An Eventful Life - Life Stories of Eventing Champions

In August 2009, I had a crazy idea about creating a non-fiction book providing an insight into the lives of five Australian equestrian Olympic medallists. My fascination with and contacts in the sport of eventing gave me the ability to access the people I wanted to feature and I certainly had the resources (Palmer Higgs!) to publish the book! Why not, I thought?

An Eventful Life – Life Stories of Eventing Champions was published in May 2010. Like all first time self-publishers I learned a lot, especially about production, during the process – and luckily I had lots of great support from the very experienced team at Palmer Higgs. I had commissioned equestrian journalist, Alison Duthie to interview the contributors and write the book based on my concept and it was great fun but hard work to put it all together. I also wanted to “walk the walk” when it came to the marketing and promotion for the book so I prepared my Marketing Plan following my own advice in the Palmer Higgs Self-Publisher’s Guide. Organising the book launch was of course a part of the plan and I launched the book at one of Australia’s biggest equestrian events – the Melbourne International Three Day Event held at Werribee Park during the Queen’s Birthday weekend in June.

It is obviously a great bonus to have five Olympic medallists who are heroes in their sport to help launch the book. The initial launch on Friday evening was a low key affair in the main arena at Werribee Park but it was well attended by the riding fraternity, especially Pony Club kids and their mums. We had a stand in the Trade Village during the event which was well decked out with large posters of the riders, a video screen showing photographs from the book and the riders came by, when their competition schedule allowed, to sign copies. On Sunday night it was a great thrill to have the book formally launched by a legend of the eventing world, Wayne Roycroft, at a VIP dinner hosted by Equestrian Victoria.

Following my own advice (from the third and final section of the Self-Publisher’s Guide – available soon), I also utilised the blog on the book website www.an-eventful-life.com.au, video on YouTube www.youtube.com/user/aneventfullifebook and Facebook www.facebook.com/pages/An-Eventful-Life/107230505977172 to advertise the launch and follow the event with great success. I didn’t use Twitter at this event but am now also “tweeting” like mad on Twitter at eventfulifebook.

Combining the book launch with a well attended event certainly helps increase media attention. We had coverage from most of the major equestrian press, both in print and online and succeeded in getting two of the riders on ABC radio (a quick segment on Breakfast with Red Symons and 30 minutes on Radio National’s Bush Telegraph) as well as getting coverage in rural “bible”, The Weekly Times. There is much more to come and I’ll keep working at it but I am very happy with the media coverage we’ve achieved so far.

The launch was hard work and took a lot of planning but our sales were very good during the weekend and have continued to come in via the bookstore. It certainly makes me appreciate how every author needs to be very committed to their book to achieve results but I’m pleased that the planning and work that we’ve put into the production and marketing of An Eventful Life has paid off. It was a great launch but there’s a lot more to be done - I’m continuing to work on it and will keep you updated!

Debbie Higgs