So last year I published my book. It is called “Play Piano: A Learner’s Guide to Playing, Reading, and Creating Music.” When I say “publish,” I mean that I a) printed and sold spiral-bound copies of the book, b) made a digital copy of the book available for my students to use for our lessons, and c) had a live book launch event in April.
The event was a success, helped by five students in the “book launch committee.” Many students attended, and I enjoyed playing author, including doing a book-signing at the back after toasts and performances. In addition to overseeing book sales, my wife sold book bags with the book cover design on them. One student from the committee had a cake made with the book cover on it. Another student made a giant poster of the book cover, featuring the new teaching site I launched that very day, ThePianoLearner.com.
A few days before the event, I went on Good Day Sacramento, a local TV morning show, and promoted both book and event. During my on-air segment, I taught the anchor a very simple music pattern, which the other anchor guessed was from “Grease” (no, it wasn’t, but she was right: it sounded exactly like it).
All in all, the event was a success, but I would not say it was easy. Even with a wonderful team of students helping, I found planning the event stressful and depleting. Knowing myself now as highly-sensitive, I was not surprised by this, and I did my best to take care of myself, which I am quite proud of.
For instance, after the event I felt internal pressure to build the new website. Rather than giving into the pressure, I eased up and let myself take my time with it. In the months following the launch, I alternated between creating new content, sending out email offers to my list, and taking personal well-being breaks. Though I am far from mastery in the area of sales and marketing, this change in approach bodes well for the future.
It was a big win to launch the book. It was just as much of a win that I treated myself as well as possible throughout the process.