Debuting: How Was Your Book Launch?
A Conversation with Roohi Choudhry (part 1 of 3)
Last month, I chatted with my pub date buddy, Roohi Choudhry, about our experiences as debut authors. We met through Poets and Writers’ Get the Word Out Publicity Incubator and, since March 25, we’ve been experiencing being debut authors in tandem. Roohi’s brilliant novel, Outside Women, follows two women, separated by centuries, creating lives outside of patriarchal and colonial structures. I can’t put it down. Seriously, go get a copy! I had the chance to speak with Roohi about our experiences with everything from publicity anxieties to how we measure the success of our books. We’re publishing this conversation in three parts on both our Substacks (check out Roohi’s Being of Clay, Lover of Words!) over the next few weeks. In this first part, we talk book launches.
Roohi
I’d love to hear a little bit more about your launch. Was there one event that you think of as your launch or were there multiple?
Miranda
I did my launch at the beginning of April in Portland. I also have what I'm calling my Seattle launch at the end of this month. That's something that my friend who's a poet, Justine Chan, is helping me put together. It'll be really nice. I'm absolutely nervous about it because it's one of those events that's centered on the book. So I have two launch-style events, one at the front end and one at the back end of this two month process. The Portland launch was the first event I did and it was at Up Up Books here in Portland, which is a small independent bookstore, a really beautiful shop. It felt really warm, just the right amount of people. A lot of my really dear friends came and then brought people along. And my kid was there and one of my kid’s friends was there. And Up Up Books has this really cute little kids corner so as soon as the owner saw there were kids there she set up two chairs right next to the kids corner so they could go back and forth between the reading and the kid section. It was set up so beautifully for children to be able to get massively bored and have somewhere to go. And I read with two of my dear writer friends and it was just a really nice evening and it felt really good.
Roohi
Was there one particular moment from the evening that was a highlight?
Miranda
I stole this idea from Karen Russell because I'd been to her book launch like a week or two earlier and she has young children and she had her kids there and she had one of them stamping the book for the book line. So she had a big line of people waiting to get their books signed and her kid went around and just stamped the books with a little stamp and I thought that was such a great way to involve kids. So I talked to my child about that and she said she'd love to do that too. She got such a thrill about going around with this little sequoia cone stamp (because sequoias are such a big part of the book) and stamping people's books as I was signing them. So she got to be a part of it. She's still talking about it. Just being able to have my child being a part of that and really enjoying it and feeling included has been a really big part of it for me.
Roohi
I love that, that's such a good idea. I still don't have a stamp, I forgot about that. I want to get one.
Miranda
Stamps are good! Stamps are great! How was your book launch?
Roohi
I had two events in April that I think of as my launch in Brooklyn. I also had one in March just before the AWP conference in LA because I was there already for the conference and I had a friend who helped me organize that. And that was a really beautiful event at Bel Canto Books in Long Beach. I decided to make it a panel with writer friends so I didn’t feel like I was alone up there. Chris Yi Suh, my friend who lives in Long Beach, is also a spiritual care practitioner and I had her do a blessing to open the event. That felt really wonderful because it was my first-ever book event and that blessing really stayed with me – like a deep breath that I was taking for this whole journey.
I had always imagined that I would have my first event in Brooklyn at my local bookstore but the timing with AWP worked out such that the Long Beach one was first. In retrospect, I think that was actually good because I was a little less nervous by the time I did the one here in Brooklyn. That launch was here at my local bookstore, Lofty Pigeon Books. They're so supportive. And this community nonprofit that I work with, Arts & Democracy, co-sponsored and got me a gorgeous book cake!
I also had three of the young women that I work with in the community be part of it. We had a conversation about organizing in public space and some of the themes from my book. That was really exciting to have people from the community there and for us to talk about cultural organizing work. There was a really dynamic energy in the room. It was a first insight for me into how these events could be about my book and also about something more. I definitely felt some nerves around that because it was not the typical book event, so there was some feeling of ‘I hope this works out and I hope this makes sense.’ It was truly wonderful, so many neighbors turned out. Many people there told me this is the first novel they’re going to read in a long time. What I loved about the event was that even if you're not a big reader there's a conversation here and there’s room for you.
And then I had a second launch event at the end of April at my dear friend Pyaari Azaadi’s art studio, Xenana Projects. Even though it was also in Brooklyn, it was a different kind of audience. A lot of women I’ve crossed paths with in the South Asian arts community turned out. I also had two writers with me on the panel who are real powerhouses, Mona Eltahawy and Yashica Dutt. I felt really buoyed by that – they were literally on either side of me. And we had what felt like a powerful and needed feminist conversation. It was beautiful to feel like I was being lifted up by people I admire.
Miranda
It sounds like you had some really wonderful events that really spanned the scope of what you can create with an event. That sounds wonderful.
Roohi
It was really wonderful and I think I also spent a lot of my event energy on them.
Miranda
That’s understandable. It sounds like you did three really incredible events that were really well rounded and well thought through and very meaningful for everyone who was able to participate and attend.
Roohi
Now I feel like I need time before I can do another. But it's also just interesting to step back and reflect on what was cool. I hope it's like that for you, too, where you’re able to look back on what was rewarding about them and then what could be replicated in a different way.
Miranda
I think what I'm coming around to with events is that my preference is for fewer events but with more depth to the event itself. Rather than doing a whole bunch of events and spreading my energy more thinly I prefer really focusing and doing events that feel really meaningful. When I've been able to participate in conversations that are really important to me, when I've been able to be in communities that are really important to me, and be there with the book, that feels really rewarding to me. That's part of why I wrote the book. And I think it’s so important to be able to be in the reason I wrote the book.
Roohi
Yeah, that is such a good point. Do you think you'll come to the east coast?
Miranda
We'll see. I think this summer I'm kind of trying to focus local, but I do think in the fall I'm going to look into an east coast journey if I can get my event stamina back.
Roohi
Keep me posted!
Miranda
We should plan something together if you have your event stamina back in the fall too!
Roohi
I’m planning for the fall now because that's been one of the learnings for me — just how long it all takes to organize. I feel like it would be really fun to do something outdoors together. Have you had a chance to do that ?
Miranda
I haven't, which is kind of surprising given my book, but no I haven't done anything outdoors yet.
Roohi
Maybe in the Botanic Gardens or something. I don't know how to arrange that but it would be cool.
Miranda
That would be really cool!
Roohi
We have to start with a dream and then we'll see.
Miranda
Okay, we have a dream of the botanic gardens.
Part Two of our conversation, in which we discuss how we measure the success of our books and shifting from forthcoming to debuted authors is coming soon.
Happenings
I spoke with Carol Mitchel for the Moonshine Murmurs podcast about writing the more-than-human, love triangles, and Leafskin’s publication.
Ellene Glen Moore and I talked hybrid writing for Brown Bag Lit (you can watch the video here)
I got the chance to speak and read with some wonderful parent writers for Pen Parentis’s last salon of the year (you can watch the video here)