Bring Your Book to Life Graduate Amy O’Brien recently sent me a terrific invitation to join her creatively done book launch for her second book, Star in Your Own Life Story. Of course, my immediate reaction was to ask her if I could share it with my blog community. I invite you to read this post, but also watch her launch invitation video. And, of course, if you really want to experience a powerful book launch personally, join the launch as an affiliate partner and get a real feel for it.
As usual, feel free to ask any questions of Amy or me in the comments section below.
Lisa: I remember you saying that writing Stuck with Mr. Wrong helped you realize you can do this again–write more books–and now here you are launching book #2, Star in Your Own Life Story . Can you tell us a bit about this second book?
Amy: Star in Your Own Life Story takes readers through a fun, ten-step process that 
follows a movie-making framework. They identify the story they’ve been telling themselves, and begin to write a more empowering life script. We use the three-act structure of film as a guide to personal transformation and the classic film The Wizard of Oz as a blueprint, they learn to:
- Get clearer about what they want for their life (and what they don’t want).
- Identify the voice of their inner film critic and tune in to their wise, inner film director to build confidence and self-love.
- Tune into and trust their intuition
- Define and achieve success their way.
Lisa: I love it! Can you describe your book launch, how it’s done and the purpose?
Amy: Star in Your Own Life Story officially launches on June 11th. I have a group of partners helping me get it off the ground. Not only do my partners help me spread my message, but they provide valuable content to my readers who would like additional information pertaining to one of the steps in my book. It’s very exciting and I would love to see Star in Your Own Life Story become a bestseller.
Lisa: You did something unique–and I think brilliant–with the launch. Rather than have people visit pages and pages or random “free gifts” you organize the launch gifts by the lessons of each chapter of the book–so readers can go to the chapter they are most interested in and get gifts that relate…
Amy: Yes, and at the time they really need or want gifts pertaining to that specific area.
Lisa: So, they can return to the page each time they complete a chapter to get the free gifts associated with the lessons in that chapter?
Amy: Yes, I noticed in some book launches that I’ve taken part in, there may be well 
over 100 partners, and I feel like anything I offer as a partner gets lost in a sea of other gifts. Each of my chapters pertains to something other business owners, writers, coaches, etc. have an expertise in. For example, under “Set the Stage, Lead with Vision” you’ll find books on imagination and manifestation, such as a gift from Stacy Corrigan, author of Manifest Your Man (and another one of your published Bring Your Book to Life Program graduates!).
What I like about categorizing partner gifts this way is that I could have 100 partners, but each partner won’t feel as though their message or offer will get lost.
Lisa: You also had a nifty way to make it easy for launch partners to understand the launch and sign up. You incorporated a welcome video and an easy questionnaire using Brainshark. It’s nicely branded and easy to follow. Can you explain a little how you did that?
Amy: I held my iPhone up to my face and recorded a quick message introducing myself and inviting the viewer to participate in my launch. I plugged my phone into my laptop and saved the video to my desktop. From there, I uploaded it to Brainshark— a cloud-based software solution that converts talking-head video, PowerPoint, and other files to a web-based video. I used the Brainshark questioning tool to create the fill-in-the-blank questions so all my partners have to do is answer them, right on screen. Brainshark allows you to upload your own backgrounds, so you can brand everything. I can then run a report with their answers. I give the report to my web developer to input the information onto my partner gift page.
Full disclosure: I’ve worked for Brainshark since 2007; part-time for the past year as I build my coaching practice. It’s a great company!
Lisa: Anything else about your launch you’d like to share?
Amy: Only the link to the video! I invite anyone to complete the questionnaire. If your gift is a good match for the launch, I’d love to have you join us here!
