MUSINGS ON BOOK LAUNCHES, POETRY AND OTHER STUFF

I was thinking today about book launches and wondered how many I might have attended over the past 40 years. I started by thinking perhaps hundreds but decided on reflection the number attended may by now be into four figures. Let's say I averaged one a week for 40 years, that would add up to 2080, but if I take a more conservative estimate and say three a month for 40 years then that would add up to 1440.

In my publishing days at Penguin and Scholastic, and particularly during my three years as President of the Book Publishers Association, I not only attended all the launches of books I published but I was also often invited to launches of books being published by others. In more recent years as a book reviewer, book blogger and book judge I receive more invitations than ever to attend launches. Normally unless I am especially interested in the book or the author concerned then I politely decline but I would still attend several a month on average.

As a publisher I tended to regard book launches generally as a waste of money. Unless some newsworthy story could be built around the launch resulting in extra publicity for the title then really a launch is nothing more than a party for the author and his/her friends! On the other hand it is a time of celebration for the author, and the publisher, and what better reason to have

a party.

Perhaps though the $1000 or more spent on that party might be better spent on advertising or other promotion for the book? This would pay for a return airfare between Auckland and Christchurch for the author plus a night or two of accomodation which could result in extra media interviews which may prove to be a better way of spending money on the book to gain sales that holding a launch party?

Sometimes of course a launch can result in very good media exposure and I still recall the launch of Michael King's DEATH OF THE RAINBOW WARRIOR 21 years ago which resulted in great media coverage when Michael revealed information about the case that was previously not know to the media.

Other book launches can simply be huge fun and/or memorable just because of speeches made or other circumstances such as the location or the wine being offered.

I was reminded of one in this category when I received an invitation from Gillian Newman at UBS Bookshop in Christchurch to submit a favourite poem for the Poetry Wall the shop had created to mark Montana New Zealand Poetry Day.

I have a large collection of poetry titles here collected over many years and while browsing through them came across a number of volumes featuring the verse of Central Otago poet Brian Turner. From his 2005 title, FOOTFALL published by Godwit (Random House NZ) I finally selected Nothing in Particular for the Poetry Wall.

Here is how it goes:

NOTHING IN PARTICULAR

When the sun comes out after rain and snow
And the wind stops blowing from the south,
And birds emerge to chitter and peck,
And the dog mooches around looking
For nothing in particular except food,
There’s nothing wrong with doing
Nothing in particular either, except you can’t.

There’s blue in the grass. A friend’s unwell.
Your father’s hanging on by his nails.
If there’s a moral to this story
It’s do the best you can. Talk, read, walk,
And ignore anyone who asks
What’s the point?

At the time of the launch of FOOTFALL Turner was just finishing his year as the Te Mata Poet Laureate. The launch was held in the impressive Raffles Room at the Stamford Plaza Hotel in Auckland and the MC was TV3's John Campbell. He turned out to be a poetry aficionado, made a great speech and read some of Turner's poetry. Quite courageous to read poetry in front of the poet! Turner, in his own crusty, distinctive manner, then read a number of poems himself and that was a treat too.

And to top it all off we drank the finest wines from Te Mata's stunning range of Hawkes Bay reds.

Now that was a memorable launch which I shall not forget.