Cartooning in the Age of AI #9: Real World Book Launches Are Hard Work (But Fun)

All the hard work was worth it.

Cartooning wasn’t an easy way to make a living before generative AI came along.
Now we’re going to have to get smarter.
And more human.

Book Launch Success Was Not Because of AI

AI can help with book descriptions, keywords and marketing blurb that is used to sell a book online, but it is hard to be noticed amongst the deluge of books that are available now. It is easier to be noticed in a small town when you do a book about that small town and spend time promoting it in that small town, as discussed in previous epistles.

Despite selling 40 books on pre-order, I was still nervous about whether anyone would show up to the actual launch. In the end, it was a resounding success: about 50 people came. The bar tab just lasted, as did the food. All that remained were some brownies which are now sitting in the freezer. You can't have too many brownies in the freezer.

AI Does Not Understand Catering For a Book Launch

Food is something that AI couldn't help with at all. We were going to pay for Sherpa Kai to cater the event, but after looking at the costs of preparing the food, paying for extra staff to serve it, and paying associated taxes, it would have made no financial sense. They asked me whether we could do the food ourselves. Of course, I said. Luckily the boyf used to have a restaurant and was happy to help. Unluckily it was up to me to come up with the menu.

I asked ChatGPT to help. But it came up with a menu of lots of greasy or sticky things that you would not want to have at a book launch. I had to do some old-fashioned human thinking and came up with the following:

It was a great opportunity to showcase produce from the farmers' market and from my garden, both of which feature in the book. And there was no waste. Everything was brought down to the venue wrapped in burnable baking paper, or washable tea towels. The decorations were paper and string that could be composted. After packing everything away, the only rubbish was the little flags and cocktail sticks that went with the baking paper into my log burner to provide ash for the garden.

The Launch Evening: Great People, No Robots

With the food out and the decorations set up, I was able to have about quarter of a pint of beer before people started coming through the door. And then it was non-stop for about an hour and a half. The official photographer (the boyf) had a little too much fun, so all of the photos you can find here are from my phone!

Sales and Feedback

Apart from the photography, everything else went perfectly. People came and picked up their pre-ordered books and were happy with them and the originals I pasted inside. I sold another 35 books on the night. I almost completely sold out of calendars and some of the cards went too. I took a very small box of books and cards around to Paul at Leslies Bookshop this week.

In total, I lost $174.28.*

This is fantastic. The launch is a way of marketing the book, kickstarting word-of-mouth and propelling it out into the world. It is cheap marketing if the people who came to the launch had a good time and like the book.

The feedback is coming in from those who have already read the book and it's good.

I just need that to translate into online reviews and recommendations.

If you liked the book, please write a review on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/221334521-a-new-zealand-diary

Paul at Lyttelton's Leslie's Bookshop is sure that the last of the 100 books will go before Christmas. And then we’ll see if it’s worth ordering more. But they won’t be limited, signed editions and I won’t be selling any more in person. It’s too hard!

The cover of the general release edition of A New Zealand Diary is the view of Lyttelton from my studio. With a little cartooning licence.

Since the general release is now live, you can order this book through all good libraries and bookshops. And Amazon.

What's Next

The next thing will be the e-book. But not until I've had a little break. It has been two months of crazy work into evenings and weekends. I haven't worked like that since I was in my 20s. And I no longer have 20s energy.

Thank you for being one of the good humans.

Alex

PS. Molly turned four last month, which puts her squarely in her 20s (apparently the factor is 5 for small dogs like JRTs). She definitely has 20s energy and is back to her normal self after a brief spell of lameness. The week of the launch was fantastically warm and our swimming season began in the harbour.

ECan (Environment Canterbury, the body responsible for monitoring water quality) has issued a warning for Lyttelton harbour. Again. Like last summer and the summer before. And we swam then. I don't do any other dangerous sports, and think this one is worth the risk.

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*I’ve broken down the launch finances for paid subscribers and show you what Claude AI thought I could do better here.