I’ve held way more than a hundred
events to publicize my books. If I had to pick just one as the Most Spectacular
Event Ever, that would have to go to a 1920s-themed cocktail party at Boston’s Eastern Standard on September
23, 2009. Jackson Cannon is the head bartender there, and boy howdy did he
throw a party. The staff turned the bar into a speakeasy, and while the event
was free, every participant needed the password (“Scofflaw”).
Eastern Standard is near
Kenmore Square, just blocks from Fenway Park. We planned the event for a week
that the Red Sox were out of town – otherwise parking in the neighborhood would
be impossible. I had learned about the bar the previous year from its Repeal
Day party, and so noted to contact them when I got closer to publication. It
was an ideal match.
Marlo Fogelman handled the
public relations for the restaurant. She is one of the best public relations
people I have ever worked with. She’s quietly confident, experienced, super
organized (I recognized in her right away that she’s a fellow list-maker), and
has a knack for both thinking big but in also building a solid foundation. When
we’d talk on the phone or e-mail, she’d simply say, Okay, this is what we need
to do, and I knew that she had everything under control.
Three weeks before the
event, Marlo said that we already had 170 people registered. She worked the
press, getting me interviews with the Boston
Globe and Boston Herald. Many
bloggers wrote about the event, so we had incredible buzz. This was a fine
example of what a good PR person can do for you.
The morning of the event, I
spoke with Marlo, who told me we were now up to 420 RSVPs. And most of those
people showed up. Because of the size of the crowd, Marlo suggested that we forgo the usual author speech and just meet-and-greet participants. I
was inclined to agree. The party space had no podium or microphone. It was
actually broken up into three separate rooms joined by large doorways.
Jackson Cannon and his
bartending staff made amazing Prohibition-era cocktails. Many people showed up
in 1920s-era garb. It was a Wednesday, people were in a great mood, and the feeling
in the room was festive. I got to meet a number of writers from the alcoholic
beverage industry, such as Liza Weisstuch, Wayne Curtis (the “Rum Guy,”), and an
alcohol researcher, Dr. Curt Ellison from Boston University. But I wasn’t
certain if people were there to hear about the book or just to sip the fabulous
cocktails. But over the course of the evening, probably twenty-five people
approached to ask me when I was going to speak. After I while, it finally sunk
it: people actually wanted to hear me talk!
I found a stepped-up alcove
in the center part of the party space where I could stand (I’m short, only
5’6”), so I put myself where most people could see me. My friend Sahil
Mehta, who was crazy for cocktails and who had acted as a “town crier” on
Facebook to get so many people to attend, clapped his hands, and like magic,
the crowd suddenly gathered around me and started applauding. So that was it: I
would speak after all.
I had prepared a twenty-five
minute talk about the book and Prohibition’s aftermath on Massachusetts. I
lopped fifteen minutes off it – the room was quite crowded, and people primed with
liquor tend to have short attention spans. I kept to the most humorous parts of
the speech.
The crowd was enthusiastic
and well behaved. There were the usual outbursts: whenever I’d say something
particularly funny or interesting, people would suddenly start discussing it
loudly among themselves. Then we’d get the crowd’s attention back and continued
the speech. I ended it with Homer Simpson’s alcohol toast. “To alcohol! The
cause of – and solution to – all of life’s problems,” and people went nuts.
The speech made all the
difference in book sales. Beforehand, we had sold only a half-dozen books, but
now the crowd flooded to the book table, and the Barnes & Noble rep was
kept busy ringing up the sales. I signed books till my fingers bled, I joked
with my friends. That was a good night, a home run event that left me floating
on air for days afterward.
When our last guests left, I
departed with friends in search for beer and sweet potato fries. I bumped into
Garrett Harker, Eastern Standard’s owner, on the way out, and told him how
fortunate he was to have Marlo Fogelman supporting him. He responded, “You
don’t need to tell me!”
The next day, I dropped
flowers off at Marlo’s office for doing such an exquisite job of roping in the
press and bloggers.
What made this event work so
well? Clearly, having a veteran PR person – Marlo Fogelman – made all the
difference. I was extremely fortunate in that Eastern Standard employed her
services, and thus I could piggyback on the event. The key lesson is always about partnering with other people and organizations so everyone is successful.
Garrett Peck
www.garrettpeck.com
