The Most Spectacular Book Event Ever

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