Promotion events

As I am sure you are all aware, April 23rd is World Book Night and as part of that me and a few other authory friends are getting together to organise an event.

The plan is that we book a venue (current options range from a local geek themed bar/cafe to a local library or community centre) and arrange a bit of a party with food, drinks etc. We are all applying to be givers on WBN in the hope that at least one of us will have a box of free books to giveaway on the night and we also hope to use the night for a bit of self promotion of our own work (given that four of us are published and a fifth is a web comic writer).

So, as this is the first time any of us have done any form of public event like this, I am looking for any advice that those who have done it before can offer. Do's and Don'ts, ideas for making the event more interesting or fun, possible pitfalls and so on. I will be grateful for any advice at all...

http://www.worldbooknight.org/books/2013 is the address for the UK version but there are ones all over the world. Unfortunately the system is closed for new applicants at the moment but there will be another one next year.

The giveaway is nothing to do with your own books or anything like that, the aim is to give books away to people who would not normally read. You fill in an online form and need to select three books from their list that you would like to give away and explain to them how you plan to achieve this. If you are chosen (you usually find out a week before) you are then assigned one of your chosen books.

On the day of WBN you have to go to the designated pick up point (usually a local library or bookshop) and identify yourself. You will then be given a box of 49 books (which are special WBN editions) and your goal is to give them away to anyone throughout the night.

Now, our plan is to turn this into a bit of a 'local authors/creative people' night too and put on other things to supplement the freebooks giveaway including signings, maybe talks, and other free stuff.

As for ebooks... well my own book is only out on ebook at the moment but I am hoping for there to be a paperback edition available by then I can promote and have some copies of there. However, if there isn't, I also plan to have some bookmarks made up with the urls where you can buy it on them