Inside Scoop: Book Launch Highs and Lows

Hey there, welcome to Inside Scoop. I'm Paula Rizzo. We're talking books today. It is a lot of work to put a book out into the world. There's speaking engagements, there's events, there's media, so much more. You might hear some construction going on. You just never know what's going to happen when you work from home. Uh, it can be exhausting to prepare for these things, but I love working with authors, getting them ready for their, for their big launches.. And, you know, this is all the best laid plans because you think things are going to go really smoothly, but they don't always. We're going to talk all about that today, the highs and lows of the book launch. I know about this firsthand as an author of two books about productivity, Listful Thinking and Listful Living, which I know all too well that creating a book is not only about writing it, but then how you promote it, how you put it out in the world and keep talking about it. Right. My first book has been out for almost a decade and I still talk about that thing. I still love it. And I have a great guest with me me today, actually a media training client, uh, who I've worked with for, for quite some time for her book launch. And I'll bring her on in just a moment. But first, I would love for you to check out my checklist for becoming a go-to media expert. You can check that out at paularizzo.com/checklist. And actually, I am leading a training exclusively for authors to be able to speak in soundbites, set up your virtual studio, and sell more books. You can join me if you go to mediareadyauthor.com. There's a QR code there as well. But I would love to see you in the class. And I also want to hear from you throughout this broadcast. If you're watching the replay, leave me some comments below. Tag a friend. Share this with someone who you think might be interested, someone who's either thinking of writing a book, who's already written a book, all of the in-betweens. And without further ado, I would love to bring on my fabulous guest. There you are. Hi, Chelsea Conaboy, who is the author of the brand new book Mother Brain, welcome.

Yes, thank you for having me.

Oh, of course, of course. So, so people know your background is as a science writer, and so you're used to writing but not so much speaking. So talk to me a little bit about the changeover that you've had to make mentally and physically to do that shift.

It's been a huge change, and it's really ongoing for me.

And, you know, I think it's, it's an evolution. I, I was so, I was so accustomed to just doing my work in my office, really like thinking deeply about this topic and wrestling with these ideas in my head, especially through the pandemic, which was when I was writing most of this book. It was a very insular, isolated experience. And now I have to go and take it out into the world and, and talk about these complicated things in, in a way that the average person can understand. It's neuroscience and the cultural history of motherhood and these big ideas that are nuanced. And I realized really early on that this was a skill set that as a newspaper journalist, that's my background, that I really hadn't had the time to develop. I'm usually the one asking the questions and then doing the writing. But here I was, I needed to prepare myself to really be out there as the as the expert sharing what I know in front of people, which is just a very different practice. And yeah, it's been a learning curve for me for sure.

Yeah. I mean, for everybody, it's very easy to say, well, let the book speak for itself. Read it, please. That's what you want. But you do have to be the person talking about it. So talk to me about your methods for preparing. Obviously, we work together, so I was able to help you here and there. But tell me about your own system.

Yeah, I mean, I kind of almost want to start just even by saying, like, this is actually something that I started talking with my therapist about back in January. Like, I had a lot of anxiety about this, about my own ability to be the expert and have sort of the full confidence that I wanted to bring to this job. And so part of it was accepting that I'm not going to have all of the answers and also sort of sinking into that feeling of, knowing that I had done the work. I had done all of the research and I have a really strong understanding of these and just feeling good of these topics and just feeling good in that knowledge. And then from there, you and I started working together and what I just kept thinking about is preparation. I just needed to be prepared for the hard questions that could come my way, and also to really think through the words that I use to describe this book. Because just as you said, you want the book to stand on its own, but you have to also give people an entrance into it. You have to capture their attention. And so, you know, in our work together, to some degree, like, I feel like that's really something I'm still, like, figuring out as I as the way I talk about this book evolves. But, um, you and I spent a lot of time thinking through the questions that I, that I would, would get asked, thinking through the questions that I would want to be asked so that I had answers prepared. No matter what question I get asked, I could sort of deliver the message that I wanted to share about this book. And, um, and then thinking through like places where I might stumble or things that might be challenging to me and And I'm not sure that before the launch, I really arrived at those perfect soundbite answers to those questions. But what I did get was a lot of practice with the bad answers, a lot of practice doing things badly. In writing, we talk about the crummy first draft or the shitty first draft.

Totally.

So I felt like I had to do that for my Speaking, you know, my interview questions as well and just write it out and practice it. I spent hours, you know, at my desk recording myself, you know, through your assignments for me, just recording myself answering these questions and then feeling what, how the words like felt in my mouth, literally where I stumbled and where I got stuck.

It's like actually doing that, you think, oh, you'll be fine. Oh, it'll be, but when you actually do it, you're like, oh, okay, now I have to say the words.

Yes.

And see how I feel. It's really important to do that. Most people do not go through that process. So I'm glad you allowed me to push you to do it because it does really help. Something very exciting happened during your launch. You were booked on Good Morning America, which is something that, you know, authors, anybody dreams about happening. But spoiler alert, it didn't happen because the Queen died. So talk to me about what happened, because it's just as important to go through, you know, the stumbles as it is the excitement of the launch.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think this is something that I came from. Our conversations really helped me deal with this. So I was booked on Good Morning America. I found out in the middle of the summer or so that this was probably gonna happen. And then it got scheduled and booked and I got myself sort of amped up for it. I practiced what I wanted to say. I got my outfit ready. I figured out how I was gonna deal with hair and makeup and my best friend was gonna come with me. So I had a support network and I got on the plane and I had heard that the Queen had died on the plane, and I land and get an email, um, from my publisher saying that, that GMA has canceled the segment because they're going wall-to-wall coverage of— on, on the Queen's death.

And I was really sad.

I'm just so disappointed.

Um, but it definitely helped me to think about this as, like, a long game. And that's something you and I talked with about a lot about, is there's the rush of, of launch and, and, you know, all the work that the publicist at my publisher does. But then there's the work that I carry forward. And having started to think about that, um, both with you and with my agent, and just, you know, and, and watching how other people in my position do, you know, carry forward the work of their book, and to into sort of the next stage. I, I just had like that framework of like, this is a big disappointment and there are going to be lots of other opportunities that I can't even imagine yet.

That was really helpful. Good, I'm glad. I'm glad because it is— I mean, that's a bummer, you know. I mean, and as a TV producer for years, like, I get it, you know. Like, that's, that's the news of the day. Sorry, everything else gets killed. And that it is what it is, and you may or may not ever get booked again for that topic. It's just the way that it works. But you handled it the way that you should, uh, you know. And, and also, it's true. I mean, it takes a long time for a book to catch on, to get going. You know, don't always think it's only in the beginning and then you're going to lose it. What about some of the successes? What are some of the things that you found to be really successful? Because I know you've done a lot of events.

Yeah, I have.

I mean, I, and, and I think that there's like, um, kind of a next wave of that coming. But I mean, the things that have been really successful so far— I also had the book was excerpted in the New York Times, and in the, um, it was on the COVID of the of the Sunday opinion section, and that was huge. It got a really massive response, including from, you know, it was like a pretty provocative piece. It was how about how, um, the maternal— the idea of the maternal instinct was created by, by religious men essentially in the beginning of the, of the 20th century. And it got a lot of angry responses from people. So it was also really good to have had the practice of thinking that through and thinking about what it would be like to hear that kind of criticism and respond or decide, you know, also when I don't need to respond to it. And that was a, you know, a huge thing that I think is going to help the book for a long time. It's sort of— it was so widely read that people will kind of think back to it when they know that it came from this book. And I've also— I just had a piece published in The Guardian I've done a bunch of podcast interviews and some book events, you know, book events and bookstores, and all of it's been really, really fun.

And I think it's going to build into like the next—

the next stage that I'm looking forward to is really talking to people and organizations that are like kind of aligned with the mission of the book. So people who are working in in clinical care, supporting new families, and thinking about social policies around parenthood. And that's like a whole new stage of, of this work that I'm really excited to, to dig into. And that I think a lot of the lessons I learned in preparing for the book launch in terms of like practicing the message and thinking about the audience and eliminating variables is the one that I think about a lot that we, we spend a lot of time on. Will really serve me well.

Yeah, for sure. Well, and you've had some really great media interest, right? I mean, The Guardian, New York Times, GMA didn't work out, but still, you know.

Yeah.

And how did those come about? Were those like between you and your publicist? Uh, you know, talk to me about how that's always— people are always interested.

Yeah, so, um, a combination of things really. The, um, you know, I, I gave my publicist like a long list because I worked in newspapers, I have a lot of contacts in newspapers and magazines. And so I kind of like mined my memory and my resume for all the possible contacts that I could pass along. And then also, you know, a long list of like celebrity types and people who were quoted in the book who might have networks of their own. And then like influencers within the parenting realm. And I gave that list to the publicist and, you know, they did outreach and sent books and emails. And then I've also done a lot of that work myself, or sometimes like in tandem with my publicist. So for example, the New York Times piece happened— the way that started was I know the editor of the opinion section from— we worked together briefly at the Boston Globe. And And so I sent her a note sort of saying like, I'd love for you to consider this. And then the publisher immediately followed up and sort of like built off the momentum that I built with her to say, to like set up the contract and do all of that. And that's happened, you know, a couple of times, I guess, where one of us starts the thread and then the other follows up. So we, it helps a lot. I know from being on the other end of this that editors just have an unmanageable number of press releases coming their way. And so it really helps to have both the institutional connection with my publisher sending the information their way and the personal connection from me. And now I'm doing that also with podcasts. Some of the bigger podcasts, my publisher has sent a note, and then I'll send a note also and saying, here's why I think it's a great fit for you and I love your show and try to show them that I know what they do and I get what they're trying to get from guests and that I can see how I fit.

So yeah, I think it helps to have the support of the publisher and the personal connection to help to help drive the message.

Definitely. And it is a double-edged sword, you know. Both of us were members of the media, are members of the media, and then are doing this on our own, you know. And it's difficult because people think, oh well, you know everybody. But it is— it's— you do have some, some good knowledge of it, but it does— it's not a home run every time. No, it doesn't just mean that they're gonna book you. Like, you know the same thing. I mean, you've probably been booked— people that you know and people that you like. And sometimes it's like, well, you know what, it just doesn't work, right? And it is the way it is. So it is a good you know, good thing because you do know the lay of the land, but at the same time, it's not a guarantee at all.

Yeah, and it's something that actually, having been an editor and also have been a freelancer, it really serves me well because I know that when I don't get booked, it's not personal, right? Like, I, as a freelancer, you know, when I am in the process of pitching things or pitching multiple things, my tactic is to set up a spreadsheet with all of the places I think might possibly be interested and in a piece that I want to publish and list them out and start at the top and pitch that editor and assume that they're going to say no, honestly, so that then I have the next person lined up to pitch to. And I feel like that a lot about pitching the book too, is I just, I, I'm gonna send it to whoever I think might be interested and they're gonna say no. Most of them are gonna say no, and then some of them are gonna see a fit. And it, and it's never lost effort because they might say no, and then they might have a— they never, may never respond to me, but then they have a story idea come up down the line where they, they remember my book and they think I could be a good source for something, and they'll circle back to me. And so I just, I think, I, I think you need to get rejections in order to have success down the line as a freelancer, and that's for sure how I think about book publicity now too.

Yeah, good point. It's a no right now, but you never know. I was famous for that too as a producer. It's like I ignored somebody and then I needed somebody with that expertise. So you just never know. What is one thing that you wish you had known about the book launch beforehand?

It's a great question. I wish— I mean, so this is kind of a non-answer kind of answer. Like, I, I, I wish that I had done a little bit more legwork in, um, or I, I will say I wish that I had started writing more about my topic before the launch, um, because I, I, it's like, it's— I say that, but the reason why I'm hesitating is because I really wanted to take this slowly. I wanted to like learn from the process as much as I could, and I actually think that was the right move for me. And like, I, I'm, I'm, I am like taking it all in and I want to write more books. And so I, I'm like taking it all in and figuring out this is what I need to do differently next time. So I guess for like my next book, what I would do differently is, is, um, more like as soon as I, I file, you know, the manuscript for that book and give myself a break to recover, then I want to get started on the next thing or the next piece of that writing. And I didn't do that as much with this for various reasons. You know, I have young kids, and so that complicates the picture. But I wish that I had more of like a stable of writing that I could draw on now as the book is being launched. But that's okay.

It's always a work in progress.

Yeah.

That's perfect for the next book. And that's, you know, every book will, will just add to this. So, well, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for sharing your book. Obviously I want everyone to go get the book, uh, Mother Brain. It's wonderful.

Thank you for being here. Well, thank you for having me and thank you for all of your help through this process.

Oh, of course. Of course. This is, this is like my greatest joy is to have authors be able to talk about their books and get them out in the world because we want people to read them. We want people to see them and you need to sell it as the author. It's not enough to just to just write it. So I'm thrilled. So I do hope everyone gets the book. And, you know, I do have a freebie for everyone. Oh, and before I tell you about the freebie, though, you have a newsletter that you started. Why don't you tell us about that?

I do. Yeah. I mean, this is directly from your influence, I would say. I started a newsletter. It's called Between Us, and it's really just getting started. But it's, it's going to be about— it is about the science of parenthood and the stories that we tell around parenthood.

And its changing place in society, some about the book launch and the nature of writing about this topic, and then just a lot about what the researchers are learning right now. And, you know, I'm excited about where this newsletter could go and what it could become. And so much of that came from our conversations and your encouragement. And, and then also like talking with other writers who are doing this too. I think it will be a great space for me to, to share writing that might have not found out a home elsewhere.

Wonderful. Well, I hope everyone checks it out. And I do have a freebie for everybody out there if you're looking to get out there and talk about what you know, uh, in the media. If you go to paularizzo.com/checklists. And I also am doing a training that is coming up for authors, for authors only, calling all authors, Media Ready Author. Uh, if you go to mediareadyauthor.com or use the QR code there, you can join us. Chelsea, thank you again for being here.

Thanks for having me.

Chat with you, and thank you all for watching. I will see you next time.