Virtues of Virtual Release Parties

I attended my first virtual release party a while ago on Facebook and was surprised at the format. I’d never heard of a virtual release party, but enjoyed myself immensely. There were tons of authors asking random questions and there were tons of giveaways.

Earlier this week I (virtually) attended the release party for Sophia Henry’s new novel, Power Play. I had “met” Sophia at the first party and won her book Delayed Penalty. I reviewed it on this blog, so you can read it here, and loved it! On top of that, I got a sense for who Sophia is as a person and I think she’s just the sweetest thing. Me being me, this means I love her books even more.

At Sophia’s release party this week, I had a chance to “meet” even more authors and fell in love with their personalities as well. Amanda Heger had us playing three truths and a lie, which was a great way to get to know the other attendees. And she also had us playing the game, caption that. I laughed at some of the things people posted.

Additionally, I “walked away” with three free books from that release party. If you’ve read my book reviews before, you know the economics of being a bookworm are a big thing for me. It can get really expensive, so it’s wonderful to read books by authors I’ve never read before for free. And since the two authors I won books from are new to me, it means I have two chances to fall in love with new books and new series. This is a win-win situation if I ever saw one.

So, the next time you see a virtual release party, sign up for it! You simply check on the Facebook page periodically, comment on posts, and enter into raffles for free books. Libby Cole is actually helping to put together a virtual book fair. It will have all sorts of genres with independent authors. I think this is a great idea, and I can’t wait to attend. You can find more at their Facebook page or on Libby Cole’s blog.