The Chosen Ones Book Launch

The Chosen Ones

Last Sunday was the book launch for The Chosen Ones: The Team That Beat LeBron. The author of this book is my cousin Tony Meale. He decided to hold a book launch for his family and friends as well as some of the players from Roger Bacon High School who were on the state championship team in the 2001-2002 school year. The event was held in the cafeteria of Roger Bacon High School, which was fun because it added to the ambiance of the day. A television played a video of the final game of the state championship, and there were always people gathered around it watching the plays. It was also fun to see the trophy, mounted newspaper article announcing the winning team, and the plaque highlighting the team members.

Tony Meale interviewed by Channel 12

Tony was expecting around 150 people to show up for the launch, and I think he had every bit of that, with people coming and going from 1:00-5:00. I was not surprised by the number of folks that came out for the book signing, because Tony has a lot of friends and family. What did amaze me was that three television stations and at least one newspaper came as well! I have never seen that at a book launch. You might be tempted to say that Tony was lucky because it was a slow news day so the press had nothing major to cover. Or that the press only came because it was a Sunday afternoon and there was free food. But you would be missing an important lesson here. Tony carefully timed his book launch to coincide with the NBA finals. There is a media frenzy going on right now with the finals and specifically LeBron James. The press is hungry for anything and everything LeBron. And The Chosen Ones offers up something new to talk about regarding LeBron.

Of course Tony could not have predicted that LeBron James and the Miami Heat would indeed appear in the finals this year when he decided to write a book highlighting the tenth anniversary of the 2002 state championship game in which Roger Bacon High School became the only Ohio team to beat LeBron James and his teammates from St. Vincent-St. Mary High School. But the finals do include the Heat, so Tony is able to capitalize on the media exposure. And what exposure there has been! Tony has appeared on television, the radio and on Internet radio programs discussing his book and the Roger Bacon team. And those are only the things I know about. What I will say about Tony is that he makes it very easy for the press - he interviews well, he is personable and, most importantly, he is passionate about his topic.

For my part I have posted YouTube videos of the film I shot at the book launch as well as of the photos I took at the event. Since YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, I think the videos will help garner exposure for the book and Tony's website, www.thechosenonesthebook.com.

The takeaway from all of this is to carefully plan the launch of your book. Most of us won't have LeBron James to hang our hats on, but there may be other media events or calendar events that you can work with. For example, a book on the history of ice cream could be launched on National Ice Cream Day. Here is a website where you can see usual and unusual calendar celebrations. There are other websites out there as well. The media will be looking for stories to cover for these special days. Make their job easier, and they will help you promote your book.

Tony Meale and Kim Wolterman