Kaffee und Kuchen for Writers

Kaffee und Kuchen – that very delightful late afternoon German habit. Sumptuous cakes or something a little more modest like apple cake or cheese cake and good coffee.  Plus some engaging conversation and a feeling of celebration.  

Cake, anyway, seems to be a leitmotif with me:

·         I love making them

·         When I was a language teacher one of my line managers always used to provide chocolate cake for our department meetings.

·         I often provide cake for my team meetings.  

·         My creative writing colleagues at the university like a good piece of cake and one of our favourite activities is repairing to a nearby cake shop to try out the wares.

·         A choir to which I belong offers good cake as well as good singing to its audiences and serves it up with tea at every rehearsal.     

·         Afternoon tea, including cake, is my favourite form of celebration.

·         Not to forget the Creative Café Project

Kaffee und Kuchen as a marketing strategy

Again as a language teacher I used to run Kaffee und Kuchen events at the school where I taught. Parents would bake cakes form recipes translated form German by out students, some student would act as translators, some would serve cake, some would design invites and menus, some would look after the finances, some would provide stand-up or live music and others would just wash up. Everyone was involved. Everyone’s role was important.

My otherwise very supportive head of department was a little cynical. I think he was actually just trying to protect me from disappointment. But we sent out letters to parents and tons of cakes were provided. Lots of people came on the days. Every single student studying German was involved and we made a good amount of money for charity.

We built it. They came.

Can I get that energy into my book and event marketing strategies?

Kaffee und Kuchen energy

I’ve thought a lot about this recently. What made it so successful?

I’ve come to the conclusion that this is the list:

·         complete faith in the product

·         constant proactive but every-changing flagging up of the opportunity

·         complete faith in  the process

·         detailed planning so that the event acquires a reputation for being well organised.

·         fun

·         enthusiasm

·         inclusivity

Now, all I need to do is adapt this for those books and events.

Unknowns

My choir recently had pretty full audiences at three concerts. We weren’t quite sure what we had done differently but we think it was because we constantly used that K & K energy – not that any of the others would have named it thus.