I’ve had a couple of great book parties and they were lots of fun. I know one woman who was so thrilled to finally see her book in print that she threw a huge bash for friends and family – and then partied on and off for weeks. But recently, I’ve been thinking that maybe we’ve got the book party idea all wrong.

Instead of a publication party, why not throw a launch party instead? When you’re just getting embarking on a new writing venture and things are rocky and you don’t really know what you’re doing – isn’t that the time when you really need all the praise and encouragement you can get? Not to mention, carafes of wine and canapes!

There’s a flaw in this notion, of course: When you’re just starting a project, you’ve got nothing to show anyone: it’s all in your head or in your notes. “There’s no there there,” as Gertrude Stein so famously put it. Even so, this idea led me to another more fruitful one: the importance of building a support system for success – a concept I explored in one of my how-to books.

A support system for failure is easy to find – it thrives on excuses and obstacles. On the other hand, building a support system for success takes work – but it’s well worth the effort. It’s an informal, loosely connected web of people who believe in your ability to stay the course and keep writing until you turn your dream into a reality. The members of your own personal “dream team” can be drawn from any part of your life – the more varied, the better. You might want to bring on board some enthusiastic readers and maybe a friend or two from entirely different fields. The fresh perspective they can bring to your work or the help they can offer in overcoming a roadblock you’ve hit can be incredible.

Bring on the launch party! And once you’re well under way, how about getting everyone together over dinner to discuss your progress – and brainstorming together? Who would you recruit? Canapes, anyone?