Launching pad

We're not skipping past the book launch. While I doubt a reference work on copper wire would attract the punters, a collection of short stories, one of which prominently features a copper splicer, might. As could a novel about a copper winder.

I am interested in book launches; not as a way of getting free wine and cheese and mooching up to people, nor as an obligation if one wants to be in the industry. I mean, how many book launches are held each year? Which are the most popular and has that changed? Does a good book launch make a difference to the book's sales and the author's profile?
Can it help in novelty value or general service to the writer and reader communities to hold a joint launch? Where is the best venue: a hall if you're in the country, the room of a pub, a bookshop, library, book club meeting, someone's living room?* Do you give away sample copies or does that defeat the purpose?

Is there a difference in tone if the book launch is a collection of verse or a memoir?

What was the book launch for The Curse of Capistrano like? Did Robert Ludlum hold a book launch for all forty books that have gone on to sell between a hundred and ten and two hundred and ninety million copies?

*not to mention cafe, coffee shop, tea house.. 
** book fairs, festival, panel