Your book launch is that period right before and right after your book becomes available for purchase by the public. Most authors put extra time, energy, and money into their launch.
In this post, I am going to break down the activities that are usually associated with book launches
Author Platforms
If you don’t have an author platform, obviously that would be your first step. And you will want a media kit, including a one page. You can watch my video:
What is a book platform? Why every nonfiction author needs one
Your author platform is the stage from which you reach out and connect with your readers. The foundation is your website, and from there you can expand out with podcasts, blogs, videos, and so forth.
Book Launch Specific Activities
Some activities are specifically launch activities.
- Book trailers are usually made for a book launch.
- Book launch parties and other events are obviously for the launch.
- Bestseller campaigns on Amazon are launch oriented.
- Pre-launch pricing and pre-launch sales only happen at launch.
- Asking for advance reader copies (ARC) reviews so that you have reviews when you launch (Link below to a video explaining ARCs.
Reasons to send out advance review copies | Success with advance review copies
Ongoing Promotion Activities
And then there are activities you can do at anytime but are often accelerated around launch
- You can do book blog tours and podcast tours at anytime, but most authors will stack them around a launch to get visibility quickly.
- Cross promotion with other authors – asking them to recommend your book to their following, in exchange for the same, can help a launch.
- Book promotion sites, which can work well with blog book tours and podcast tours, offer their audience a deal on the book.
- Many authors are setting up their author profiles on sites like Goodreads.
Here are two interviews to help you with these activities.
Promote your book with a blog tour (And get reviews)
Successfully using book promo sites with Martin Crosbie: Insider secrets from BookDoggy
This list is not exhaustive. There are too many ways to promote a book to list them all here.
Eyes on Your Book
Your book launch is about getting your book in front of as many ideal readers as possible. At launch, few people know you have written a book and what it might be about and why they should buy it. The launch helps solve these problems. And it starts your longer-term promotion plan. It tests ideas for promotion.
Getting Your First Reviews
Another problem that new books have is a lack of reviews. The launch of a book can take that into consideration and find reviewers. In fact, if you make fewer sales but get excellent reviews, this can help you with your long-term sales.
How to get book reviews to market your self-published book | Who could review your book?
Questions to Ask Yourself
As you are thinking about and setting up your book launch, keep these ideas
in mind:
- How do you get your book in front of as many people as possible?
- Who has an audience that is the same as your ideal reader, who will tell
their audience about your book? Champion you? - How can you get reviews? Having excellent reviews tells other readers that
your book is worth the price. - How can you move from launch to a long-term plan so it can continue to find
readers and you can find success?
Plan Your Book Launch Well in Advance
Then right at launch and for about a month or more, you can do the book launch parties, book blog tours, podcast tours, and use promotion sites. Again, this is not an exhaustive list of to-dos, but a place for you to start with your book launch plan.
For more promotion ideas, download the Author Nation promotion checklist.
Author Nation is your go-to resource for becoming a successful nonfiction author, from planning to promotion and everything in between. Download the resource for the stage you are in.