What Does an Author Do on Launch Day?
First, get ready for a long day. You’re going to have to shout about your book in order to get attention. (By “shout,” I mean engage with your audience.) If you’ve been getting your book "out there" for the prior thirteen or more days, congratulations. You’ve done a great job as a book promoter. But it’s not over yet. Today will be a combination of work and celebration. You’ve published a book. It’s official! You are now an author.
Post on social media outlets: Wherever you have an audience, let them know your book has dropped. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter … post like crazy! Break out your best photography, quotes, captions, excerpts, and comments. Go to town. I think two or three times on each platform should be plenty, unless you can think of a clever way to post more often without annoying your followers.
Plan a virtual or in-person event: You can have an in-person launch party for a group of friends, depending on the Covid situation. You can have a virtual launch party via a Zoom call, or a live event on Facebook or Instagram. As an alternative, you can post a prerecorded video of yourself talking about your book and reading a short excerpt. You can also talk about the writing of the book or writing in general. Talk about whatever you’d like—this is your moment. I’m going to post a prerecorded video on my website and on my author page on Amazon.
Do a book-signing. If you can’t set up a signing in person, you can do it virtually. Once again, this can be a live-streaming event or a prerecorded event that includes links to where to order the book from you personally. You’ll have to figure out a way to collect the money, whether you use PayPal or something else. Tell followers you have a certain number of books for sale (maybe ten or twenty) that you will sign and ship to them. Because you will purchase the books and then ship them to each person, there will be little to no profit involved. An option to having them buy the book from you is to have them purchase the book on their own (which is better in terms of Amazon and other sites' algorithms). Then you can send them a signed bookplate that they can affix to the page. I’m doing this—see my Special Offers page.
Do a guest post or podcast interview that appears on Launch Day (you have to set this up ahead of time). This will help create interest in you and your book, and hopefully drive traffic to both your book and your website.
Contact your street team and ask them to post their review on Amazon and Goodreads, and any other site they use to look for books. Also, ask them to tell their friends/relatives/book club about your book. Word of mouth is the best marketing!
Call or text your close friends and relatives and ask them to buy the book.
Email acquaintances and let them know it’s your book’s birthday. Ask them to post about it on social media.
Do a General Update on Goodreads that alerts friends and followers that your book is now available to buy.
Post on any Facebook Groups you’ve joined, if they allow for self-promotion (some of them don’t). If not, you can post tips about launching a book and casually mention that your book is launching that day.
Post on your own blog. A blog post about how you came to write your book (or some other behind-the-scenes information) makes for a great topic on launch day.
After all is said and done, kick back and pour yourself a special beverage, whatever that may be, and make yourself a toast. If you’re having a party, go mingle. If it’s just you and the kids, break out a birthday cake and light a candle in honor of your book’s birthday. Do something to celebrate this moment. I know I will!
Next week I will write about 5 things I wish I'd known when I started writing.
Pre-order a digital copy of They Will Be Coming for Us HERE.
Get the paperback at your favorite bookstore HERE.
See my Special Offers.
