Road Trip to Your Release Date
Over the weeks, my blog posts have provided a plethora of information about self-publishing and the tasks you need to accomplish prior to your book’s release. So now you know what to do, but do you know when to do it? Some of the things you’ll do prior to publication are ongoing, such as building your social media following, and, if you started a newsletter or blog, writing and sending it out regularly. Other items are one and done, but they need to happen before you can get to something else.
You also may be wondering how much time all of this should take. The road to your release date may be years in length, or months. The list that follows is a map of the basic route that can be slowed down or sped up, depending on your needs. You may find yourself mixing the order of operations a bit as well, and that’s fine. The journey will no doubt require you to remain flexible.
1) Write your book. This, of course, is the most important step and takes as long as it takes, so don’t rush it. Write your manuscript and begin to move it through the editing process, from beta readers to professional editors to proofreaders. Click here for details.
2) In the meantime, create a place for interested readers to land: this is your author website, or if not a website, then an author Facebook page or page on another application. Make sure it’s separate from your private social media pages. It should present you and your book in a professional light. Click here for details.
3) Start building a list of subscribers who are interested in you and your book. These are the people who will do things like help you select the best cover and read and review your book during launch week. Set up a pop-up on your website that invites them to subscribe to your email list/newsletter/blog, or provide a contact page where they can ask to be added to the list. Companies like MailChimp (with free and paid services) can help with this.
4) Enter prepublication contests. Search the internet for contests that ask for the first fifty pages or so and provide feedback from qualified judges. Then put that feedback to good use. Click here for details.
5) Get a cover made. You might want to get the e-book cover done first, before you’re ready to make the paperback cover (you’ll need to know specifics like exactly how many pages the book is in order to do the paperback). It will cost a bit more to have them done separately, but having the e-book cover early will allow you to start promoting the book and doing other things, like creating a banner for your Facebook page and a picture for your About My Book page.
6) Send the book out for prepublication reviews. (The manuscript does not have to be formatted at this point. You can send a PDF.) These are paid reviews from well-known companies like Kirkus Reviews and Blueink. In most cases, you will receive the review in four to six weeks. Click here for details.
7) After you’ve proofread the final version of your manuscript, it’s time to design the interior pages. Click here for details. In order to do this, you’ll have to write the front and back matter (copyright page, epigraph, dedication, about the author page, etc.). You may hire a designer to design and format the interior pages, or you can purchase software like Vellum and do it yourself. You also can use the software Amazon or Barnes and Noble provides on their publishing websites.
8) Put your e-book up for presale (maybe). This is a trickier decision than it seems. First, you have to consider whether or not you want your book to be listed on Kindle Unlimited, the service that grants Kindle users access to a library of thousands of digital books—and pays authors by the number of pages read. If you opt in, Amazon will not allow you to sell e-books anywhere else, not even on your own website. So if you want to sell your e-book on Kobo, Apple Books, and the others, you cannot sign up for the KDP Select program (opt-in is for 90-day increments). That’s the tradeoff. If you don’t join KU, you can set up your presales wherever you like. Some of them allow you to do so an entire year in advance; others not quite that long.
On the other hand, Amazon does not allow paperback presales. IngramSpark allows for paperback presales but does not encourage them because the presales often cause problems and confusion.
9) Make advanced reader copies. It’s easy to create and send out digital ARCs (those read on Kindle, Nook, iPad, etc.), and they’re free. However, most media reviewers (those who review books on social media sites like Instagram and Facebook, and in magazines and newspapers across the country) want a paperback. Because reviews are the things that let people know about your book, it’s to your benefit to give the reviewers what they want. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and IngramSpark can create paperback ARCs for you. Click here for details.
10) Send your ARCs to media reviewers and authors who have agreed to read and possibly provide a blurb for your cover or praise page. By now you should have received your prepublication reviews, and you can use their positive words to help entice authors and reviewers to take a look at your book. Click here for details.
11) In the meantime, proof your paperback ARC. Send it to a couple of readers to proof for you as well. Then make corrections to your interior pages document so that you can upload the revised file on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, IngramSpark, and anywhere else you’ve listed it. When the book launches, you want it to be as error-free as possible.
12) Promote and market your book as much as you see fit. This is no small thing, and entire books have been written on the subject. For this reason, I’m saving it for next week’s post.
The list I’ve given you here covers the production of the book, and the laying of the foundation for its promo and marketing. You don’t have to follow it to the letter—you may need to jump ahead or meander a bit—but these are the main steps you’ll address along the way.
I’ll provide specific ideas for promotion and marketing in next week’s blog post.
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Kim Catanzarite is a writer, editor, and instructor for Writer’s Digest University. She has worked as a developmental and copy editor since 1994. Her thriller, They Will Be Coming for Us, will publish June 1, 2021.
