Book Launch Tips

Brutal Season the fourth book in my Seasons Mystery Series made its digital debut on April 10, and long before the release I was working on marketing and promoting, hoping to give it a big boost when it launched.

So much of a successful book launch depends on luck, popularity, and marketing skills, and not every writer - certainly not this one – excels in the marketing department. Still, I did my best to develop a plan for this book.  

After finishing the writing, and my own self-editing of the manuscript, things were set in motion for getting some pre-pub ducks in a row - cover art design, editing, requesting blurbs from other authors and getting ARCs to them, and formatting. Then I made a calendar of when each task would be completed. This process started in mid-January, and I jumped ahead several months to choose a release date, giving the various professionals plenty of time to hatch their individual duck.

Once there was a working cover image, the book was listed for pre-order on Amazon at a price-promotion discount, starting several weeks before the release date.

Then it was time to let folks know about the opportunity to get the book at the discount. In addition to my own sharing on social media, I bought a promotional package to have a cover reveal and book blitz through Lone Star Literary, hoping to create some buzz about the book.

That wasn't as successful as I had hoped, but the promo did get a lot of attention and generated a number of sales. The staff at LSL are great to work with and they created some very nice graphics for use during the blitz. Ones that I can continue to use, like the 3-d graphic above. 

From the time the book was available for pre-order until its release, I shared excerpts of the story on my blog with links for ordering. I was able to get to terrific endorsements from other authors which made my heart feel good. They are authors I highly respect, so I was thrilled when they so graciously accepted my request. 

Here are some of the things that I think I did right: 

• Planned the release far enough in advance to have cover art finished. 
• Had the editing completed and the formatting in time for the actual release.
• Used professionals for all three of those tasks.
• Set up some ads and promotional events so I was not the only person talking about my book. It’s really important to not be the only one as people quickly tire of hearing only one voice calling into the darkness.
• Planned and purchased some follow-up advertising for the rest of this month and into May to keep some momentum going.

When I started this plan for the book and jumped ahead to a potential release date, I didn’t realize that Monday April 10th was the day after Easter. Perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to release a book so close to a major holiday as that could have had an impact on the initial ROI from the LLS promos. People might not have been online and/or weren’t in a book-buying mood. Searching a bit on Google to see if there is a “best” time to release a book, I didn’t find specifics on that, but there's a good resource in an article at Writer Unboxed - Is There a Best Month to Publish Your Book

In years past, the major publishers have times releases primarily for twice a year, spring and fall. In the spring, leading into summer reading, beach reads, romance, and women’s novels dominated the lists, but travel and destination books also shared the lineup. Fall was a good time to release nonfiction, children’s books, and other genres of fiction in time for end of the year holiday shopping.     

While the best and worst months are not so easily identified now, it’s still probably a good idea to release a book in October so there’s plenty of time for it to be part of planning for shopping in December. And the same probably goes for Spring holidays as well, especially if you have a book related to a holiday. A January or February release would allow time to promote it for shopping for the Spring Equinox holidays.

If you’re like me and marketing is not your strong suit, these resources might be helpful. They have been for me: 

The Kindlepreneur. The site owned and run by David Chesson offers free articles and links to help with all phases of publishing, advertising, and promoting. I’ve subscribed to his newsletter for a couple of years and found good tips for launching a book. 

Writer Unboxed. While the articles there cover all aspects of writing, some are specific to business and marketing . Ann Marie Nieves who owns Get Red PR is a regular contributor with tips on promotions. 

Just Publishing Advice. That site has articles helpful for all phases of the business of writing. 

Previously, I’ve written about promoting here at the BRP, and looking back at this article from 2015, Tips for Book Promotion, it's clear that not a lot has changed in my approach to using social media as a promotional tool. 

If you have suggestion, or links to other resources, please do share.

Maryann Miller is a novelist, editor, and sometimes an actress. She has written a number of mysteries, including the critically-acclaimed Seasons Mystery Series that debuted with Open Season. Information about her books and her editing rates is available on her website. When not writing, Maryann likes to take her dog for a walk, work jigsaw puzzles, color, and quilt.