Book Launch Prep: It’s a Journey

Whether you’re self-published or traditionally published, promotion and marketing is your responsibility. This means preparing for a book launch far in advance. For me, the task includes writing blogs, newsletters, and making social media announcements. It also involves updating my website along with other platforms like BookBub and mt Amazon’s Author Central page.

Planning in-person and online events is also part of the process. Book signings, readings, and podcast interviews are the norm these days. For some authors, social media ads are a must, although I won’t use them until I better understand how they work, as they can cost inexperienced authors a lot of money with little results. Then comes the launch date itself, plus post-launch date events such as blog tours and book promotion sites.

To keep track of all this, I prepare a publication checklist, which is now two pages long. I use a template that came from The Creative Academy, as I recall, but a quick google search undoubtedly provides many other sources, if you wish to use one. As many of you already know, book launches take a great deal of effort to gain any attention among the millions of published titles out there.

A Gold Satin Murder which will be launched two weeks from today. I’m very fortunate to have been invited to share a launch/reading evening with a colleague who’s releasing his third mystery. I’m doing a couple of other shared events this fall, which is far more fun than going it alone.

Aside from sending out my newsletter, staying on top of social media and updating my website, I’m also faced with the task of updating the front and back matter in the previous six books. When I first started posting ebooks in 2016, no one seemed too concerned that a work of fiction lacked a list of chapter links, but that’s a thing now. I also need to add a link to book #7 at the back of each book. As marketing gurus also suggest, I should also add a sample chapter of the next installment at the end of each book.

As you can see, there’s still work to be done, but the key is to pace myself and enjoy the process as much as I can. Given that I’ve gone through this before, I feel a little more confident, yet something unexpected can crop up and inevitably there’s something I missed. But I’m also learning not to worry about it as much.

To pre-order A Gold Satin Murder:

Amazon: https://mybook.to/AGoldSatinMurder

Kobo Canada: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/a-gold-satin-murder

Kobo U.S. https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-gold-satin-murder

Apple books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id6443255297

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-gold-satin-murder-debra-purdy-kong/1141951058?ean=2940166433930

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Debra_Purdy_Kong_A_Gold_Satin_Murder?id=FxF_EAAAQBAJ