At first, launching a book may seem daunting. But it helps to plan the launch in increments, and also, know that ebooks have an indefinite shelf life, so that even though it’s nice to have a strong start, there’s always time to build up buzz and excitement around a book.
Creating a Book Launch Plan
Direct Contact PR offers an excellent list/set of guidelines on what to do when figuring out a book’s publicity plan. It includes what you need to take into consideration, depending on the phase of the book and when it is published, how to target customers and create a media kit, planning out a media calendar, and more.
GetPublishedTV also has a great video that outlines how to do a book launch.
And author Lindsay Buroker outlines, in great detail, exactly what you should do to market a book series. She goes in depth for each book, and talks about the number of books you should include in the series.
Virtual Book Tour
Book blog tours are popular, and a great way to drum up publicity for your book. Nina Amir outlines how to plan out your time, content, stops, and media kit before diving in to a blog tour.
Where Writers Win also shares tips on how to host a virtual book party. Tips include making the party an all day, multi-author event on Facebook, with raffles to giveaway copies of the book(s).
Other Tips
Lindsay Buroker also discusses the strategies new indie authors should consider implementing, including buying advertising and starting a mailing list (so you can announce your book launch to interested readers!).
There are also plenty of new and exciting ways to promote your book, so keep your eyes peeled for opportunities. One example is last July, when authors around the world gave away copies of their ebooks for free on Digital Book Day (a similar initiative to World Book Night).
For more ideas, check out Lynnette Phillips’ Digital Publishing Resources on Scoop.it.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published on May 21, 2015.
