Launch day! A lot of hype centers around the actual day, but it’s not the most important day of all. Your launch process should have a life span—starting before your book is published and ideally continuing until you’re ready to start hyping the next book in your series.

Why? Because you can certainly make sales with a single book, but that won’t support you in a career as a romance author. Remember from previous lessons: readers crave a series. If they love your book, they want more and more and more. That’s one of the key reasons I stress writing efficiently in addition to writing well.

Back to the actual launch: it is important to have a plan. Once you know your release date and you have your metadata and everything else is set to go, you need to decide a few more things.

Budget

It is possible to launch a book without spending money beyond what your time and effort is worth. If you already have a substantial email list, for instance, you might get enough traction through your existing network of friends and followers. But if this is your first book, it will probably pay to put some money into it. That includes:

• Signing up for BookSprout and/or BookSirens to get advance reviews.
  • Timing: As soon as you have e-book ARCs ready (they don’t have to be absolutely final files, but they should probably be close—everything minus proofreading, e.g.)
  • Cost varies: BookSprout is a monthly subscription, the least expensive of which is $19 a month as of this writing. BookSirens charges $10 per arc and $2 per reader. You can limit the number of readers you want to make your book available to and set time limits as well.
• Scheduling a blog tour (details in the previous lesson) to get editorial reviews and added exposure on social media.
  • Timing: On or around launch day. Your book should be available for sale when the tour is running.
  • Cost will depend on number of days of your blog tour.
• Signing up for new release features on different free/bargain book e-newsletters.
  • There’s a list in the previous lesson.
  • The costliest option is getting a “New Releases for Less” deal on BookBub. Cost depends on the genre. My historical romance NRFL deal cost $471. I didn’t find it worthwhile, but it did stimulate sales. It could be that it would work better for the second book in the series.

If you have deep pockets, doing a preorder advertising campaign could help, but it’s not something I’d endorse for a first book.

Timing

My one answer to this is AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE.

You should be starting to talk about your book as soon as you know you’re going to finish it and it will be out there.

As to choosing your launch date, here are a few things to consider:

• Season
  • Is your romance aligned with a particular season? Spring? Wedding season? Football season? Summer romance? Although it may not matter for subsequent books, bear this in mind when scheduling the release of your first book in the series.
• Holidays
  • Holiday novels are hugely popular, but that’s not exactly what I’m talking about here. I mean make sure your release date (or your launch event) doesn’t bump into an important religious holiday.
  • You may be tempted to launch on Valentine’s Day, but be careful, because that day is crowded with similar noise.
  • However, if your book is ideal for Mothers’ Day (second chance romance?) or Halloween (romantic mystery or horror or paranormal), you might consider timing around those events. It can help with messaging in emails and social media as well. Although read the caveat in the next bullet.
• Book industry practices
  • It’s probably a good idea to avoid launching your first book in the autumn period when all the big books from traditional publishers are generally launched. It’s a little bit like TV ads during election season. It’s easy to be buried under a ton of competition. Once your series is established, this won’t matter as much.

This is a rough guideline of what you should be doing to prepare for your launch and when. Nothing is etched in stone, but it’s a good idea to actually put some deadlines in your calendar so things don’t fall off the radar.

Around 2 months before launch day

Your book should be more or less in its final form, with cover and formatting. If it’s not proofread yet, you have time to re-upload before it has to go live.

• Create your “street team”
  • These are friends/family/fellow writers who will read the ARC of your book and leave advance reviews on Goodreads and BookBub. You’re not asking for feedback or input here, and make sure they know they’re reading something that hasn’t been proofread yet.
  • Make your ARC available on BookSprout (ideally).
  • Communicate with your team periodically to encourage them to follow you as well as leave reviews.
• Sign up for your blog tour
  • (See below)

Around 1 month before launch day

• Finalize arrangements for your virtual or in-person launch celebration (see below)
• Check in with your street team—perhaps an incentive to get them to read and review if they’re being slow.
• Push preorders in your newsletter and on social media

Give readers a chance to celebrate your book

Although the actual day of your launch is not critical in itself—what you do before and after is more important—you can generate a lot of excitement by making it a celebration. And who doesn’t love a celebration?

There are two kinds of celebrations: live and virtual. Both require preparation and thought.

Live event

Unless you’re very friendly with your local independent bookstore, or your bookstore has a big romance section, it’s probably going to be hard to schedule a launch event there. It’s a lot of work for a bookstore. They have to staff it—it would probably have to be in the evening, when they might not be open—and order books (or do the consignment thing with you). Unless you can guarantee a certain number of attendees, it isn’t worthwhile for them.

But if you use your imagination, there can be other equally good—if not better—venues. Your local library perhaps, again depending on possible interest of their readers.

Or perhaps there’s a venue that’s related thematically to your book. Some ideas:

• A local clothing store if it’s set in the world of fashion.
• A local restaurant or cafe
• A sports venue if appropriate (although arenas are big and expensive, unless you have contacts there)
• A historic house
• A hotel

Most places will probably charge something, and you might have to pay for some catering. It really depends on how many people you think you can get there and what you can offer them. Because…

❤️ Don’t just do a reading! ❤️

Make it a party! Think of games, giveaways, contests. It’s great to have swag to give away, but it can be expensive. At the very least, get bookmarks printed. And tuck one inside every book you sell. Don’t waste the real estate! Here’s the bookmark I made for The Dressmaker’s Secret Earl. Note that I had calls to action on the back, making it easy for readers to write a review and join my email list. (The bookmark doesn’t have to be any larger than 2″ x 6″, but be sure to make it 2.25 x 6.25 for bleed.)

In-person events are a lot of work, but by all means go for it if it’s the kind of thing you and your friends and family enjoy.

Virtual Event

There’s a lot to be said for launching your book via Zoom (or Google Meet or Facebook Live). First of all, readers from all over the world can attend, you can record it, and you can do giveaways and contests.

You can also request people to register and collect email addresses that way.

It’s also less risky if not many people come—you can make it a fun, interactive, intimate event without all the leftover food…

Strategies to encourage attendance

The sad fact is that people register for things all the time—especially free things—and don’t turn up. Obviously you want as many people as possible to come to your event, and there are a few tactics you can use to raise the probability that they will come.

A few ideas for your virtual event:

• Encourage your street team to come and ask if they’d be willing to read their favorite scene from the book live at the event.
• Have random giveaways during the event, with the biggest one at the end. Some ideas:
  • Signed book plates to send out if they buy a paperback
  • A 1:1 conversation with you on Zoom at a time of their choosing
  • A signed paperback mailed to them (although if people are coming from all over the world, this can get expensive)
  • A character in your next book named after them
  • A free novella or deleted scene (although this might better be something you give to everyone who attends live)
• Make a playlist of your protagonists’ lives and share it at the event
• A very brief reading by you
• Q&As, or a BTS feature (your life as a writer).

The theme of your book might give you even more ideas.

Follow up, follow up, follow up!

Once the event is over, send a heartfelt thank-you to everyone who attended or registered, along with the link to the replay, and take the opportunity to encourage them to review the book (with a link), follow you everywhere, etc.

It takes some work to keep the momentum going. The next lesson talks about ways to continue the dialogue with your readers.