Your book is finished. It’s about to hit the bookshelves and online stores. Now you’re ready to launch.
Hold on! (Sound of screeching brakes) This is not the time to launch your book. That time actually started months ago, when your book was just a glimmer in your eye and a glow in your brain.
So how do you launch your book—before you have a book? And how do you carry that through after you publish your book?
Here are 5 tips that will get you started right, regardless of where you are in the process.
1. Start a blog
While you will post articles about the topic of your book on your regular blog, it’s never too early to start a blog dedicated to your book. There is where you can post the progress of the book, from concept to completion. You can write about the actual process of writing and publishing the book. This is the place for “all things book-related.”
2. Build a tribe
At the same time as you start your blog, you should also start to build your tribe. You want to offer to keep people updated on the topic of your book. Get them interested and keep them informed.
When you let them take the journey along with you, they will “buy into” your book and your tribe. It may be through videos where you’re talking about the writing process. It may be through photos of you doing the research or interviewing experts who will be in the book. It may be celebrating completion of the first draft.
The more you involve your tribe with polls on their opinions to getting them to spread the word on actual launch day, the more likely they are to want the book and everything else you offer.
3. Get social
We can’t ignore it any longer – social media is here to stay. And that means that you have a powerful media tool to use as you launch your book.
Create a Facebook Page (formerly fan page) for your book and get all of your tribe to like it and share it with their list of friends. Offer a free sneak peek into the book when it’s ready.
As soon as you have the book front cover finished, add it to your page. Then use the power of Facebook and Twitter to tell everyone about it.
Better yet, run a contest between two or three designs you are considering and let them vote on them. People love to be involved!
4. Involve the media
Send press releases to online outlets at each news-worthy step of the way:
- When you launch the blog for the book
- When you launch the Facebook Page
- When you run a contest for the book cover—and again when you announce the final cover
- When you launch the book
Pay for press release services at the time of your book launch to ensure it hits all of the newswires on the same day.
Respond to any and all media requests in your topic area, always mentioning the book.
5. Create an event
Your book launch should be an event. It’s big for you. Now make it big for your entire tribe.
Consider having a live face-to-face book launch party locally. Invite your followers to attend—and webcast it for others to see, regardless of their location.
Pre-schedule tweets and emails to go out throughout the day, reminding everyone that today is THE book launch day and where they can pick up a copy of your book.
The more excited you get about your book launch, the more involvement you will get from your fans and followers. And the more readers you will get for your book!
Your book launch starts long before the book is finished. And it can continue long after the day of the launch, when you use these five tips to get people interested in reading and buying your book.
