5 Ways to Promote Your Book Release [Infographic]

5 ways to promote book release infographic
For a larger, printable version of this infographic, just click the image.
  • Social media headers. Change your social media headers, like those on Twitter and your Facebook page, to show your book cover and release date. If it’s available for pre-order, include that information. You can easily create social media headers using Canva.com.
  • Book trailers. Create a short video about your book as a book trailer and share on social media. As an example of a book trailer for a nonfiction book, here’s one we created for a client
  • Have a fun Q & A event on your Facebook page. Announce the event on social media and then do a live video where you can answer questions about the book.
  • Bookmarks and other swag. These are especially fun for a book launch party. Get creative. You can get posters and postcards printed up too.
  • Book excerpts. Be sure to share short book excerpts on social media to pique your potential reader’s interest in buying your book.

Remember, for a successful book release you need to start your book promotion even before the book is available for purchase. What are you waiting for? If you’d like to discuss strategies for your book release with a book marketing expert, book a consultation with me.

Using a Press Release for Book Promotion

A press release is a great book promotion tool for nonfiction authors. It lets the media know why your book is timely and practical, and can help you get publicity for your book. It’s perfect for announcing your initial book release. However, you can also use additional press releases for your book any time you can tie in your book’s topic to a current event or topic.

As an example, my client Deborah Olson sent out a press release around Friendship Day because it tied in with the topic of her book The Healing Power of Girlfriends: How to Create Your Best Life Through Female Connection.

Press releases can be submitted online and to local media people. For the best results, take time to research how to write a press release and when it’s written, proofread carefully and have another set of eyes proofread again.

Checklist to Get Ready for Your Book Launch

rocket book launchThis is not an exhaustive list of everything you might do for a book launch. It focuses primarily on what you can do using social media. There may be other things you need to do if you are having a book launch party, need additional publicity such as getting on radio, TV, in newspapers. I can recommend a great publicist for traditional publicity. Her name is Joanne McCall and you can learn more at her website.

Book Launch Planning

Have on hand:

  • a digital copy of your book
  • your photo
  • a high resolution digital version of your book cover
  • your bio
  • copies of all your existing physical marketing collateral
  • links to all your online accounts

Expand Your Audience of Potential Readers

One way to do this is to cross-promote on all your social platforms. On Facebook post a message periodically inviting your Facebook fans to follow you on Twitter, Instagram, etc. On Twitter post a weekly message inviting your Twitter followers to connect with you on LinkedIn. On LinkedIn periodically post a link to your Pinterest boards and invite your connections to follow them. Examples:

“Follow my Pinterest board here: https://www.pinterest.com/sueawesome/social-media-tips-for-nonfiction-authors/

“For more detailed information about me and what I do, like my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AusomaSocialMediaMarketingforNonfictionAuthors/

“Are you on LinkedIn? Send me a request to connect: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suecanfield/

“Let’s connect on Twitter! https://twitter.com/sueawesome

“Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suecanfieldausoma/

6 Months Before Launch

  • Hire a book launch specialist if you can
  • Setup a book page on your website if you don’t yet have one. It should include:
    • expected release date
    • list of other books you’ve written
    • links to your Amazon page, Goodreads and all social media accounts
    • link sign up for your newsletter
    • a pitch to ask readers to post a review of your book wherever they purchased it (Amazon, Goodreads, etc.)
  • Set up Twitter if you don’t yet have an account. Tweet relevant tips from your book and retweet relevant content from others. Follow relevant profiles to expand your audience.

 4 Months Before Launch

  • Set up your Facebook Author page if you don’t have one yet. Start posting about your upcoming book launch.
  • Setup an email list if you haven’t yet. I recommend using MailChimp.
  • Reach out to bloggers who interview authors to plan a virtual book tour the week the book launches.
  • Write articles to post to your blog weekly, or more often, related to your book’s topic. Some of these could be re-worked to use as guest posts for the bloggers who interview authors. Your bio paragraph can include information about the book. You could even submit these articles to online article submission sites.
  • Contact podcasters for interviews.
  • Request book endorsements
  • Create photo memes (images to be shared on social media). Each social media platform displays photos best when they are sized correctly for that platform. These sizes change periodically. You can learn more about photo memes and download an image size guide here.
  • Setup a Pinterest board for your book and add all created Photo Memes.
  • Setup Instagram if you haven’t yet. Add all photo memes.
  • Consider doing a book trailer and posting on YouTube. This can be video of you talking about the book or it can use images and graphics with voice over. You want it to tell the reader why this book benefits them. Here are some examples of book trailers Joel has done. https://youtu.be/DHWyi5drV64 https://youtu.be/2gLSiwKoFgs https://youtu.be/sIHJpRFdIGg https://youtu.be/dA8JeVL3Vck

2 Months Before Launch

  • Setup your Amazon Author Central account if you don’t yet have one.
  • Post book cover image all over social media.
  • Create bookmarks and/or postcards around the book for your book launch party.
  • Create a hashtag specific to your book for use in social media messages. (i.e. my client, a retail consultant, is using #fivelawsofretail for his book, The Five Laws of Retail)
  • Reach out to a small group of people to be beta readers who will post a book review on Amazon on book launch day.

1 Month Before Launch

  • Update LinkedIn Publications Section
  • Let your email list know when the book will be released and ask them to share the announcement with their networks. See an example here of how one author leveraged her email list for her book launch.
  • Write a blog post about your book launch and include a short excerpt from your book.
  • Set up Google Alerts and monitor mention of your name, book, and topic.
  • Give away a sample chapter to new email subscribers to help build your list.
  • Share relevant links related to your topic. Mention how your book will address that topic.
  • Write copy about the book that your audience can share on their social media platforms on launch day. Send it out to your list with sample tweets and Facebook messages they can share with their audience. (Example of one of my client’s books for Facebook: “If you’re a mom, you’re worried about your daughter. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, the question remains: How do we protect our daughters? By tackling the subject of sexual assault head-on, The Way of the Warrior Mama offers a roadmap to navigating one of the most treacherous parts of the journey from girlhood to womanhood. Learn more about the book: http://ow.ly/Irv130kGeVM” and for Twitter: How do we protect our daughters? By tackling the subject of sexual assault head-on, The Way of the Warrior Mama offers a roadmap to navigating one of the most treacherous parts of the journey from girlhood to womanhood. Learn more about the book: http://ow.ly/Irv130kGeVM”

Launch Day

  • Your blog – schedule a promotional announcement the day of the launch.
  • Your newsletter list – schedule a book launch announcement the day of the launch.
  • Facebook Author page – post 3 unique posts, morning, midday, evening.
  • Twitter – post 12 unique tweets – 1 every two hours. All can be scheduled ahead using a tool like Hootsuite. If you don’t use a tool to schedule ahead, then you can post those 12 tweets closer together, but no more than 2 in one hour. Be sure to use the specific hashtag you created for your book in your tweets. Monitor your account on launch day for any likes, retweets, mentions, comments. Be sure to respond to any comments and thank anyone who retweets and shares your posts.
  • LinkedIn – post 3 unique posts, morning, midday, evening.
  • Instagram – post 3 unique posts, morning, midday, evening.
  • Pinterest – pin 2 unique images relevant to your book.
  • Consider running a giveaway on Goodreads.
  • Remind your beta readers to post their review on Amazon.
  • Interact with your audience. Respond to comments and questions. Encourage your audience to ask questions.
  • Have fun! Celebrate!

The Day After

Celebrate! Relax! Don’t stress if things didn’t go quite as planned. Book marketing is an ongoing task. As long as your book is for sale, you’ll want to continue marketing it. So make plans to do that. But not today. Today – breathe! Enjoy the day!

Learn more about our Social Media Book Launch Support packages.

Download this checklist as a PDF.

Leveraging Your Email List for Your Book Launch

Book launch emailYour email subscribers are on your list because they want to hear from you and are eagerly anticipating your book release. They will be happy to share news of your book with their audience as well. They just need to know how to do that and you can provide all the information they need to easily share your book release announcement.

About a month before your book is released, let your email list know when the book will be released and ask them to share the announcement with their network. Write up copy about the book that your audience can share on their social media platforms. Include sample tweets and Facebook messages they can share. What other ways can you leverage your email list to support your book launch?

Here’s a great example. Author of The Business of Being, Laurie Buchanan, PhD, just sent out an email to her list about her book release early next month. She includes several things her audience can do to help support her book launch – all of which I strongly recommend my clients include in an email they send to their list about a month before their book release. I asked Laurie if I could share her email here and with her permission, it’s reprinted here. See my notes that follow. … more … “Leveraging Your Email List for Your Book Launch”