Authors have you ever asked the question, where can I find a complete, comprehensive book launch checklist?
You’re about ready to launch your fiction or non-fiction book and you asked, is there a checklist anywhere where I can make sense of all the things that I need to do to launch my book properly at a live event, online event, or a hybrid in-person and online even?
Thanks to Charla Anderson, best-selling author of Candy Bar Hugs, and Split-Second Transformations Charla was asking us in our author Mastermind, Is there a checklist? I said, I’ll create one. So, this is for you the bonus chapter in Book Idea to Bestseller. You’ve seen me all over the media promoting this book from Detroit, San Antonio, and Colorado, and everywhere on television in the USA and Beyond. This is the book to help get your Book Idea to Best Seller in 30 days.
In just 6 years we’ve published over 791 titles in the last six years with authors in 64 nations.
1) Define your goals and your audience
2) Select a venue
3) Select the date and the time
*Excerpted from new book Book Ideas to Bestseller in 30 Days
4) Create an event page on social media like Facebook and Eventbrite, so you can gather people’s data and collect their information, and they can get pop up reminders for them that they’re going to see it as it approaches. You want to do this at least 30 to 45 days out, if not more, to keep it growing, keep your RSVP list growing, and then every day
5) Go there and post something that’s going on around the book promotion
6) Design some eye-catching memes and promotional materials that you can tweet out, you can share on social media.
7) Send out some save-the-date announcements just like you would a wedding invitation or graduation in the mail
8) Do a pre-order campaign. You want to create that with your publisher, the live pre-order link so that your hardback, your paperback, and e-book are all available for presale. This will help juice the Google and Amazon algorithms to make you a best-selling author.
9) Work with your publisher to be sure you hit Bestseller status on Amazon
10) Put these pre-sell links in all of your correspondence, your emails, and your event on social media so people can pre-buy the book,
11) Do as many interviews on podcasts and media outlets as possible, leading up to your book launch. The more you speak, the more books you sale.
12) Put out a press release
13) Invite local media to your Book Launch Party – Reach out to the local media, invite them to come, send personalized invitations to local media, book bloggers, and literary influencers.
14) Have an itinerary for your event and what’s going to happen in each five-minute segment of that event.
15) Build a book signing around the event
16) Have pop up banners that promote you and your book (this is great for photographs and book signing tables too
17) Have enough copies of your books on hand to sell, hand out, and give away as gifts
18) Do some door prizes and swag bags for your attendees
19) Invite a nonprofit organization of your choice to attend. Maybe you have a nonprofit or somebody you want to include that runs a nonprofit, bring them to the event, have them share for five minutes, let them have a little table or booth and to promote the why of your book. For example, we’re passionate about 1040impact.org, the non-profit I founded and the work they do to rescue kids from human trafficking. We care for 400+ girls in four safe houses ages 6-17 whom we’ve rescued and feed them and our full-time staff of 25 more than 50,000 meals a month. These girls are being prepared for success in life through our school and career placement programs.
20) Livestream on social media, so people all around the world can watch and participate.
Meet with your venue and technical support staff the day before your event so everything goes smoothly
21) I recommend hiring an event planner, a photographer, a videographer just to make sure everything goes off without a hitch
22) Print marketing collateral to capture all those magic moments and follow up with putting together videos, sizzle reels, and photographs of the events that are going to live online forever
23) Do another press release after you have a successful event of you doing the book signing, speaking and everything, and having your sponsors there
24) Have some local business partners sponsor your book launch event. particularly if it’s at a brick-and-mortar venue. If it’s at a winery, or a restaurant, or a bookstore, or a church, let them be a sponsor. List them on your advertising and event fliers and online promotions. Let them write a check to be a sponsor. Let them donate free food or drinks. You’d be surprised if you just start asking local businesses what they’re willing to do for a mention.
25) Ask businesses, entrepreneurs and other authors donate to your swag bags. Once you have the date selected and your flyers printed and you let them know people are coming, most business owners will want to donate something to your gift bag. They’ll want to donate something from their or their operations,
If it’s a spa, perhaps it’s a restaurant or whoever it might be, they’re going to want to include some coupons to get traffic into their businesses. Maybe they’re a business in that same downtown area or next door, they can especially benefit.
26) Invite Celebrities – The other thing you want to do, apart from local partnerships, is you want to invite celebrities. Now, Charla is having her book launch in Fort Worth, and there’s a lot of cowboys and ropers and bull riders and steer wrestlers that are in the rodeo world, they’re in the cowboy world, that could come out and speak or make an appearance or do a roping demonstration or whatever you want, inviting celebrities, having celebrities at your event is huge to get more people there.
27) Get branded with a celebrity – Because everybody’s going to want pictures with the celebrity, be sure you get pictures with your book with the celebrity and your attendees is required. They’re on the red carpet in front of your banner, but they’re also always holding your book. So, it’s good for your branding. You can even charge $20 per photo and half goes to your non-profit of choice and half goes help cover the cost of your event. Everybody gets a picture with the celebrity, but they’re holding your book for the branding.
And so Local Business Partnerships invite celebrities, author book giveaways. You’re going to have plenty of paperbacks and hard coverage there. We did a launch recently at McMinnville, Oregon, at the Air and Space Museum. And this young girl, 21, wrote a great best-selling fiction work called Dustin’ Blood, a supernatural fiction. And she out of books. In fact, she sold $4,000 worth of books. She wished she had more books. It was a big success.
28) Offer your coaching program, upsell promotions into your Mastermind or whatever you got going on next. Maybe it’s an online webinar. You’ve invited the media. You send formal invitations out to local media, TV, radio, newspapers, and online functions. Follow up with a press kit, personal pitches. I mentioned having your events support staff, that’s very important even if they’re volunteer, do a run through the day before an event rehearsal so you’re not missing anything.
Always plan for contingencies and say something goes wrong. You always have a backup plan if the power goes out or something, the sound system doesn’t work properly. Event registration and checklist is huge. Your volunteers and your event coordinator can help you with this. I recommend Eventbrite because you’re going to get everybody’s email address even if it’s a pre-event, which you can charge for this. You can charge $5, $10, $20, or whatever. You charge a certain amount; they get a book and a gift bag. So, talk to your local business owners in the area about Swag bags. Talk to your other author friends. Talk to other authors at Beyond Publishing about them donating their book into your Swag bag. Decorate. You don’t have to spin an arm and a leg on this, but just a little color, a little flare around your branding. I know, Charlotte, she’s turquoise, just like Beyond Publishing logo, she’s that color. You’ll see her color, her branded color. She’s like, This color right here on Powerful Female Immigrants. That’s her brand colors. If you’re not going to speak, if you’re not comfortable as the author speaking at this event, have a designated speaker there with you or have somebody like me interview about why you wrote the book and what’s on the inside.
Send thank you notes to the celebrity speakers, local businesses, and the media and participants who helped you. By incorporating all these elements, you can have a very successful book launch. The main thing about it is to follow up. You’ve created this family now, this tribe of people, so why not start a Facebook group called Split Second Transformations, selling author Charla Anderson. You’ve got your candy bar hugs, followers in there, and you’ve got your rating fans around Split Second Transformations. Now they’re saying, when’s your next book coming out. So be consistent, be bold, be courageous, have fun. You’re throwing a party. So, think about a party, a Thanksgiving party, a happy party to bring people together and celebrate. And it’s also a chance for you to say thank you to all your friends who have helped you get to where you are. Charla runs a great podcast, and what you might want to do is invite every podcast guest you’ve ever had, go on their podcast to promote your book, and the list goes on and on.
Have a successful book launch. Be sure and tag me when you’re launching your next book. All these books that I’ve done have had successful book launch parties, both virtual and in-person. I got a lot more books, but these are the main four that I talk about, is have fun, celebrate.
Throwback pictures When social media sites say, hey, a year ago you were doing this, or Last month you were doing this, share it again. Say, Here’s a Thursday throwback to my book launch party. I’ll give you a free $500 value book consultant in 15 minutes. Ask me any question about your book. bookstores, libraries, everywhere. Ask me a question about your book. Jump on my calendar link right now and I’ll give you some honest feedback. I’m not afraid to tell you if your baby looks ugly. I’ll see you at your next book launch.
Congratulations.
Michael D. Butler
52AuthorSecrets.com
The Author Book Launch Checklist 28 Steps from Book Idea to Bestseller in 30 Days Book by Global Book Publisher Michael D. Butler CEO of Beyond Publishing