Are you looking for tips to launch your book? If you’ve written and self-published a book, you need to get it off the ground successfully with a strong marketing launch. The first 30 days of a book launch are the most important part of the marketing. While a strong launch doesn’t guarantee best-seller success, it gives your book the best chance of attracting the attention of readers.
- Why You Need to Launch Your Book
- Launch Your Book with Early Prep
- Marketing Materials to Launch Your Book
- Press Release to Launch Your Book
- To Launch Your Book, You Need a Blurb
- Blurb Example: Fiction
- Blub Example: Biography
- Launch Your Book with a Marketing Package
- Launch Your Book in 5 Steps
- Launch Your Book Properly
Why You Need to Launch Your Book
A strong marketing launch will help you:
- Find the right buyers for your book.
- Position your book in its genre.
- Get those first, all-important reader reviews.
- Set your book up for success.
Launch Your Book with Early Prep
It’s critical to start preparing to launch your book before your book is finished. Yes, you need to add this to your list when you’re already stretched to the limit by authoring your book and arranging the design, production, and printing.
If you want this book that you’ve spent time over to have the best chance of success, you must set aside some time to start the marketing push. If you organize your time and make it a priority, you can get it all done, even a successful launch your book.
Marketing Materials to Launch Your Book
Before you launch your book, set some time aside to prepare your marketing materials. Make sure you have the following items before you begin your marketing push:
- Press release
- Book blurb
- Marketing package
Press Release to Launch Your Book
A press release is simply an announcement that your book has been published. As the name implies, it is an announcement that goes to a news agency. In the old days, press releases came in by telegram or “over the wire,” which is why these agencies are sometimes known as news wires. Today, most wires are digital.
How to write it
A press release follows a strict format that every release must use:
- Headline
- Subhead
- Dateline (where and when this has happened, followed by a dash)
- Body (about 2 paragraphs)
- Quotation
- “About” section (who you are, who the publisher is)
- Contact information
A press release must have all the relevant information a reporter would need if they were writing a story about it. Write it in newsy prose. Save your flowery language for your marketing package—for the press release, stick to the simple facts. Use clear, direct language without fluff. The right length is 250 to 300 words.
What should it say? Here’s a sample of how to write and format it. For your release, add as much relevant information as you need, but don’t vary from this format.
Local Author Publishes New Gothic Mystery
The brooding mystery is set in the early years of Salem, Massachusetts, and blends romance with history
Dateline: (Salem, MA, October 31, 2024)–Salem writer Anita Dangerine has published her first novel. Set in her native Salem, it features historical characters who come to life in an engaging mystery.
The author, 37, says: “I’m thrilled to publish a book that displays my love for my home that also respects its historical importance. This book will appeal to anyone who enjoys history and the New England area.”
Dangerine has scheduled a book reading at Knockem Dead Bookstore on 123 Chapel Road, East Dangerfield, Mass.
The first-time writer is an amateur historian with connection to the local historical society and is a master gardener for her county extension services. She lives on an herb farm outside of Salem.
ISBN: 1234567 Publisher: Pandango Printing 2024
Contact information: Call 555-122-3446 for press information and interviews. Website: wwwAnDanger.com
Where to send it
Once your release is ready, send it to a news wire.
To submit to a top news agency like Reuters or the Associated Press, you must have a legitimately newsworthy item or be a reporter on contract with them. They get thousands of releases every day, and yours is likely to go to the scrap pile.
If you are submitting a marketing press release, you must use a wire that works with publicists and individuals. In most cases, you can send it for free or at a low cost.
Here are some agencies you can send your release to:
- PR Newswire
- Prowly
- Access Wire
- Newswire Today
Get some help for your press release to launch your book
If you struggle with the ability to do this, or you just can’t carve out the time, you can hire a freelancer with experience in writing marketing materials.
Some freelance sites where you can hire writers include:
- Freelancer.com
- Problogger
- Bark
- Textbroker
To Launch Your Book, You Need a Blurb
A blurb is a succinct description that sets out the main characters and ideas of a book in a way that makes readers want to know more. A successful blurb tells you who the main characters are and sets up the plot’s main conflict without giving everything away.
You can use the blurb in your marketing package, on the back cover of your book, and in your e-book descriptions. Here are some tips for drafting a book blurb.
- Introduce the hero: Who is the main character? What do they do, and what kind of person are they? What makes them interesting?
- Give clues about the setting: Where does the action take place? If it’s historical fiction, what time is it set in?
- What’s the situation: Where does your main character find themselves now?
- What’s the problem? What issue has turned the character’s life around, and what obstacle are they facing in trying to resolve it?
Make sure the reader feels that the stakes are high. They want to identify with the character long enough to care what happens, and they can only find out if they read the book.
Blurb Example: Fiction
“If you don’t call off the wedding, I will.”
Celia Brett received the printed, unsigned message on the eve of her marriage to a wealthy, prominent man.
Once a dowdy, inarticulate housekeeper, Celia had blossomed into a poised and sleekly striking woman. But in her precarious climb up the social ladder, she had been party to two shocking tragedies. And now, a third awaited—unless she could silence the person who threatened to unmask her.
–Ursula Curtiss, “Letter of Intent”
Blub Example: Biography
In 1938, a small, crooked-legged racehorse received more press coverage than Hitler, Mussolini, Roosevelt, or any other news figure. His name was Seabiscuit. He had become a most unlikely darling of the pubic, thanks to an improbable meeting of three men who together crated an international sporting icon.
Seabiscuit is an inspiring narrative of betting and winning against the odds, a classic tale of three embattled individuals who overcame the Depression and captivated the world.
–Laura Hillenbrand, “Seabiscuit”
Launch Your Book with a Marketing Package
Your marketing package is a single package that lets interested readers and publicists know the basics of your book. Plan to send your package to anyone who might be interested in talking to you about it. It will be useful to launch your book and, later, when your book begins to generate interest.
Use it to set up appointments with book signing venues, book bloggers, podcasters, bookstores, and book reviewers. Send them your marketing package, or have it with you when you meet. To make things easier, create a digital version and a print one.
Every marketing package should have:
- Your author photo
- Author bio
- Book blurb
- Color image of your book cover
Launch Your Book in 5 Steps
- Start preparing your book launch materials several months before your book is published.
- When your book is ready to be printed, write a press release announcing its publication. Send the release to at least one wire service.
- Begin contacting venues that might want to hold a book signing, book reading, or other author event.
- Put together print and digital versions of your marketing package.
- Send copies of your marketing package to book reviewers, book bloggers, podcasters who interview writers, and others who may be interested in promoting your book.
If you do all this in the first 30 days of your book launch, you will have a good chance of getting your book the attention it needs.
Launch Your Book Properly
A well-planned book launch can help your book succeed. We hope these tips come in useful when you launch a book. If you want top-notch printing for that book, contact Dazzle Printing.
