Launch Your Book: A Free Marketing Checklist for (Small-Press) Authors

Last week on the Writing on Wednesdays episode, Sarah and I talked about book launches. We threw a lot of ideas out there, so I compiled them all (and more) into a free marketing checklist specifically intended for authors publishing with a small to medium-sized press. There are a lot of marketing guides out there for authors, and this one is admittedly tailored to the kinds of book launches I’ve done. I highly encourage you to research and compile your own checklist–then share it with me and others! Let’s keep the convo going.

Some notes:

• This checklist begins roughly 8 months before a book is scheduled to release. The exact timing for each action item, however, isn’t all that important, and a lot of them will depend on when a publisher is able to finish certain materials. The main point is to do as much on your end as you can in advance of the release so you’re not overwhelmed by tiny tasks later on.
• There are a lot of items on this list–I made it purposefully ambitious and thorough. I see this checklist as a buffet of sorts–take the things that appeal to you, leave what doesn’t. Most of us don’t write for a living, we have to find a way to make a book launch work for us.
• The checklist extends into 1+ months after the release of the book with ideas for long-term, slow-burn book promotion. There could be a whole separate checklist for that stage of book promo, but I’ll save that for another time 🙂

Without further ado, here’s the checklist. Click the image below or right here to view the full, four-page document.

Let me know if you use it and how it works! And if you have other ideas for book launch strategies that I’ve omitted, I’d love to hear them!