If you are a debut author thinking it's time to start planning your book launch, this post is for you! The need for marketing skills as a debut author is something that, in my opinion, isn't spoken about in the capacity it needs to be. It seems like a topic that gets skirted over—or from the outside world—appears to be a lot about luck.
I'd say luck does play a part, but I will say, your likelihood of finding luck on your journey increases exponentially if you are doing the work and consistently showing up with best practices.
A. N. Caudle, Courtney Whims, and myself are here to give you the inside scoop into our own book launches. We all took different approaches, and our publishing stories are so different, but amongst the three of us we've seen hundreds of pre-orders, hundreds of book reviews, thousands of book ratings, and millions of Kindle page-reads. Some of us have received outside interest from publishers, audiobook production companies, and even literary agents.
We've been asked about our book launches, and we want to help anyone who is struggling to find their footing in the book world. In this blog post we'll open up about our processes and let you see behind the scenes of our launches.
Meet the Author, the Book, and Their Launch:
The Author: A.N. Caudle
Hey there! I’m A.N. Caudle. I am an independently published author of a dark fantasy romance series. I never thought I would write a book, and this journey has been incredible!
I am a wife and mother of two kids. I work full-time at a company I have been with for nearly ten years. I spend time with my family or reading when I’m not writing or working.
I would love to connect with you, so please feel free to reach out and say hello on my instagram!
The Book: Worthy of fate
The Gem
Marked by the Gods, Kya is forced to partake in a Trial for a chance to be deemed Worthy. If she succeeds, she’ll be gifted great powers. If she fails, she could lose her life or worse. But that’s only the start of her worries. Now, the same plague that took her home is spreading and threatening the fate of the realm. Can Kya survive the Trial of the Gods and gain the needed power to rid the world of the growing threat before it’s too late? Or will she be drawn to what awaits her in the shadows?
The Shadow
Ryker has waited a long time for her—his mate. Now he’s found her. He plans to claim what is rightfully his, but dark forces threaten to destroy his Nation should he embrace the bond he so desperately desires. Unable to escape the drive to be near her, he waits for his precious gem, lingering in her shadow.
Worthy of Fate is the first book in a new adult, dark fantasy romance series with an intriguing magic system, dark forces, Spirits, and forbidden fated mates.
The Launch:
All in all, I believe my launch was a success. There isn't a definition of what success is, so you need to determine what that is for yourself. But don't compare yourself to others. I was able to get 300 ARC readers (after choosing selectively). I had over 600 preorders (only 113 were ebooks). Within 100 days, I had over 2 million KU page reads and over 1,500 sales with 1,200+ reviews.
The Author: Courtney Whims
Courtney Whims is a self-published independent author who has been writing her own stories since elementary school. After reading some of the most popular romantasy series currently in the genre, she noticed there weren’t many dragonrider romance series. Thus, she began to write a series of her own. Of Flames and Fallaciesis her debut novel, and the first in the Arterian trilogy.Courtney currently resides in the Los Angeles, California area. If she’s not writing or reading, she’s either drawing or spending time outdoors.All of the cover art, character art, and other illustrations are all hand-drawn by Courtney herself.
Fallow Courtney's Instagram!
The Book: Of Flames and Fallacies
Possession of dragon contraband in the Arterian Kingdom is a guaranteed brutal execution.
When twenty-two-year-old Katerina Blackwind finds a dragon egg buried in her father’s grave, she begins to question everything she thought she knew. She must return the forbidden dragon hatchling north to the secretive Dragon Lands: where dragons roam free and a rebellion group resides.
But she can’t do it on her own – smuggling a dragon hatchling across the realm during a war between Arterians and rebels means she can be killed by either side. She knows there’s only one person she can truly trust, her old flame, Cole Ashbourne.
Yet, Cole is much different than the last time Kat saw him: deliciously chiseled in all the right places with a raw power lingering beneath the surface. Cole is torn between his responsibilities as a newly-promoted Captain in the King’s military, and his heart.
Danger lurks at every turn. As more secrets are unearthed, Kat is left to question everything she thought she knew about dragons, her family, love, and the Kingdom.
The Launch:
OF FLAMES AND FALLACIES is scheduled to release in September of 2024 and has already exceeded 700 pre-orders and has received interest from literary agents.
The Author: Cortney Winn
Hi I'm Cortney!
I'm a mom to two wild boys, wife to my best friend, and writer of my favorite genres: romance and fantasy.
Most days you'll find me in jeans and a hoodie (even if it's warm outside) with a Diet Coke nearby.
Twilight sparked my journey into books and writing, and I'll read anything except horror. But, not to exclude Stephen King, I read (and loved) his book, On Writing.
My work has been influenced by Rebecca Yarros, Brigid Kemmerer, Brandon Sanderson, Carissa Broadbent, Victoria Aveyard, Sarah J. Maas, and so many others. I write early in the mornings, starting my day at 4:30 and end it with reading, which consists of a lot of textbooks right now as I near the completion of my bachelor's degree in marketing.
My two favorite quotes are:
"You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems." -James Clear
"A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are built for."
-William G. T. Shedd
If you want to learn more about my journey (and see me cry) watch my author story on my About page.
You can also find me on Instagram!
The Book: Vesselless
She’s heiress to the throne. The throne her father stole from him.
Nizzara has always been able to perceive spirits better than the average caster. When she enters a deadly tournament to end her betrothal, she's determined to win without succumbing to the addictive spirit magic she channels or taking a life in the duel ring. Finding herself outmatched, Nizzara must face her fear of power and team up with Dagen—an enemy who is half-ghost and all charm—to survive the tournament.
Dagen, the last King of Zarr, was killed by Nizzara’s father ten years ago. Now a half-ghost—able to phase between his human and spirit form—he is stuck in another realm, hunting wretched souls. When his keeper offers him a chance to reclaim his freedom in exchange for Nizzara’s soul, Dagen takes the deal.
There’s only one catch: she must freely give it to him by the tournament’s end or his own soul is forfeit.
—
Throne of Glass meets The Serpent of Wings & Night in the first installment of this action packed fantasy romance as they deal with the bargain hanging over their heads. Family, love, power and deception collide as Nizzara and Dagen make decisions that could change their realm forever.
The Launch:
VESSELLESS had a secret launch. (If you want that story, read it here!) Honestly, I did almost everything backwards in my launch.
I didn't do pre-orders, ARC's, or publish physical books.
I simply submitted VESSELLESS to Kindle Unlimited in March of 2024, and I only told my street team. As they read it, they posted about a "secret book" only they were privy to and continued to create hype about this mysterious book. Since then, the VESSELLESS hype has exponentially grown each month and by the fourth month after launch, VESSELLESS was hitting one million page reads in a month. It's received three different inquires for foreign rights, one audiobook request, expressed interest from a noteable US publisher, and has gained hundreds of thousands of views on Tik Tok. By June 2024, I signed with my agents, Alexandra D'Amico and Brenna English-Loeb at Transatlantic Literary Agency. Vesselless is now being submitted to US publishers for traditional publication.
The only physical books I released were part of a fundraiser. I opened orders on my website for one month and sold over 200 signed copies.
How we Launched our Books: Tips and Tricks
Advice from A.N. Caudle:
Write your book and get it edited.
During this time, start building your social media following. You want to draw in your targeted audience. Talk about your tropes, your genre, teasers, fun elements that your book contains, etc. Try to build a following as much as you can before you start really marketing.
Get a cover. The cover is going to be one of the biggest selling points and it will be what draws in the readers to learn more about your book. This is a large investment but one that is worth it. If you're not able to design one yourself, I highly recommend hiring a designer.
Look into tour companies to do social media runs. This will generate large amounts of hype for your book.
Build up your newsletter subscribers.
Schedule out all of your reveals and your release date (Different seasons make a difference depending on the genre. Tuesdays are release days for traditionally published authors and indie authors generally do best releasing on Thursdays so keep that in mind)! You want to start teasing the cover 2 weeks before your cover reveal which should be 2 months before your release date. During this time, post daily if not multiple times a day. Also at the time of your cover reveal, start looking for ARC readers.
Start your preorder campaign! Preorders make a huge difference to authors. If you can, offer physical preorders. Most people would rather buy a physical copy rather than an ebook.
Commission character art. This is visually pleasing to the readers and will drawn in even more.
Run your ARC tour! Most readers want at least 2 weeks to ARC read but a month is a good amount. This generates a large hype for your book. A good goal is to get 100 reviews by release. Keep in mind that on average only half of arc readers leave reviews.
The week before and after your release, push as hard on social media as you can, getting your cover in front of as many eyes as possible.
Build your following EARLY.
IF you can, have your sequel up for preorder by the time you release. (It's okay if you can't but it helps if you can). This will give readers a place to go and they are more likely to preorder your second book the moment they finish the first one since it will be fresh on their minds.
Connect with other authors! Reach out to other indie authors, ask them advice, or how to do things. Learn what worked for them and what didn't. Build your community and relationships.
One of the most important aspects in the writing process: develop a writing team. Find or make a group of writers that can help you to bounce ideas off of and be there when you're having a bad day or help you solve a problem in your writing. This is your greatest writing tool.
Look at what others are doing successfully and try to do that too. Take inspiration from others and make it work for you!
Do yourself a favor and don't look at your reviews. If you need to feel good, have someone go find a good one for you to show you on a bad day. Reviews, even 4 stars, can really mess with you and even have an impact on your writing.
Ads didn't work for me but they work for some.
Advice from Courtney Whims:
Figure out what needs to be done and timing for each step (timeframe for betas, editors, book cover artists, formatting, production times and cutoffs). Book your editors and artists as soon as you can, as they can fill up 6 months to a year in advance!
Write the book! Make time every day, and if you can, set up word count goals. Some authors do writing sprints, which can be helpful. -
Start your social medias, if you haven't already. Social media can take awhile to gain traction, so it's important to start as early as you can. I started after I wrote about 3 chapters. It was fun and exciting to share my progress throughout writing and to connect with the bookish community!
Determine your publication date. Keep in mind holidays. They say around the holidays and August are tough to release since people are usually out of town and focused on their vacations and spending time with family before needing to go back to school/work. Don't share this until you've solidified your dates and timelines for betas, editors, cover artists, formatting, etc.
Setup a website and newsletter! Websites are a great way to showcase who you are and what your book is about, without having the limitations that social media does. For me, I put my first chapter of my book on my website. As a debut author, in my opinion, it helped solidify those that weren't sure about me and my writing style. I was also able to link out to all my socials, FAQ, and house all my preorders. Think of your website like your "hub"!
After you've gone through betas and editors, consider doing ARCs. (Advanced reviewer copies) For debut authors specifically, it's really helpful to get ARCs before your release date.
Whatever your publication date is, make sure you add a 2-3 week buffer if you can. No matter how much research you do and how much you try to be proactive and efficient, something WILL go wrong. And that’s okay, that’s normal! Give yourself some extra time so you aren’t crunching if and when something doesn’t go according to plan.
Consider releasing on a weekday. And preferably not Tuesday as that is when major publishers release their big sellers.
Self-publishing is very time consuming. Try to outline your deadlines and to-dos. I have a master google sheet where I have tabs for timelines, deadlines, and my to-dos so it helps me stay organized and on-top of things. (As much as I can be)
When it comes to writing, please please, please back up your work on different platforms/devices. There have been accounts of people losing their docs on google docs. I downloaded my docs frequently to my computer, and also emailed each draft to myself so that way if something failed, I still had it elsewhere.
Consider leveraging social media to help bring more awareness to your book. You could do a Street Team, PR boxes, or giveaways.
Ads! I've done a few paid ads on Instgram in the past. I tried one on TikTok, but I would highly suggest NOT doing a paid ad on that platform. Instagram allows you to target your ideal audience. (Down to location, gender, age, interests, etc.) TikTok blasts it out to anyone and everyone. Even those that aren't in the book community.
Advice from Cortney Winn:
Start your online presence now. It is never too early to begin a following. For authors, I recommend TikTok and Instagram.
Take the time to learn the craft of writing. Be hungry to learn and never stop striving to improve. No one is above improving their craft. No one.
Know your genre and genre expectations. Readers have expectations for each genre that must be met in order to make a book "marketable." You can break tropes, and break rules, but never break expectations.
Write something different, then show readers why it is different.
Word of mouth is THE KING of book marketing. I believe decent writing + a fresh concept+ excellent marketing= a good chance of going viral. (Throw in good timing and a little luck.)
Network. Other authors and book reviewers are VITAL to your success. Find them, friend them, and support the heck out of them.
Don't get caught up in the fluff. Character art, cos-play, sprayed edges, special editions . . . They're really cool (and they don't hurt you) but they are in no way vital. If you don't believe me, look at MANACLED as well as FIFTY SHADES OF GREY, both insanely successful books began as fan-fic. They were only available online. No ARCS. No streeet teams. No physcial books. They are now commonplace titles, known by thousands and thousands of readers. At the end of the day, your goal should be to write a book worthy of word of mouth recommendations.
Be prepared to write ten books in order to make your break-through. That was always my promise to myself. I'd write ten books at least before I'd allow myself to get discouraged. This industry is not for the idle hobbyists. Not if you wish for a career as an author, that is. Look at any successful author, and they'll tell you the amount of work they put in before they got their "big break." Take Brandon Sanderson who wrote thirteen novels before he sold ELANTRIS. Another great example is Rebecca Yarros who published somewhere around twenty books before taking the world by storm with FOURTH WING.
Allow yourself to write badly. There is no magic potion you can take to skip the bad writing. You must pay your dues and learn alongside everyone else. Read a lot, write even more.
Receive feedback on your work from someone who has experience with books and writing. Hire an editor. Find a beta team. Feedback hurts, but it strengthens your writing. Out of all my tips, this is the one I stress the most. It takes time to find your people who are a good fit for you, so don't get discouraged when a pairing doesn't work out. The biggest piece of advice I can give you is to find someone who will explain why they are suggesting the changes they are suggesting. Don't seek feedback for praise only. That helps no one.
When it comes to marketing, done is better than perfect.
When it comes to manuscripts, it's not done until the alphas, betas, and editors have all signed off.
Don't give up marketing. It only takes one post to go viral, and the likelihood of going viral increases with every single post.
I hope this post helps you on your author journey! For more tips, follow me on Instagram or subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of this page! For the full beginners guide for starting an author Instagram page and marketing your books, check out my Marketing Class for Authors!
Thank you to this amazing community for all your support!
XOXO,
Cort
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