Day 11 of the 12-Day Content Creation Challenge

10 Ways To Make Sure Your Book Reaches The People Who Need It Most by Senior Editor Kat Lewis

You want your readers to love and celebrate your newly published book and change their lives and businesses for the better because of it – and to do this you need to champion your work and resist any urge to hide under the duvet!

A book launch doesn’t have to be scary, forget stressing about it; use your time to plan ahead and promote your book to get the best results. A three-month marketing lead-in is perfect to build interest, excitement, anticipation (and momentum), so that when your book goes live it goes straight into the hands of your target audience.

Your book, your way

Think about your readers; what engages them the most? Would they enjoy an in-person evening launch with champagne, or would they prefer a number of small intimate gatherings with coffee and croissants where you read from chapters of your book?

Or would your potential readers and your work benefit more from a “live” launch on social media (or would you feel excited about livestreaming part of an in-person event?).

The options are endless; it boils down to the preferences of you and your audience.

Here are 10 of the proven strategies to help you build excitement so that people can’t wait to get their hands on your book:

Involve your audience by sharing your three sample cover designs on social media; ask for their input.
Send an email campaign to your subscribers; in the weeks prior to your book launch share quotes, excerpts from a few chapters, and include pre-release book reviews.
Repurpose your content; you can share some of the same info from your email campaign and use it for all your channels!
Offer an early bird pre-order purchase price.
Write a blog (or blogs) that talk about aspects of the book creation process, top-level topics you cover in your book or link to pre-order.
Podcast about your forthcoming book (your own and on other people’s podcasts).
Share photos of you holding your new book on social media (website, in blogs etc).
Offer some signed copies of your book or run a competition.
You might like to consider a “soft launch” where your book is available on Amazon for a few days or even a week, but you don’t start driving traffic to it until you have built up enough excitement.
Create a “book trailer”. This is simply a short video of yourself talking about your book and what readers can expect and share this on your social media channels. It’s a great way to show your excitement and passion.

Remember that your book launch will be what you make it; make it fun, short and snappy (five mins on social media) or a big fanfare. The choice comes down to what you want and what will engage your target audience.

You deserve to feel your best; here are three ways you can do that without feeling under pressure.

Three ways to work at your optimum

Start with the end in mind. Know what sort of launch your readers want to be part of and work backwards to make it happen (allow plenty of time!).
Don’t specify a date where your book will “definitely be live” in case there are delays; talk about your book being out in winter, spring, summer or autumn (then you can do a “big bang” launch knowing that it’s definitely available and work it round any other commitments you have on your calendar).
Keep up the momentum; if you take your eye off the ball it’s harder to get it going again. Ask for help or support so you can bring your book out in all its glory.

Wherever you are on your journey, start to get excited about your book launch and map out your three-month strategy; nobody wants to be the world’s best kept secret!!

Tomorrow is the final day of our 12 day content creation challenge and we’ll be sharing secrets from WBR author Caroline Sanderson as to how she became a best-selling author (in every one of her book’s Amazon categories!) both here in the UK and in the US.

Today’s 10 second takeaway

Grab a piece of paper, write down the publication date you’re working towards and put it somewhere you will see it daily; this helps you build excitement and take action. If your book has already launched, think of one action you could take to help boost sales.

Does the thought of your book launch make you want to share your incredible content and write a book right now? If so why not check out our brand and content strategy session – if you book one now we can be celebrating your book launch this time next year (or sooner!).