Hello Indies!
If you’ve been following these posts right along with your self-publishing journey, than congratulations! You’re getting ready to launch your book to the world! I hope you have a huge celebration planned, but before we bust open the champagne bottles, your work isn’t done yet…
It’s your book’s launch day. The moment you’ve been dreaming about since you first sat down in front of that blank white document and turned a blinking courser into a spellbinding story for all the world to read. Through blood, sweat, tears, coffee spills, #$%@@#^%! moments, hair-pulling, head banging against the keyboard, too much chocolate and not enough sleep you have created a thriving, living, breathing world filled with characters you now know more intimately than most of your real life friends! They’re your babies and it’s a bittersweet moment to let them go out on their own into the big bad market. You’re not sure how they’ll get along, how they’ll be received, and you already know that no one could ever love them as much as you do, but you’re hoping against all the odds someone will love them almost as much. Take a deep breath mama and/or papa, because here they go!
Depending on how you prepared for your launch day, will determine how quickly you can get to that champagne. It also depends on who you booked your tour with. Some promoters are more thorough than others. Goddess Fish Promotions, for example will send you a spreadsheet listing all of their tour hosts where your tour will be posted and keep it updated with those who’ve already gotten their posts up and running. Other promoters won’t provide this and you have to go hunt your posts down.
Twitter and Facebook are the best places to find those links – but don’t assume that one equals the other. Make sure you check both. You’ll either find a link to their blog, or that they’ve only shared it on Facebook – either way, make sure you thank all of your hosts for sharing or posting, however you want to word it – and keep in mind that they’re not all in the same time zone, so your 1 day tour might actually last 2-3 days! If your Facebook is like mine, it doesn’t always notify me when someone new ‘mentions’ me in a post, so check your notifications every once in awhile to make sure you haven’t missed anyone.
If your tour includes a Giveaway, play that up in Tweets and Facebook statuses! Usually, your giveaway will last longer than your tour, so I highly recommend following the link to see when it’s due to end, that way you can be on top of your tour promoter to get the winner’s names so they’re not waiting for their prizes!
Okay, I’m done tormenting you – bust open that champagne! You can drink in between Tweets and status updates, what was I thinking?
Oh, you thought you were done? Hehehe – If you included ARCS in your tour, you might want to head over to Goodreads and Amazon to check out all of the reviews being posted now, or maybe you don’t want to read those yet, and that’s fine – but don’t forget to thank your tour hosts for reviewing, even if it wasn’t sparkling. It’s just the polite thing to do. I also “like” reviews on Goodreads, but again, that’s entirely up to you.
Things might start slowing down toward the end of the bottle day, but now you need to start thinking about marketing! All of those reviews are now advertising bits you get to Tweet and Facebook about over the next couple of days while people are still hyped about buying your book and spreading the word. Of course, they’re always there for marketing later on, as well, but this is definitely the time when you’ll want to highlight all of your book’s praise. Remember, there’s no such thing as too much advertisement! Shamelessly promote yourself. No one else is going to do it – unless you’ve got a publicist in your pocket, in that case… sharing is caring, don’t be stingy.
♥ Okay, now you can relax and give yourself a huge pat on the back! (If you’re not too intoxicated to accomplish it) – You’ve made it, sugar. You are now a
｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆*:･ﾟ✧PUBLISHED AUTHOR*:･ﾟ✧｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
Congratulations! 😀
A.C. Melody 
Leave a comment