Post a cover revealĪ fun way to begin marketing your book six months before launch is to share the cover with your readers. It’s possible that the more preorders you get, the bigger your print run, and the more marketing resources your publisher will dedicate to your book - and you might even hit a bestseller list during launch week. Do what you can to help drive preorders by making your existing readers aware of the upcoming release. Six months prior to a book launch, your publisher will likely have your cover design ready to go. Subscribe to the BookBub Partners Blog to download this checklist as a printable PDF, and keep it handy any time you’re ready to put together a book launch marketing plan! But by providing this checklist, I hope to help other authors develop a book launch checklist of their own! Not every author has such support and resources at their disposal, and their audiences may respond better to different tactics.

I do have a dedicated team of marketers to help me run my own campaigns. My publisher takes care of some of the cornerstone promotional tactics - BookBub Featured Deals, paid advertisements (BookBub Ads, Facebook ads), arranging publicity tours, and so on - so this checklist only includes the tactics that my team takes care of. After years of testing various marketing strategies, I’ve developed a book launch checklist with tried-and-true tactics that best build buzz and sales. I release six books a year through a traditional publisher - three new hardcover/ebook launches and three paperbacks launches - and that frequency means I need an easily replicable marketing plan. So even if your publisher is running fabulous promotions, it’s important to engage with fans yourself. Nowadays, readers want to personally connect with authors they like, especially online. As a traditionally-published author, it’s important to supplement your publisher’s marketing campaigns with your own promotions so your lovingly crafted words reach as many readers as possible.

Sweet tomorrows by debbie macomber