Publicity Calendar for a Successful Book Launch
What authors can do to promote their book in the months leading up to its release date and the month after: a DIY social media publicity roadmap
Hello there, my brilliant writer friends!
Earlier this week, I talked about whether authors need to be on social media, and I mentioned that I did feel like I needed to be on Instagram right now, since I have several books coming out in the next few months.
So today, I’m going to tackle what an author can do with social media to help launch their book successfully into the world (separate from what the publisher is doing). We’ll talk about a foundational rule of product sales, how to balance self-promotion with other content, and then I’ll outline a calendar for what your social media should look like in the two months leading up to your book’s publication and the month after.
1. Rule of Seven
The “Rule of Seven” is an old-school advertising term from early in the last century that says a person probably won’t buy your product until they’ve seen it seven times. While the digital age has changed a lot about how marketing and publicity reaches us, I think that the Rule of Seven is still a good foundational idea to hold onto when you’re planning how to launch your book.
How many times have you been online and thought, Wow, that book is everywhere! or Everyone is talking about that book! and then you find yourself thinking about buying a copy?
That’s the power of the Rule of Seven working. Humans, in general, like being part of the tribe, and when your subconscious thinks something (like a book) is popular, it wants to be part of the tribe that likes the book, too.
However, most writers are really embarrassed about promoting their own work. They’re worried that people will get sick of them or think that they’re narcissistic. But you’ve also worked so hard (for years!) to write this book, and now that it’s almost here, don’t you want to give your baby the best chance it can have in the world?
So first, you have to get over the ick-factor of shoving your book in people’s faces. That’s not easy, but it can be done in a less intrusive way (more on that later).
Next, we have to decide what is the best way to make the Rule of Seven work for you?
The answer is: the book cover.
Your publisher has put a lot of thought (hopefully) into the cover art, not only as a representation of your story, but also as an advertising tool. They are counting on that book cover to be memorable, and you can—and should—leverage that, too.
Your goal: Get your book cover in front of people often. All other ways you promote your book are gravy, but the cover art is key.
Don’t forget to check out:
Most recent writing newsletter: Social Media for Writers
2. How to Balance Your Social Media Feed
A common mistake new authors make is plastering their social media feeds with nothing but their book, especially in the months leading up to the release date. Yes, I want you to get your cover art out there again and again, but you have to balance it with other content. Otherwise, you’ll become one-note and your followers will abandon you.
Remember what I said in my last post about social media, about the 3 Facets of Author You? You need to utilize that when you’re about to launch a book.
Roughly speaking, for every 2 posts about your upcoming book, throw in a non-book-related photo or video. This keeps you seeming human, rather than just a sales robot.
Then, for your book promotion posts, vary the way you do it. Here are some ideas:
Bookstagram-style photos of your book with props or in a pretty setting
Videos of you unboxing your galleys/ARCs or author copies
Galley/ARC giveaways
Graphics with blurbs or quotes from your book (Canva is a great, free tool for creating these)
Aesthetic videos for your book (again, Canva is great. This type of video doesn’t usually show off your book cover, but that’s okay!)
Video or photo of your book with the jacket on, then jacket off to show off the naked book’s binding
Photo or video of you autographing a book
Video of you opening the book (showing the book cover first) and then reading an excerpt
Photo of the first draft of your book and now, the final published version
3. Book Promotion Calendar
OK, so now that you have an idea of what to post and how to keep it interesting, let’s map out when to start your book promotion.
Do you remember the days when film studios used to hype up a movie up to a year before it came out? Books used to be like that, too. I remember when The Crown’s Game debuted in 2016, I started doing online promotion and character reveals and giveaways a full TEN months before the book came out.
But that era is over.
Nowadays, people want immediate gratification. If they see a book, they want to buy it now, and if it’s not available yet, they’ll often forget about it.
And yet, you need to do some promotion before the release date to build up anticipation and to seed the image of your book cover in their heads, so that when the book is available for purchase, they’ll recognize it.
So here’s the plan:
Two months before release:
Start posting about how excited you are about your upcoming book (remember, feature the book cover). Do this approximately once every six to seven posts.
If you post every single day, that means you can mention your book once a week.
If you post 3x per week, then you can talk about your upcoming book every other week.
note: All rules are made to be broken, so adjust as you see fit. This is just a general guideline.
One month before release:
Time to start ramping things up. You can start posting about your book once in every three posts.
It’s okay if you sometimes mention your book twice in a row, just keep the method varied (e.g., don’t post two blurb graphics in a row; a graphic and a photo would look better side-by-side).
If you do mention your book twice in a row, then throw in two non-book-promo posts after to re-balance.
Two weeks before release:
Oooh, you’re getting close! Turn up the heat to medium-high—you can post twice about your book in every three.
You want to remind people they can pre-order, post blurbs and quotes, promote any launch day events or tour dates, and generally get people excited!
But don’t burn them out, because they still can’t buy yet.
Authors love preorders, but the reality is that most people don’t preorder. They wait until the day of. So right now, your job is to rev up that Rule of Seven so that once release day hits, your potential readers feel like your book is everywhere = popular = they must have it for themselves, too.
Release week:
This is it! YOUR BOOK, ALL THE TIME! Every post this week should be about the book, featuring the cover as much as possible.
But remember, keep the content type varied. No walls of graphics that all look similar!
Ideas for Release Week photos and videos:
You going to a bookstore and seeing your book for the first time
Your book launch event
You inside a fort made of your books, or rising up behind a wall of them
A cake with your book cover art on it
Spotify playlist with songs inspired by your book, or that you listened to while writing
Giveaway of an autographed first edition, paired with another gift that is on theme (for example, I could give away a copy of Damsel with a dragon candle)
Talk about your writing journey—when you started writing the book, how long it took to find an agent or publisher, how many drafts, your ups and downs, and what it means to you that publication day is finally here
You expressing pure joy with your book—dancing with it, showing it to your family and friends, clutching it to your chest and falling blissfully backward onto your couch
you get the idea—show your genuine happiness and excitement, and your followers will be happy for you, too, and want to support you by buying your book
The Week after Release Day:
You should still promote the book and be excited about it, but it’s time to start re-introducing other content again. Go back to a schedule like “two weeks before,” where it’s 2 book posts for every 3.
Two Weeks after Release Day:
I know you’re still over the moon about your book baby, but the rest of the world has only so much patience for book promotion. So now you should scale back to one book promotion post out of every 3 or 4. You can keep at this pace for the rest of the month after your book is published.
I’m curious whether this matches with your own experience, both from an author perspective and a reader perspective!