Are You Ready For Your Book Release?

By Annette Cole Mastron, Communications Director for Southern Writers Magazine 

Here’s the question, are you ready for a successful book launch? This is not the time to be a “seat of your pants” person. 

You need a plan. 

You need to work the plan. 

You need a plan “B.”

Why?

Well, let me just say, 2018 Amazon Prime day. You would think a corporation that made billions (with a"B") last year on “Prime Day” would have all the bugs worked out. Not the case. 

On this week’s “Amazon Prime Day,” instead of shopping deals, cute adoptable dogs appeared on Amazon.com. Amazon's storefront was down. Oh no! As people do, they took to social media. All those venders with cyber deals bigger than “black Friday” are the real losers. The dollars lost may never be recovered. Talk about unfortunate timing for a site crash.

The lesson for authors is if your book release is approaching, make you plan and prepare for a backup if technology glitches. 

Writer’s Digest has a good article on having a successful book launch including the timeline. 

Here are some of the ideas from their article; ”Join a writing community. Finding your tribe means having people in your corner supporting your launch...Develop an author platform... Join forces with others authors...Coordinate with your publisher...Work with your illustrator (or author) if you have a picture book...Build buzz. [One of the best ways is offering guest author blog post to other author blogs and of course to Southern Writers Magazine’s blog, Suite T.] Develop a media kit.”

On those days you're not writing your next book, make your book release plan. Have a plan “B,” keeping 2018 Amazon Prime Day in your mind. Dogs are cute but not on your big day. 

What do y’all think?