Your Book is Out. Time to Panic?
A book launch shines a light on what’s working (or more typically what’s not!) about your online presence. But don’t panic, it’s a great time to think and act more intentionally about your digital footprint.
Imagine a big box arriving at your home. You open it. It’s full of paperback copies of your book. Finally. After 11 years and 12 rounds of reviews, it’s printed and on the market. Your pride quickly gives way to a wave of panic. How do you promote this thing?
You’re slammed with work for the next two weeks and have little to no time to post anything, let alone craft a story. Common sense tells you it’s a waste to come this far and not give your book the proper promotion it deserves.
What to do? You need a strategy, stat.
A book launch is a rare opportunity where you get a little (or perhaps, big) fire hose of publicity. Podcast interviews, the local news, maybe even featured on national or international outlets.
Ideally you have a digital footprint that is ready for this spotlight; your website and socials are up to date. Everything is ready to tell the right story and direct the wave of incoming traffic to the right place.
But what if that’s not the case? You feel unready, unprepared and overwhelmed.
Don’t go off half-cocked posting willy nilly. Your may be worrying about posting too much or too little, but that’s not really the point.
Take a beat and ask yourself:
Who am I trying to reach, and where are they?
What do I want this moment to do for me, beyond book sales?
Where am I sending people, and is it ready?
Answer those questions first.
If you have the bandwith, select one platform and bring as up to date as you can. When you’re asked the inevitable ‘Where can people find you?’ question, direct people to the most ready place. This may be a website a LinkedIn profile or a Substack. Direct any posts you create to that spot as well.
If you have none of these, you can also reference the book page at your publisher.
I’ve worked with clients where this becomes a mad scramble. In one case, the author had a piece published in the New York Times that coincided with an imminent book launch. There were multiple actions we wanted the visitors from the article to take, not just pre-order the book, but also join her community and subscribe to her Substack.
We had to do some quick thinking, looking at all of her digital properties, which were going to come up not only as a backlink from the article but as an uptick in search queries.
Another client was longlisted for a Booker Prize. There was going to be considerable buzz around her launch, including a book tour. That required highlighting the book on her website’s homepage, adding reviews, and creating standalone pages with links to order the book. We also added an events feature to her website so people could register for a tour event and add it to their calendars.
You’ve worked hard on your book, and a well-thought-out digital strategy gives it the welcome it deserves, and gives you the opportunity to uplevel your digital footprint so that it reflects your credibility and stature.
If you’re working on your book right now and want to get your digital presence ship shape for the launch, let’s talk.
