Your Complete 30-Day Book Launch Checklist

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle

Quick: what’s the best movie authors should watch? The Shining?  Stranger than Fiction? Finding Forrester? Naked Lunch? Different writers have different opinions, and that’s okay.

But here’s only one right answer for the worst movie authors to watch: Field of Dreams.

That’s because too many authors believe the myth of “Build It And They Will Come.” They write their book, put it out there on Amazon, and trust the brilliance of their prose to bring in readers, fame, fortune, and glory. There’s a term for those writers: “writers who still have a day job.”

The truth is, a successful book launch requires a minimum of weeks of pre-preparation. The more you do, the better your launch will be. The better your launch, the more books you’ll sell that first day on Amazon. The more you sell the first day, the more Amazon’s algorithms will help sell your books. The more Amazon does that, the more money goes in your pocket.

You can find an read a hundred books and a thousand blog posts on how to make your book launch successful, and I’ve read about half of them. They all had solid advice, but what was missing was a system for applying that advice directly. They tell you to write the thing you wish you could have read, so here it is: a complete 30-day checklist to make your book launch as successful as it possibly can be.

Know Before You Go

A “Thirty Day” Countdown is a bit of a misnomer, because the most effective book launches start laying groundwork a minimum of 90 days before launch day. We’ll be covering that in some other resources, but using the plan laid out below will get you more traction and more sales than you have in the past.

That said, you should start the first day of your launch with the following things already set up and good to go:

  • Your book should be finished, with layout and cover complete, 100% ready to be loaded into Amazon’s kdp and pod portals.
  • A solid, attractive landing page for your book, that allows people to easily both pre-order copies and sign up for an announcements newsletter.
  • A mailing list for your fan base, whether or not there are any subscribers yet.
  • 10 social media “postcards” consisting of a relevant, engaging photo and one of the best quotes or moments from your book.
  • A “street team” of 6-12 human beings who stand ready to help you spread the word.

Once you have those ready, you’ll be able to perform a solid book launch that far exceeds the performance of your previous launches. The next step is to set your launch date.

Sunday is the best day to launch a book on Amazon, so you will want to choose a Sunday as your Launch Day. Which Sunday matters less, but make sure you do it when you have 30 days relatively clear of other things that would take a lot of focus. You don’t need to miss work, but don’t go on vacation during your countdown, either.

With that in place, you’re ready….set…

Your 30-Day Countdown Template

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