Day 161: Lots of stuff to do for my book launch

Wow I’m so tired! I did a lot or marketing stuff today!

Since I’m getting ready to launch my new book, Lady Wynwood’s Spies 1, I had a lot of little things to take care of. I had to make the ARC .epub and .pdf files for my Street Team and then have BookFunnel email them the link.

I also planned and wrote the emails I will send to my Street Team to remind them about reviewing the book, and those are ready except for the links to Amazon.

But a couple of my Street Team members asked about things like the pages on Goodreads and also the book cover so they can blog about it. It made me realize I probably should have those things done earlier than I had planned so that my Street Team can use it.

So I went to Goodreads but someone had very kindly already put up a page for my ebook! Woot! All I had to do was update the ISBN number and also create a paperback page.

But when inputting the ISBN number in Goodreads, it said that the ISBN was already in use, and pointed to my book, The Spinster’s Christmas. And I realized I hadn’t gotten a new ISBN for the book yet! I had been using the Spinster’s Christmas ISBN as a placeholder (which I really shouldn’t have done, in hindsight). I had gotten the ISBNs for The Gentleman Thief a few days ago but I had forgotten about Lady Wynwood’s Spies 1.

So I had to get the ISBNs, which wasn’t too hard since I already had the blurb done. But then I had to try to remember everywhere I’d used the erroneous ISBNs. They were easy to replace in my Scrivener file, and the ARCs are uncorrected proofs anyway, but I had sent the ISBN paperback barcode to my cover designer, so I had to create a new barcode and send that to her.

And of course I’m still paranoid I didn’t remember everywhere I used the erroneous ISBNs!

And to top it off, I found some errors in the back cover copy! I sent the corrected copy to my cover designer also, and I corrected it in my Scrivener file and also on Goodreads and my website. I hope I haven’t forgotten any other places I might have sent the erroneous copy.

Then I decided to make up a media kit for Lady Wynwood’s Spies 1, since that one Street Team member had asked about the book cover. I created a folder in my Google Drive and added the high-res cover and my author photo, and then I wrote up some files with my author bio, various links to social media, my website, my newsletter signup page, etc., the back cover description of the book and ISBNs, and a tip sheet with about 7 canned interview questions.

I doubt many of my Street Team members will use it, but I at least have it for those who want it, and I included the link to the media kit in an email I’ll send to my Street Team in a few days.

My checklist of what to do for the launch was getting messy so I ended up revising my launch checklist and my sales funnel list for the entire series, and I think it’s a little better organized now. I also created a master checklist for the launch of volume 2, adding things whenever I realize I need to do them for volume 1. Hopefully it will make the launch of volume 2 much easier.

I scheduled my November newsletters to send on November 18th, and since I was on a roll I wrote the emails I’ll be sending to my newsletter list for the launch of volume 1. I decided on 3 emails, one for when the paperback version is live, one for when the ebook preorder is up, and then one on the ebook release day.

Then I put up some pages on my website—one for my Reader Magnet prequel, The Gentleman Thief, and one for volume 2 in the series (since I was on a roll there, too). I also updated the page for volume 1, including adding the excerpt—I had to create an html version for that.

And then since I was in marketing mode, I did some blogging, including creating some templates to use to post the excerpt on my blog once the ebook is released. I also ended up blogging for the next week or so, and cross-posting on Facebook.

Whew! That was a lot! But most of the things I had to do today I also added to my launch master checklist so that I won’t forget to do them for volume 2. The checklist is pretty long because I put everything down in detail so that I don’t forget anything.

It was a very productive day, all in all. I just felt a little overwhelmed at all the things I needed to do to launch volume 1. But I think that the more books I write and launch, the easier it will get, especially if I have that master checklist. I think that will help a lot.

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