Day 264: Marketing for book 3

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Wow I did a lot of marketing today!

Since I know that it causes me stress to have a lot to do for the release of a book, I decided to take the week right after finishing a manuscript to do as much marketing ahead of time as I could. After I send the manuscript to my proofreader, there isn’t much for me to do and I’m usually tired mentally and want a small break in between books, so this is a good time to get done marketing and self-publishing stuff that I don’t really like and would otherwise drag my feet about doing.

Here’s what I did today:
  • Finished editing the last 2 scenes of book 3
  • Sent book 3 to my proofreader
  • Made a promo graphic on Canva for a recipe from book 2 that I scheduled to post on my blog
  • Wrote and scheduled a few blogs relating to book 2, which released on Wednesday
  • Added book 2 to my author profile on Bookbub
  • Amazon finally listed the ebook version of book 2 on their associate website, so I got an associate link for Amazon, and put that up on my website
  • I updated one of the newsletters in my drip sequence for my newsletter list (this was overdue, I should have fixed this back in December, because the old newsletter in my drip sequence still talked about how book 1 hadn’t released yet)
  • Updated the Lady Wynwood’s Spies book pages on my website with links to the book listings in Goodreads (so people can add them) and Bookbub (so people can recommend them)
    • Marketing for book 3:
  • Wrote the reader letter for the end of the book (while the story is still fresh in my mind)
  • Wrote the back cover description for the book listing on Amazon (again, while the story is still fresh in my mind)
  • Wrote a 1-sentence story summary (I used the Snowflake step 1 that I did for the book to help me write this)
  • Assigned ISBNs for ebook and print book (I bought the ISBNs several years ago in bulk)
  • Created a barcode for the paperback ISBN to give to my graphic designer for the paperback cover
  • Emailed my graphic designer with the back cover description and the ISBN barcode so she can start work on the paperback cover
  • Created some promotional graphics on Canva: a Street Team signup, a request for readers to submit a review blurb from book 2 to feature in book 3, and an announcement graphic for release day
  • Created test drafts of the .epub and print book .pdf files to make sure they compiled okay from Scrivener, so I won’t have any nasty surprises when I have to compile the real thing for KDP
  • Created a page for book 3 on my website, including the back cover description, a long excerpt, a short excerpt, and a link to the book 3 media kit folder on my Google Drive
  • Completed the book 3 media kit: book info (ISBNs, back cover description, etc.), author bio, high res cover, excerpt in .pdf and a .txt file with the excerpt in html code, a Q&A tip sheet with interview questions (different from the interview questions for book 1)
  • Added the ebook cover to pages on my website
  • Wrote my March newsletter announcing the new book will be available by the next newsletter, asking readers if they want me to feature a sentence blurb from their review of book 2 in the beginning of book 3, calling for anyone interested in being on my Street Team to sign up
  • Wrote my April newsletter announcing the book release and giving the book’s back cover description, telling readers about the special newsletter price, which will go up with a week
  • Created a separate MailChimp newsletter signup landing page to put in the back of book 3, which tags newsletter subscribers with the book title (I had read somewhere that this can be useful, to see if a lot of newsletter subscribers sign up via the link at the back of any particular book over the others)
  • Edited my MailChimp Street Team signup landing page so that it will be for book 3
  • Wrote the emails I will be sending to my Street Team: 1) the email from BookFunnel when the ARCs are delivered, 2) a follow-up email via MailChimp about the ARC being delivered, and including the paperback review link and the link to the media kit, 3) an email with the ebook review link and a special 99 cent Street Team price for book 3, 4) a launch day email with a review reminder and thank you
  • Created pages for the paperback and ebook on Goodreads so that Street Team members can mark the book To Read (I hadn’t thought of this, but one Street Team member from book 1 told me to do it to help promote the book)
  • Wrote several blog posts about book 3: an announcement when the paperback is live, an announcement when the ebook is live, a blog about the cover, a blog about the love song I listen to for the hero and heroine. If I can come up with any “DVD extras” type of posts about the book, I’ll blog about them later.

    • Whew! That was an awful lot! But all that is done now! Yay!

    I was looking at my exhaustive To Do list for my book launches, and I have finished everything I can do at this point. The rest of the stuff can only be done after I get the book back from my proofreader, and some things (like submitting the paperback and ebooks to Amazon) have been scheduled for certain days. Most of the stuff left on the To Do list are small things that only need to be done one or two at a time on certain days. The only large items are inputting my proofreader’s changes into the manuscript and compiling the .epub and .pdf files for the ebook and print book.

    It was SO much easier to get all that done at once rather than leaving it for later. Also, it was much easier doing some of it (like the back cover description and media kit) now, right after I’d finished the manuscript.

    Blocking: time spent: 0
    Editing: Time spent: 1 hour, 24 minutes
    Writing: Time spent: 0
    Writing: Total number of words: 0 words
    Writing: Average speed (sprints): 0 words per hour
    Writing: Overall writing speed: 0 words per hour
    Time spent doing other writing-related business: 10 hours, 16 minutes
    My takeaway for today: It’s way easier to get promotional, marketing, and self-publishing stuff done ahead of time right after finishing the manuscript!

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