Book Publication Date & Review Plan

By Rick Frishman - Jan 30 , 2009

The first two or three weeks after a book is published are critical because booksellers only want books that move quickly.

The giant retailers must receive a certain dollar amount from every square foot of their shelf space, so if your book doesn’t make an immediate splash, they may pull it and replace it with titles that will. Since the first few weeks in the life of a book are so vital, be ready to jam your heart, soul, and guts into an intensive, nonstop blitz to publicize your book.

By the time your book comes out, you should have much of your book publicity campaign in place: some reviews of your book should be in hand and your website should be online. Your kick-off party, road tour, book signings, national bookings, newspaper and radio feature releases, Internet blast, et cetera, should be set and ready to go within those first weeks.

Time your publicity blitz to hit on the publication date and run the week thereafter. Don’t start too early, to “seed the public’s interest,” because the public will forget or someone else will steal your thunder. Tell everyone—your friends, family, and network; your publisher’s sales reps, distributors, and in-house publicists—about all the publicity that will begin on the pub date. On the pub date, start your road tour, your morning drive®, satellite tour media®, your radio tour, and your Internet blast. Morning drive® and satellite media tours®, which entail giving interviews at a single session that are then distributed to various media outlets. By running your Internet blast early, you can make your book a bestseller and say that it’s a bestseller in the rest of your campaign. Oddly enough, Internet blasts also seem to generate bookstore sales on or around the target dates.

Another option is not to jam all your publicity efforts in during the first week or so after the pub date, but to dole them out more gradually. The advantage of this approach could be that the book will continue to move more steadily rather than making a big hit and then falling off. Both approaches have worked successfully.

Review Plan

Six to eight weeks after the publication date, when the dust has cleared and you’ve been released from the asylum, review your promotion plan. Examine and evaluate your campaign point by point. Be ruthlessly honest and objective.

1. Was your campaign successful?
2. What worked?
3. What didn’t work?
4. What do you want to try again or differently?
5. What could be done better?
6. How could it be done better?

Decide if you want to recontact media outlets that turned you down or to approach them differently. Conditions change; it may be a slower news time now. When you initially pitched them, they could have been involved in other stories that left no time for you. Something may have occurred subsequently that might awaken their interest in you.

Contact your agent, editor, and your publisher’s in-house publicists. Ask for evaluations and get their input. Ask what continuing publicity measures they would recommend, additions you should make, and portions you should change.

Keep the fires burning by continually giving ongoing radio and print interviews. Give interviews even if they’re in small markets, to keep your campaign alive and try to generate new interest. Build your platform and your profile around your book, with a steady stream of speeches, appearances, workshops, and columns.

Stay alert for developments that could revitalize your campaign; new stories or events that you could connect to your book and use in a new push.

When these opportunities arise, quickly write new press releases that link your book to the news. Always try to keep interest in your book alive. Meet new people, continue to get new endorsements, and build new relationships. Constantly look for new opportunities to promote your book.

Action Steps

1. Name three items that a timeline forces you to think about.
2. When should you start preparing the timeline for your campaign?
3. How far before your book’s publication date should review copies be sent?
4. List three important items in establishing an Internet presence for your book.
5. Name four key questions that you should ask when you review your campaign.

Remember

Have a solid blueprint. Every element in a book promotion campaign must be carefully planned, shaped, and coordinated to work with all of the others. This requires great timing and skill and all the pieces must flow harmoniously, one right after another. Each part must be successful by itself and enhance all the other campaign elements. Some of the elements include creating your media list, building your Internet marketing, sending newspaper and radio releases, and getting media training.

Get ahead of the book. When your book comes out, it’s critical to have your campaign in full swing because booksellers want to see that books are moving quickly. So time an intensive, nonstop publicity blitz to hit on your publication date and run a week or two thereafter. Don’t start too early or the public will forget or someone will slip in to steal your thunder.