Launching your first book (and even subsequent books) is exciting. Something you may or may not anticipate is that launching your book can also be very stressful. I’ve put together some tips from my book launch experiences to help you prepare well for your launch so you don’t lose your mind as release day approaches.

Start early

This doesn’t mean launching your pre-order campaign 6 months in advance. (Please don’t, it’s much too early!) But there are many things you can do in advance to avoid a frantic pace in the final month or two before your book releases.

Here are some examples:

• Make a launch timeline (or hire a launch manager or consultant to create one for you). Write down everything you’re hoping to do for your launch and schedule it out so you can pace yourself.
• Select and format excerpts for potential blog features. This will save you time later and I’ve found that other authors are more likely to say yes to hosting a guest post when you send a prepared blog post for their review.
  • Select quotes and create graphics for social media posts (or have them designed for you).
• If you’re planning to send influencer boxes, start gathering addresses. If you plan to write personal notes to each of your influencers (which I recommend), start writing them now.
• Prepare your pre-order bonuses.
• Decide what elements you want to include on your book landing page and start creating it (or working with a designer).

Set up systems

Setting up efficient systems can save you time, energy and headaches. Find tools that will help and let them do the work for you.

Here are a few I recommend:

• If you’re collecting addresses from influencers, do yourself a favor and set up a Google form. Having people input their mailing addresses in the form and then downloading the responses as a spreadsheet will save you a ton of time copying and pasting.
• Set up any downloadable pre-order bonuses to be sent automatically by email once people submit for them. Note: Unfortunately there isn’t one way to do this- it all depends on which email service people use. Your web guru can help you set this up or check with your email service to see what they advise.
• Pre-schedule social media posts. This can be done directly in Facebook or Twitter, or by using one of the many scheduling tools available. It’s easier to schedule out a bunch of posts in one block of time rather than to find the time and creativity to post each day (especially during a book launch). This doesn’t mean you can’t add spontaneous posts; it just guarantees you will have content posting daily.

Get Help

While you may be able to do everything, you only have 24 hours in your day. As your launch approaches, it may be time to find help with tasks you’ve previously handled yourself and focus on the things only you (the author) can do.

Here are a few things you might consider getting help with during your book launch:

• While you may be capable of building a web page and creating graphics it might be time to hire someone to create them for you.
• If you will be personally packaging and mailing influencer boxes, launch team books, or any pre-order items, invite friends to help. You’ll have a lot more fun and will accomplish in one afternoon what could take you a week alone.
• Hire a book launch manager. A good launch manager will set up a timeline and handle the project management of all the moving pieces of a launch—from launch team to influencers and more.
• Maybe what you need help with isn’t even book related. Think about tasks that take up time and energy you could be devoting to your launch and delegate them to someone else.

Rest

There is always more that can be done, so it’s especially important to schedule in time for fun and rest when preparing for a book launch. Do what you can in advance, set up systems and find help and then allow yourself time to rest, trust that God will advance the message He has given you.

Brooke Martinez specializes in book launches–from strategy consultations to implementation and full launch management. Connect with her at strategicinfluencegroup.com.