Publishing your book and launching it are two separate but related phases of your book project, and it’s important to treat them that way. Imagine planning a book signing and finding out after the books have been ordered there’s a problem with the cover. To correct the problem, you’ll have to re-submit the files to Amazon and go through the approval process again, jeopardizing your event. Not to mention incurring the costs of printing new copies and having to scrap the copies that were already printed. Publishing your book is the process of making it available for sale. Launching your book is making a concerted effort to attract attention to your book and facilitate sales. When preparing a countdown to launch calendar for my clients, I put a gap of time between the two events. Here’s why:
- Amazon provides an online preview of your book as part of the publishing process. The online previewer tool is very accurate, and I think that’s fine if you’re making changes to an existing title. But the first time you publish, I believe there’s nothing like getting a printed proof so you can check the book out in the real world to ensure it’s exactly what you’re expecting. It takes time to get the proof printed and delivered to you. After you receive it, you’ll want to check the front and back cover and all the inside pages to ensure there are no formatting errors.
- You need to ensure that book buyers can complete their purchases easily, whether you’re having a virtual event, an in-person event, or some combination. To do that, always give yourself enough time to test the entire ordering process. To ensure you’ve listed it properly, you could have a friend or family member purchase a copy. You can send a direct link in an email, but you should also have them search for your name and book title.
- Having your book available for purchase gives you an opportunity to get reader reviews and editorial reviews prior to the official launch. As you know, reader reviews are a big factor in attracting more buyers. As long as those early sales are within a thirty-day window of your launch period, they’ll be counted in the best-seller calculations. Editorial reviews from book bloggers or news publications can also play a factor because you can add them to your book sales page.
- You’ll have time to adjust or add book categories. Amazon only allows you to put your book into two categories at the time you publish. To make it even harder, not all possible categories are available in the initial list offered in your KDP dashboard. Your book can actually be put in up to a maximum of ten categories, but only after you publish. Then it’s a simple matter of making a request through your Author Central Account.
- You can set up ads to run during the launch period. If your marketing plan includes paid ads, you can test and tweak them prior to the official launch to ensure you’re reaching the right target market.
As you can see, the reasons to publish first, and launch second cover several different areas, but the bottom line is you will set your book up for success.
