by Nick Stephenson in Book Launches, Books and Writing, Selling More Books

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One fun thing about book launches…

Almost all the work takes place weeks, or even months, before the book is even released. Case in point – I’m in the middle of a book launch right now, and I’ve spent most of the week gardening.

(And no, I’m not much of a gardener. And by “gardening” I mean “I put some potted plants in some soil”, which is about the limit of my skills).

And the reason I can take it easy this week, is that 99% of the hard work is already done.

The launch emails have been written in advance, the cross-promo schedules have been automated, the ads are running in the background, and all the “moving pieces” were put into place weeks ago.

And it’s going well. The charity boxed set I’m part of (debuting my first-ever sci-fi novel) sold 5,000+ copies during pre-order, a little over 1,000 on launch day, and another 2,000 or so the days following that. Which was enough to get us a coveted spot on the USA Today Bestseller list.

Which is a great result – thanks to all the authors in the set working together as a team.

Yes, author team-ups are a GREAT way to get extra exposure. And they come with the added benefit of not needing a huge email list or an ads budget that would make Warren Buffett poop himself.

And they’re pretty simple to put together too (note, “simple”, but still work – but the good kind of work). Here’s how it all fits together…

^^ my kind of gardening

Step One: figure out what kind of boxed-set you want to do.

Multi-author boxed sets work GREAT for exposure, because everyone promotes it. Get 10 other authors involved and, guess what, you just 10x’d your audience potential.

(Or you can do a boxed-set bundle of your own books, for added “shelf space”).

And you’ll want to figure out your genre, theme, and “hook”.

The key point? You’re using assets you already have (your books) instead of working your tail off creating new ones. You’re making your existing books work harder for you.

It’s a no brainer.

Step Two: figure out which authors you want to work with and get them involved.

Got a mutual contact? Great, get an introduction. Otherwise get yourself involved in a cross-promo group (Bookfunnel, Prolific Works, and our very own Dream Team Network were designed just for this).

If there’s a particular author you want to work with who’s not in any author groups, reach out on social media or email and make a connection.

Step Three: get all the moving pieces nailed down.

You’ll need contracts, manuscripts, and an agreement on where the book is going to be sold, for how much, and what’s happening with the profits. You’ll also need to arrange any financial contributions for covers, formatting, marketing, etc in advance.

Get everyone to commit, sign, and deliver.

Step Four: plan the marketing.

Ah, the fun part.

The launch is split into 2 phases: pre-launch and launch. All the work happens in the pre-launch phase.

During this phase (usually up to 3-5 weeks before release) you’ll all be telling your audience about the special promo offer that you’ve got cooking – which is usually the chance to buy a big ol’ stack of books for a super-low price.

Set out the offer (what they’ll get, when, and for how long – you need to put a deadline on it) and give them a taster of what’s coming there way.

^^ this might be cover reveals, sample chapters, author readings (one of our authors recorded himself reading everyone’s first chapter and posted it to his Youtube channel), social posts, and whatever else you might have cookin’.

If you’re doing a pre-order campaign, you’ll also want to include the link to that, and potentially run some ads.

You’ll also want to think about WHY people would buy during launch week, instead of waiting until later (and then not buying it).

So price reductions and / or launch bonuses are a useful thing to have (we’re using both).

^^ we hit number #182 in the US store on launch day, and have stayed in a great ranking since. We also hit similar positions in the UK and across the other major ebook stores.

Step Five: Launch

You’ll want at least 3 emails…

1. Pre-launch – announce what’s coming up and why people will love it, announce the special pricing / bonuses
2. Launch – the book is live today, tell people to buy, remind them of the offer
3. Deadline – price goes up / book gets unpublished / bonuses go away at midnight (if people don’t have a reason to buy now, they often never do)

Usually, around 40% of release sales will come on launch day, another 40% on deadline day, and the other 20% during the rest of the week (if you’re doing a week-long launch promo).

And that’s it, in a nutshell.

Boxed sets are a no-brainer because you instantly increase your audience size by teaming up with others, and it doesn’t have to cost you anything.

And you’re using books you already have. So as long as you:

1. Have a book
2. Have the ability to converse with humans
3. Have internet access

Then you can run these promotions too. And there’s no set limit on how many times you can do it.

Just follow the process and you’ll get results.

Until then, it’s back to the chrysanthnmumnms… chrisanternumss…. cryssanthaniims… flowers.

Back to the flowers for me.

Got questions about running book launches or boxed sets (or both)? Drop ’em below!