Tips for a Successful Book Launch

Lessons from My Most Recent Release

Because Barn Door to Hell was one of my most successful launches in a LONG time, I figured I'd share what I learned this time out. Hopefully, my fellow authors will find this information useful.

1. Choose a good cover. This is an obvious one, something I learned a long time ago, but this fact was reinforced with Barn Door's release. The cover can't just be cool to look at either! Make sure the title is visible in the thumbnail in an easy-to-read font. Now, I realize not everyone can afford to pay for a custom cover, so if you do go with a premade, just make sure that it's relevant to the story, eye-catching, and with a title you can view if the image is a thumbnail.

2. Speaking of titles, make sure you put some thought into yours. Barn Door to Hell works because it's not just memorable, it also doubles as the book's elevator pitch. You don't need much more information beyond that title to have a pretty good idea of what the book's about. The same could be said for Gods of the Dark Web, which is, coincidentally, another one of my more successful launches.

3. Share your goals with your audience (and don't be afraid to share your sales numbers). Over the last decade plus, readers have become so much more involved. This is thanks to social media, and while that can be a double-edged sword, you can absolutely use it to your advantage. Letting your audience know what you hope to achieve and where you are in that journey gets them involved in the process. Your success will start to feel like their success.

4. The average half-life of a TikTok is 30 seconds. While that can be a depressing fact, it also means that you shouldn't feel any guilt continuously promoting your work on there. Chances are that people who're seeing your newest video may not have seen your previous video. Viewed through that lens, constant promotion on that platform feels less spammy. That said, you probably shouldn't just post the same thing over and over again.

5. Know the platforms you are using. For example, what I said about TikTok absolutely does NOT apply on Facebook. On Facebook and Twitter, you must engage to get engagement on your posts, and if all you post is self-promotion, people will notice. YouTube and Instagram have their own (unwritten) rules. Know them. Figure out how to make them work for you.

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You can pick up Barn Door to Hell in paperback/hardcover or on Kindle.

*This article was posted to my Facebook profile earlier this week, but I wanted to share it here.