12 Things I Did to Launch My Last Book

12 Things I Did to Launch My Last Book
by Elle Strauss

 Launch time is busy time for an Indie Author because she has to make sure she's doing her best to get word out about her book. There's always the danger of becoming a spammer, so it's about figuring out the balance.

 I think most people are pretty forgiving when they know you're trying to let as many people as possible know about a new book, versus when an author goes on about their book for-evah, and doesn't talk about anything else except how you should buy their book.

 The other side of the coin is this is a business and people can't buy something they've never heard about. I recently launched the third and final book of the Perception Series - Contrition(link). For those of you who've never launch a book and hope to one day, here are some of the things I did to get word out.

1. posted Contrition on NetGalley and Goodreads
2. asked people who reviewed Perception and Volition if they'd like to read and review
3. did a book blitz with xpresso tours - a book blitz is when a bunch of book bloggers feature your book on or around the same day and you usually offer a contest to entice interest
4. arranged the above mentioned contest with Rafflecopter. Contests are a good way to gain new FB and twitter followers and also newsletter signees.
5. sent out a newsletter
6. bought ads with KND/bookgodzilla, Bookbub and Bookblast
7. asked for free ad placement with Digital Book Today for Perception
8. put Perception (book 1) free and Volition (book 2) on sale for .99
9. submitted Perception and Volition to POI  (They didn't get picked up. It's a crap shoot with POI.)
10. made photo teasers for Contrition
11. made book trailer for Perception(link)
12. let my Facebook fans and Twitter followers know by announcing the news myself and retweeting other peoples tweets about my book


Here's one of the photo teasers I posted for Contrition:

I squeezed my eyes tight, pushing back at the blackness. Oh, God. This couldn't be happening.

I smacked the floor. The woman had played me!
-Noah

I've launched several books now and all of my approaches have been different. Each book has its own need and niche, and current publishing environment. It's up to you as an Indie author to decide what will work best for your book. I hope I've given you a few new ideas.

Any questions?

Elle Strauss writes light and fun lower YA including the popular CLOCKWISE series. She also writes romantic mixed genres set in the past, present and future for YA and adult readers as LEE Strauss. Watch for her next book, a contemporary romance/family drama called EAST OF EDEN.

 Find her at www.ellestraussbooks.com

(A version of this post was originally posted on Elle's blog on September 20.)