We all know the idea of launching something is more glamorous than the actual work of it, right? Well, the people who have actually launched things know this, while the people who have never launched something think it all happens effortlessly with a magic wand. With that said, allow me to vent/share all the book launch things I thought I might do, the things that didn't happen, and what I ended up doing in reality to get the Pricing Workbook for Creatives out into the hands of other people in the first week of publication.
Initially, this was going to be a way for me to launch the book with an eco-friendly printer, which would be much more costly than a traditional printer. However, I ran into two problems when I walked this idea forward deeper into the future. The first issue was that the $35 price I wanted for the book was still going to be too low to support an eco-friendly printing that would need to be shipped elsewhere or distributed on Amazon. The second issue was that I would likely need to store hundreds of copies of the book because I wouldn't have time to arrange a major promotion and event for the book in the time that remained between the launch date of May 5, and the date I'd be leaving for a year of travels, June 15th.
Didn't Do A Book Launch Party with Clients, Friends, and Family
When I started to look at who I might invite for a book launch party, and what I already knew about the rate of people showing up in NYC for personal smaller scale parties and celebrations that didn't include MET Gala tickets, Beyonce Concert Tickets, Broadway Tickets, or Fine Dining on someone else's pocket, I realized the rate of people showing up might be more disappointing than congratulatory. This potential outcome was reinforced when my hubby extended a birthday invitation in April for close local friends to join for a birthday dinner at TAO- and it resulted in zero friends coming out for the evening. Granted, that invitation was sent last minute by my spontaneous husband, but I also recommended he reach out and ask people to send wishes rather than RSVPs because I already knew what the outcome might be based on everyone's locations and the invitation. In other cities, turning down a birthday dinner invite might be considered a personal offense. However, in NYC, this is a standard party-hosting risk because there are so many competitions for better and bigger party options- or the exhaustion of the city sets in and people just decline all the invitations to get some necessary self-care time away from the craziness of everything in the city. Look, I get it. In NYC, either host a big decadent party that's hard to compete with, or schedule an intimate dinner party around the 3 people who might actually show up for you personally even if they got last-minute tickets. That's just the name of the game when it comes to parties in NYC. If we all got offended about this, we'd never have friendships due to the frequency in which it happens.
Didn't Do A Book Signing in a Bookstore or a Library
This was something that I had planned to do if I was going to have a bunch of printed books available to work with and sell wholesale to the bookstores I'd do signings in. However, then came the thought of who would I invite, and who would actually show up? Would I just be sitting there at a table with random people stopping by? Highly likely. Would anyone I actually know come by? Probably just my husband, and maybe not even him if it needed to be scheduled on a day he was out of town. How far in advance would I need to schedule if I was going to do a book signing? I had no idea, so doing this as a Book Launch strategy didn't seem as wise as potentially just scheduling a book signing to happen after the book already launched and could gain some more legs and traction in the market. I still may do a book signing in the future, but not until I've had time to talk with some independent book sellers to find out how we can make it a mutually successful event.
Didn't Do A Book Launch Countdown Website
When it came down to what made the most sense in the time I had available and all the things I wanted to accomplish, creating a special website for just the book just didn't end up rising to the top of my list. I hired a designer to help me not freak out about the transition of the book from its final draft form to a printed format, and that alone took a lot of back and forth getting it just right for Amazon's print guidelines. If I had expected a website to be done in that time frame as well, it wouldn't' have been that great. Read the realities below to find out what I did instead of a website.
Didn't Do A Reduced Online Price to Drive Sales
This was a tough decision, and in the end, I'm glad I didn't choose to do this. The initial thought was to use a starting discount to drive up sales numbers to rank at the top of Amazon and get even more traffic right away. That is, after all, why Amazon offers a Kindle Exclusive 90 period, in order to encourage people to buy copies of the Kindle through Amazon first. However, this book is so niche focused, that I knew the sales would be a drop in the bucket. What I did instead, was offer a discount only to my list, and only through me directly, which meant my purchases of the book didn't even count toward general sales. Here's why this ended up being a good idea- I quickly learned that offering your book on Kindle opens you up to more copyright infringement. Keeping the Kindle price just as high as the full printed price on release day means less copyright infringement. You are also most likely to make more sales on launch day even without a special offer, so why short yourself when you've invested so much time in developing and planning for a launch?!
WHAT SEEMED LIKE A GREAT PLAN FOR A BOOK LAUNCH:
• A Kickstarter Book Launch
• A Book Launch Party with Clients, Friends, and Family
• A Book Launch Countdown Website
• A Book Launch Countdown Website
• A Book Signing in a Bookstore or Library
• A Reduced Online Price to Drive Sales
• A Reduced Online Price to Drive Sales
WHAT I DIDN'T DO FOR MY FIRST BOOK LAUNCH:
Didn't Do A Kickstarter Book LaunchInitially, this was going to be a way for me to launch the book with an eco-friendly printer, which would be much more costly than a traditional printer. However, I ran into two problems when I walked this idea forward deeper into the future. The first issue was that the $35 price I wanted for the book was still going to be too low to support an eco-friendly printing that would need to be shipped elsewhere or distributed on Amazon. The second issue was that I would likely need to store hundreds of copies of the book because I wouldn't have time to arrange a major promotion and event for the book in the time that remained between the launch date of May 5, and the date I'd be leaving for a year of travels, June 15th.
Didn't Do A Book Launch Party with Clients, Friends, and Family
When I started to look at who I might invite for a book launch party, and what I already knew about the rate of people showing up in NYC for personal smaller scale parties and celebrations that didn't include MET Gala tickets, Beyonce Concert Tickets, Broadway Tickets, or Fine Dining on someone else's pocket, I realized the rate of people showing up might be more disappointing than congratulatory. This potential outcome was reinforced when my hubby extended a birthday invitation in April for close local friends to join for a birthday dinner at TAO- and it resulted in zero friends coming out for the evening. Granted, that invitation was sent last minute by my spontaneous husband, but I also recommended he reach out and ask people to send wishes rather than RSVPs because I already knew what the outcome might be based on everyone's locations and the invitation. In other cities, turning down a birthday dinner invite might be considered a personal offense. However, in NYC, this is a standard party-hosting risk because there are so many competitions for better and bigger party options- or the exhaustion of the city sets in and people just decline all the invitations to get some necessary self-care time away from the craziness of everything in the city. Look, I get it. In NYC, either host a big decadent party that's hard to compete with, or schedule an intimate dinner party around the 3 people who might actually show up for you personally even if they got last-minute tickets. That's just the name of the game when it comes to parties in NYC. If we all got offended about this, we'd never have friendships due to the frequency in which it happens.
Didn't Do A Book Signing in a Bookstore or a Library
This was something that I had planned to do if I was going to have a bunch of printed books available to work with and sell wholesale to the bookstores I'd do signings in. However, then came the thought of who would I invite, and who would actually show up? Would I just be sitting there at a table with random people stopping by? Highly likely. Would anyone I actually know come by? Probably just my husband, and maybe not even him if it needed to be scheduled on a day he was out of town. How far in advance would I need to schedule if I was going to do a book signing? I had no idea, so doing this as a Book Launch strategy didn't seem as wise as potentially just scheduling a book signing to happen after the book already launched and could gain some more legs and traction in the market. I still may do a book signing in the future, but not until I've had time to talk with some independent book sellers to find out how we can make it a mutually successful event.
Didn't Do A Book Launch Countdown Website
When it came down to what made the most sense in the time I had available and all the things I wanted to accomplish, creating a special website for just the book just didn't end up rising to the top of my list. I hired a designer to help me not freak out about the transition of the book from its final draft form to a printed format, and that alone took a lot of back and forth getting it just right for Amazon's print guidelines. If I had expected a website to be done in that time frame as well, it wouldn't' have been that great. Read the realities below to find out what I did instead of a website.
Didn't Do A Reduced Online Price to Drive Sales
This was a tough decision, and in the end, I'm glad I didn't choose to do this. The initial thought was to use a starting discount to drive up sales numbers to rank at the top of Amazon and get even more traffic right away. That is, after all, why Amazon offers a Kindle Exclusive 90 period, in order to encourage people to buy copies of the Kindle through Amazon first. However, this book is so niche focused, that I knew the sales would be a drop in the bucket. What I did instead, was offer a discount only to my list, and only through me directly, which meant my purchases of the book didn't even count toward general sales. Here's why this ended up being a good idea- I quickly learned that offering your book on Kindle opens you up to more copyright infringement. Keeping the Kindle price just as high as the full printed price on release day means less copyright infringement. You are also most likely to make more sales on launch day even without a special offer, so why short yourself when you've invested so much time in developing and planning for a launch?!
WHAT I ACTUALLY DID FOR THE BOOK LAUNCH:
• Bought Custom Book Domain Names for the Book Title
• Directed Domains to A Simple Mail Chimp Sign-Up Page
• Collected Email Addresses for Early Bird Specials
• Set Up a Facebook Event for the Book Launch Date to Invite Friends Online
• Set Up a Facebook Group to Share with Beta-Testers & Early Birds
• Shared Book Preview Videos Online with Followers
• Sent Emails with Discounts & Freebies to Early Bird Email List
• Opened A Nice Bottle of Wine I had been saving with Friends Outside the City
• Collected Author Direct Special Orders from Email List
• Ordered & Mailed Author Direct Special Books with Personalized Notes
• Gifted A Dozen Books in Person & by Mail
Total Book Launch Costs: -$750
(Includes cost for book designer, ordered books, gifted books, domains- but does NOT include the cost of my unpaid working time. If the book sells an average of 300 copies a year, it will take about 20 years to pay me back for all the time I invested in creating the book.)
Total Book Launch Income: +$250
(Sales came from Author Direct Special Orders placed in first week. Amazon doesn't distribute profits from online sales until 60 days after the purchase.)
Book Launch First Week Balance: -$500
Profits vs. Progress:
If my goal right out of the gate was some kind of profit goal, I would have delayed the launch even further and done exponentially more build-up promotional activity and audience gathering. However, I have a 100 year goal for this book, which can't be accomplished in one week. A goal of culturally shifting the ways people value themselves, their time, their energy, and their creativity. A goal of making sure career counselors are providing entrepreneurship as an option for their students. A goal of people knowing they really can turn whatever their passion is into a living, by giving them a method of planning how they will make it happen. These goals can't be accomplished in a week, and they are far greater than any profit alone can accomplish.
Book Launch First Week Balance: -$500
Profits vs. Progress:
If my goal right out of the gate was some kind of profit goal, I would have delayed the launch even further and done exponentially more build-up promotional activity and audience gathering. However, I have a 100 year goal for this book, which can't be accomplished in one week. A goal of culturally shifting the ways people value themselves, their time, their energy, and their creativity. A goal of making sure career counselors are providing entrepreneurship as an option for their students. A goal of people knowing they really can turn whatever their passion is into a living, by giving them a method of planning how they will make it happen. These goals can't be accomplished in a week, and they are far greater than any profit alone can accomplish.
More Realities of Self-Published Book Launching:
There are a lot of things to take care of in the final stages before a book is self-published, so this is really reflective of what I actually had time to do in reality. Keep in mind, this book launch is happening while I'm still serving consulting clients, image licensing clients, teaching reiki classes, and doing private reiki sessions for clients. As much as I would love to live in an imaginary world where I didn't need to work on other projects while focusing on a book launch, that is not my reality. I still need to serve clients and do work that pays bills associated with daily life and normal business activities as well as factoring in the advance costs associated with launching a book before the book ever supports itself.
Timing from Published to Printed Editions in Hand:
Now, I could have chosen to delay the book launch in order to make all the promotional build-up more exciting and more special, but instead I chose to launch the book publicly on the deadline I'd set for May 4 and May 5. That meant all of my book time was focused on finishing design and production considerations. I knew I needed time to order, personalize, and mail copies of the book before I started traveling overseas in June, so I thought at least 30 days in advance would be enough time. In retrospect, I'm really glad I gave myself an entire month because when Amazon's order projection on May 4th said books wouldn't be delivered until May 20th, I was a tad shocked at how long it might take, considering some of the Amazon materials said it would only take about 7 days. In reality, it did only take about 7 days from ordering to receiving the books, but planning for the potential delay is better than not planning and missing it completely.
What I Would Do Differently on a Longer Timeline:
If I had known that I wouldn't be able to get Author Copies from Amazon until I hit the publish button (only Proof Copies printed with a not-for-resale band across them), I might have done a sneaky early release to order my own set of Author Copies, then taken the book offline until a more planned and formed release date. This would allow me to promote with finished printed books rather than the proof copies - but I worked with what I had access to- and no one really seemed bothered by it or even mentioned it at all. I also would likely have done the kickstarter process and pitched to more bookstores and schools for signing and speaking events.
Social Media Followers vs. Email Subscribers:
In total, before this book launch, I already had over 10,000+ total followers between Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIN. They weren't highly qualified for the book launch, more like people who just followed me in general from other things I'd done. These are the people who have seen my journey the most, and who are likely the most curious about anything I would be offering anyway. From my social media promotions, which I tried to keep light and infrequent until launch week so my feed would stay interesting rather than one huge sales pitch, I gathered an email mailing list of 55 people over the course of a few months from sharing posts and hints on social media. Now, I think we all know the people who actually see our social media feed is much smaller than the amount of people who potentially follow us, so it was interesting to see how many followers actually converted to mailing list interest in my promotional offers for the book.
Email Subscribers vs. Book Buyers:
Now that I've mentioned the email mailing list numbers, you're probably wondering how many actually converted into book buyers, right? 10 people from the 55 person list became book buyers in the promotional pricing period in which I offered a special price for people if they purchased the book directly from me, which also required having them share their delivery address and sending payment via PayPal. Luckily, these people were already highly qualified as followers and subscribers, so the trust factor was higher than a bunch of strangers. The other 45 email subscribers received the chance for a discount and didn't take it, but still received the first important section and worksheet in the book for free to help them get started with doing the work. There were 3 book buyers who bought the book in the promotional period without having the discounted rate, but Amazon doesn't tell me exactly who those buyers are. So - a total of 13 books were sold in the initial book launch. I'm not going to judge myself on whether this number is any good or not, because it's my first book launch and at this point, I'm just deeply grateful for each person who supported this book right out of the gate. I had zero expectations about how many people would buy the book, and that really helped keep my excitement in check.
Are We Done Launching Yet?
Nope. Instead of considering this book launch a one day or one week launch period, I take a much longer-view and consider the entire first year of the book as a period of extended perpetual promotional launching. My goal is to get this book into the hands of 500 people in the first year. I have no idea how it's going to happen when you consider the numbers so far, but I do know that the intention to make it happen will help me identify opportunities I wouldn't have recognized otherwise. My goals for this book are not about me, but about the people it will help, and because of that, I'm willing to take a much longer view on how this all unfolds from here.
Example of Book Launch Social Media Posts Before Publication:
Here's a look at some of the posts and insights I shared before the book was released to the public. My goal during the pre-launch period was to let people know what I was working on so that it could slowly come into their awareness before the launch week. I felt awful doing much more than this, but I also occasionally felt like I didn't do enough. So this probably represents a bit of a balance between too much and not enough. You can see that I only did an every-day promotion piece in the final week before launch:
- May 5, 2019 - Instagram Post with Cheeky Mark Twain References
- May 5, 2019 - Author Direct Special Announcement on Facebook for Email List
- May 4, 2019 - Instagram Post about Celebrating Special Occasion of Book Launch
- May 4, 2019 - Make Profit Meaningful Video Promo for Workbook
- May 3, 2019 - Instagram Post about Starting Point for Workbook
- May 3, 2019 - Plan for Problems Video Promo for Workbook
- May 2, 2019 - Time Tracking Video Promo for Workbook
- May 1, 2019 - Know Your Numbers Video Promo for Workbook
- April 29, 2019 - Instagram Post about Receiving Printed Proof of Workbook
- April 25, 2019 - Instagram Post about Working on Book Design with Designer
- April 24, 2019 - Instagram Post included Workbook in Ways I Work Through Anxiety
- April 23, 2019 - Instagram Post on Dealing with Deadlines
- March 15, 2019 - Instagram Post for Pricing Workshop
- March 13, 2019 - Instagram Post about Pricing Hand Carved Jade
- February 23, 2019 - Instagram Post about Support for a Kickstarter Campaign
- February 10, 2019 - Instagram Post about Eco-Friendly Print Samples and Book Release
- February 5, 2019 - Instagram Post about Eco-Friendly Print Sample Decisions
- February 4, 2019 - Instagram Post about Testing Group Finishing Workbook
- February 1, 2019 - Instagram Post on Making Things Work While Writing the Book
- January 31, 2019 - Instagram Post sharing my Fears and Anxieties about Workbook
- January 30, 2019 - Instagram Post on Book Printing Decisions
- January 25, 2019 - Instagram Post on Decision Making & Editing Process
- January 23, 2019 - Instagram Post on Vision Boarding for Workbook
- January 19, 2019 - Instagram Post on Killing My Own Publishing Dreams
- December 31, 2018 - Instagram Post on 2018 Accomplishments & Joys
- December 27, 2018 - Instagram Post on Short Term Goals for Pricing Workbook
- December 12, 2018 - Instagram Post for Cover Options
- December 11, 2018 - Instagram Post to Share Video Interview in Designer Diaries
- December 10, 2018 - Video Interview for Designer Diaries
Have any more questions about what I did to prepare for a self-published book launch?
Do you have a book launch story that you've published online and want to share?
Click on comments and let me know!
(Please note comments are moderated over 48 hours to eliminate the spammy stuff.)
Do you have a book launch story that you've published online and want to share?
Click on comments and let me know!
(Please note comments are moderated over 48 hours to eliminate the spammy stuff.)
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