by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I read an interesting article lately that really made me think. It was by Sweta Vikram and was titled, “How Mindfulness Can Help You Enjoy Your Book Release Day.” In it, Vikram offered suggestions for better launch days.
I’m horrible at mindfulness, although I’ve definitely given it a go. I’ve set timers and reminders for myself. My mind always swims off to something I should be doing. Clearly, I need to work harder at making it work.
But Vikram gives other tips for making a release day better. I especially liked her reminders to continue building relationships with family and friends, to be grateful (she specifically mentions trad pub here, but it is the same for self-pub…we have a lot of folks to acknowledge on our road to publication), and to pay it forward.
All of these are excellent ideas. The biggest thing that I got from the article was this…release days frequently aren’t fun. This probably sounds odd to anyone who hasn’t yet published, but it’s the truth. I was extremely stressed out on launch days for my books with Penguin RH (there were decided promo expectations there) and am still stressed during my self-pub releases (where I’m the sole person responsible for everything going right…or everything going wrong, as the case may be).
This is a problem for many of us. I have several releases in a year. Some writers have a good deal more.
Keeping the article in mind, I have come up with additional suggestions for combating release day stress. I’ll cover the first couple today and the rest on Friday.
Do as much in advance as possible. This is a tip that I’ve used for nearly every aspect of my life for the last twenty years or so. It works for avoiding vacation stress, for the (enjoyable) disruption of holidays, and for busy mornings herding young children off to school.
In terms of a book release, this means that we should:
Load our books onto each retail/distribution platform prior to the release day. We can either set up the book as a preorder and do all the set-up work before the release, or we can simply have all the metadata and files loaded and wait for the launch to hit publish.
Create our reader newsletter announcing the release before release day and either schedule its release on launch day or hit publish that day.
Schedule a social media announcement (through a program like HootSuite or Buffer).
Set up a giveaway if that’s part of our marketing plan. Or set up a previous book in the series to price for free. If you’re doing a blog tour, make sure the posts are written ahead of time.
Keep a checklist handy.
There’s a lot to remember for release day. I found that I frequently forgot things if I had to rely on my memory. I use this checklist (and I’ve added a couple of things to it…like ordering print copies for myself and updating my list of books in print).
Otherwise, I will forget to make sure the print edition and ebook are connected on my product page. Or that I’ll forget to make sure they are linked to my Author Central page.
These are just a couple of things that I do to make sure everything goes smoothly (and are less stressful) on launch day. I’ll cover the rest on Friday.
Do you find releases stressful? How do you reduce the stress of launches?
Tips for Reducing Release Day Stress: Click To TweetPhoto credit: ToniVC on Visual hunt / CC BY-NC-ND
I don’t have all that to worry about, but I do have to make sure I’m doing all the marketing stuff I’m supposed to on release day. (And making sure those who’ve agreed to help are indeed doing so.)
Making sure a street team is helping out is a big deal!
Hope you have a great week!
I know just what you mean, Elizabeth, about being mindful. It’s not easy, is it? I agree with you, too, about the value of planning for release day. Something almost always happens that you didn’t expect, but at least you’ve taken care of as much as possible. I think, on that score, that it’s important to let go and not expect perfection. Nothing is perfect. Once you let go and just do the very best you can, I think it’s easier to get through the process without an overdose of anxiety.
Perfectionism definitely doesn’t help on release day! It’s important to prepare as much as possible in advance and then not worry when some small stuff goes awry.
Do everything possible in advance and have plenty ready to go for release day.
That’s my favorite way to relieve stress…do everything in advance in little chunks!
Thanks so much for the tips. Thinking of release day and marketing is making me most fearful of trying to get published. But I could follow a checklist and get ready in advance.
Checklists help a lot…mainly because otherwise I’m stressed that I’m forgetting something.
Fantastic tips and perfect timing as I get ready for my first cozy mystery release later this week. I’ve tried to set up most things in advance, but I’m sure there will be things I’ve missed and scrambling to sort out on the day.
Congratulations on the cozy release! It sounds like you’ve done a good job setting yourself up for success. :)
I recently had a short story published in an anthology and was only responsible for marketing … and that was stressful enough! thanks for the tips :)
Marketing is the worst! Congratulations on the short story publication!
Short story releases don’t stress me – I give marketing minimal effort by announcing on my blog and FB – but I think I’d resort to too much wine if one of my books was ever published. I don’t think I could ever be self published because all the marketing is too time consuming.
Congrats on your publications, and for doing it all yourself.
Ha! I know what you mean. I don’t technically market (or at least I haven’t run an ad for years), but getting the metadata just right, noting releases on social media, discounting earlier books in the series is tedious and time-consuming, for sure.
Hi Elizabeth – it makes total sense … be prepared, and do what you can today – so it’s not waiting to be done tomorrow … we can release stress fairly easily by putting that extra in as we go along … making check-lists etc – cheers Hilary
I live by my checklists! They really help me relax and not worry that I’ve forgotten something.