Publishing your Book: the Trials and Tribulations of the Release Day

Releasing a novel is the most exhilarating and frightening thing I’ve ever done. Years upon years of work, long nights and early mornings with a well-used laptop, and an outrageously dangerous amount of coffee led to this one moment. 

Where you rush to Amazon, and see your name and your book listed on it’s theoretical shelves. And for a moment, you just sit there. Admiring the work you’ve done, forgetting about the miniscule mistakes lurking between the pages. You’ve publishing a book and can officially call yourself an author. What could be bad about that?

More than you could ever imagine. 

Releasing Your Book

The months leading up to publishing a book is the most pivotal time for a self-published author. Whether you have worked with a traditional publishing company or done it all yourself, all authors spend some time marketing their books. While the one with a team of professionals behind them get amazing work time, us self-published authors need to toss in extra time and energy to reach the same standards. 

When I released The Halls of Valhalla, I was more happy that it was out there and done to worry about a marketing strategy. Unfortunately, this kind of thinking did lead to a partially unsuccessful launch. That being said, what I judge as successful is extremely different than what the ‘professional’ would deem as successful. At least a couple months before the launch date I was beginning to market and publicize my book, but not with the ferver that I should have had. 

As discussed in previous blog posts, most authors enlist in the help of readers by sending out Advanced Reader Copies, or ‘ARCs’ for short. This is an easy and engaging way to not only get an audience excited, but to accumulate enough reviews on the release date to get your book a head start. ARCs are normally noted as uncompleted works, and are more than likely going to have grammatical issues. They are sent out before the final proofread. This is a pleasure for readers to dive in to. Not only do they get to read, see, and feel a book before it’s intended release date, but they also become a large part of the publishing process.

In my latter years of high school, I joined the book club on campus and got to get my hands on some ARCs. Seeing the special badge on it’s cover and the unique dedication specifically for the readers who got it first made me feel connected to the experience. ARC readers are encouraged to leave a review on the day of the books release. This technique is what surges authors upwards the moment the book shows up on shelves. Statistically, more readers will purchase a book if it has some reviews attached to it. This idea can be applied to just consumerism in general. When shopping for a product, we like to take a look at it’s reviews before making any final decisions. 

Things like this is what makes a book launch successful. Thinking ahead and planning things that can easily engage readers. Hosting giveaways works the same way. I would gladly share, comment, and like a post if it meant I had the chance of winning a free book! 

By the time I got settled into my projected release date for The Halls of Valhalla, it was hard for me to wrangle doing pre-release marketing. Truthfully, my elation stemmed directly with just publishing the book. It was a project that started in grade school and followed me all the way till now. Whether it captured enough readers before the release or not, I just wanted to call it mine. 

Take this as some words of advice for the new writer on their path to publishing. In the end, there is no need to beat yourself up over how your launch went. We all want to see those sales rising, the ratings go higher and higher. But how can you not be proud of what you managed to accomplish without those numbers? Time and energy went into plucking a world out from your imagination and putting it on a page. That is the most wonderful thing about release day. Your creation has been officially released to the world. 

You have made a mark.

You might change a life.

And you’ll never know if you can until you try.

Thanks for tuning in. See you soon :)