How to Announce a Book Release to Your Mailing List

by | Nov 10, 2020 | Bestseller Essentials, Book Marketing Basics, Marketing Your eBook

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We’re going to talk about how to announce a book release in today’s post on the Author Marketing Experts blog.

If you’re lucky enough to have a mailing list, then you know the importance of using it to spur your readers into action. If you have a mailing list and haven’t really used it, a book release is a great time to do so.

Mailing lists don’t have to be huge. The days of millions of mailing list members are gone.

Sure, it’s great if you have those kinds of numbers, but they may not be all they’re cracked up to be. A lot of authors with that many names wind up with email addresses that no longer work and/or with very low open rates of the emails they send.

A mailing list with a healthy open rate of 20% or so, regardless of its size, is really great.

So let’s say you have a book release coming up in a few months. How can you maximize your mailing list? And when is it too early to start pushing your new book message?

Mailing List Matters

First off, if you have a mailing list that you haven’t touched in a while, it’s a good idea to warm up your list. Start sending newsletters to your list on a regular basis – let’s say once a month.

If you’re already doing this, great! And also, now it’s time to up the ante.

Let folks know you have a book coming out, even if it’s super early and the book isn’t up for pre-order. A “just letting you know” message keeps readers informed, let’s them know you’re busy creating new books, and gives them something to look forward to!

How to Announce a Book Release with Style

When you’re ready to start announcing your book release early, consider the following fun teasers, reveals, and promotions.

  • Title reveal
  • Character teasers and introductions
  • Behind-the-scenes style reveals of where you get your inspiration, including stories and photos of cool or unique things you did for research, your writing playlist, and other elements of your process that are unique to the upcoming title
  • Cover voting – let followers vote on their favorite
  • Final cover reveal

As you can see, the earlier you start announcing your book, the more you can plan out some of these book launch strategies. As you move closer to your launch date, you might want to consider doing a BOGO promo – either Buy One/Get One or Buy One/Give One.

How to Announce a Book ReleaseHow to Announce a Book Release

How to Announce a Book Release

Spacing Out Your Promotions

Once you decide which promos will work best for you and your book launch, it’s time to think about how you’ll schedule them.

Some strategies work better closer to publication dates. For example, BOGO promos do well if you keep them within two weeks to 10 days of your book’s “go live” date on Amazon.

Other pieces of this can be started earlier. For example, if you’re getting cover feedback, you’ll want to do that before you’ve started working with a designer.

The other pieces can be sprinkled throughout. But keep in mind that if you need your readers to help spread your launch message, you’re going to want to give that more time.

Pushing the Pre-Order

One thing I love doing with any of my new releases is to send news to my mailing list about pre-order options. Pre-order is an exciting time, and it’s easy to send a quick email that captures your enthusiasm even as it asks your subscribers to buy a copy of your book early.

Often, I’ll organize some kind of offer – whether it’s Buy One/Get One or Buy One/Give one – and push that out to my list. This encourages early buying and helps to boost the pre-order numbers.

When you’re thinking about how to announce a book through your email list, a pre-order promotion is also an easy way make your subscribers feel extra special for a short period of time. I like shorter pre-orders – two weeks at a minimum, 30 days at the most.

Book Release Related Contests

You can do lots of fun contests around a book launch – depending on your book topic and content.

Contests can be super simple: for example, ask your subscribers their favorite place to read a book. One of our clients created a special Pinterest board and invited readers to share pictures: it was a big hit!

You could also do a multi-author book bundle giveaway. In this strategy, you invite other authors to share their new releases and do a giveaway to one (or more!) lucky reader(s).

The great thing about this particular promotion is that when you put together the squad to pull this off, you’ll also invite the participating authors to share the giveaway with their lists, thereby pulling in their readers, too.

Multi-author book promotions are fun not only because you can expand your reach, but also because a large bundle of free books is super enticing to readers. Your newsletter followers will love it, and many may share the promo information with others, too!

Incorporating Social Media

One of the biggest bonuses of doing these kinds of layered announcements to your email list is that it also creates great social media content.

When you create a launch plan for how to announce a book release and incorporate some of the ideas above, you may also boost your social media followers.

Using your email list to boost out-of-the-gate sales is a great way to build your book launch momentum and capture early book sales. And if done well, you may also grab that Amazon bestseller flag!

If you need more information about how to announce a book release to your mailing list, I’ve included a few related blog posts in the Resources and Free Downloads section below.

Happy marketing!
Resources and Free Downloads
The New Business Card Workbook

Book Marketing Kickstart Package

How to Promote a Book with Creative Collaboration

How to Promote My Book Before It’s Published

 

2 Comments

  1. J R Tomlin

    If I don’t have over 50% open rate, I assume I am doing something wrong.

    Reply

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

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