Making the Sausage: Release Day Edition
After the (somewhat surprising) success of my last super-in-the-weeds bullshit industry post, which was about how I can afford to ship personalized, autographed books to fans, I thought I might try a new, possibly recurring segment about the deep, dark recesses of the publishing industry, Making the Sausage.
So, on Monday I mentioned how much I've been sucking at blogging lately. A solid ten days of that was lost due to the HUNTER OF THE DEAD release day blitz, which, yes, is nearly two weeks of work for me.
Don't believe me? I thought I'd make a list of what I do for every release. Now, bear in mind, I have no idea which if any of these add to sales. So I may be completely wasting my time. I don't think so, though, and I've been honing this process over the five book launches I've now completed, and HUNTER OF THE DEAD was my biggest launch yet, so I must be doing something vaguely right. At a minimum, you can chime in down in the comments and tell me what I'm doing wrong and right.
- crafting a release day blog post
- crafting a "Quintessential" blog post (the difference between the two is a release day post is just for release, but a "Quintessential" post goes up a few days or possibly weeks later, when there have been some reviews and mentions, and then is added to my "Info on My Published Work" and updated constantly as a repository for all reviews and mentions of my work on the internet)
- updating the "Info on My Published Work" page so that the new work is included on it, first with just an Amazon link, then with a link to the "Quintessential" post when that goes live
- crafting the perfect post for my group blog
- responding to any blog comments (across all three posts) with a personalized thank you
- updating your e-mail signature line with the new book, before sending out e-mails to the mailing list
- crafting the perfect e-mail for the mailing list
- on release day, sending two separate e-mails, one for the people you know are real on the mailing list, and the other to the people you suspect are scammers
- clearing the confirmed scammers out of your mailing list when their e-mails bounce
- answering congratulatory e-mails from your mailing list
- creating the perfect Goodreads event well in advance of release day, making the duration of the event at least one day for each thousand friends you have on GR
- inviting all of your Goodreads friends to the event in blocks of a thousand, a hundred at a time, because Goodreads won't let you invite more than a thousand people to an event in a 24-hour period
- responding to each "yes" and "maybe" on your GR event with a personalized thank you, and to some of the "nos" if they've given some kind of justification with an offer of some sort or possibly just a condolence
- mention your release on any pertinent and apropos GR groups
- crafting the perfect Facebook post for the business page and scheduling it for release day
- liking (or loving) and crafting a personalized thank you comment to each person who shares your FB post
- after determining interest has waned on your business FB post, share it to your personal FB
- also like (or love) and craft a personalized thank you for everyone who shares your personal FB post
- mention your release on any pertinent and apropos FB groups
- crafting the perfect Tweet
- take advantage of Tweet sharing groups, etc., to get more eyes on your tweet
- craft a personalized thank you for everyone who shares your tweet
- monitor Twitter for mentions of your release that you haven't been tagged on and gradually retweet them and send personalized thank yous
- monitoring Amazon rankings, sometimes all night, in order to capture screenshots of your possible bestselling statuses, across every individual national Amazon store
- after determining your highest bestseller statuses, posting screen caps, along with a thank you to your fans, on FB and Twitter
- mention your release on any pertinent and apropos message boards you may belong to/participate in
That's everything I can think of that's release "day" specific. What do you think? How much of this is wasting my time and how much is actually driving sales? What do you do?
So, on Monday I mentioned how much I've been sucking at blogging lately. A solid ten days of that was lost due to the HUNTER OF THE DEAD release day blitz, which, yes, is nearly two weeks of work for me.
Don't believe me? I thought I'd make a list of what I do for every release. Now, bear in mind, I have no idea which if any of these add to sales. So I may be completely wasting my time. I don't think so, though, and I've been honing this process over the five book launches I've now completed, and HUNTER OF THE DEAD was my biggest launch yet, so I must be doing something vaguely right. At a minimum, you can chime in down in the comments and tell me what I'm doing wrong and right.
- crafting a release day blog post
- crafting a "Quintessential" blog post (the difference between the two is a release day post is just for release, but a "Quintessential" post goes up a few days or possibly weeks later, when there have been some reviews and mentions, and then is added to my "Info on My Published Work" and updated constantly as a repository for all reviews and mentions of my work on the internet)
- updating the "Info on My Published Work" page so that the new work is included on it, first with just an Amazon link, then with a link to the "Quintessential" post when that goes live
- crafting the perfect post for my group blog
- responding to any blog comments (across all three posts) with a personalized thank you
- updating your e-mail signature line with the new book, before sending out e-mails to the mailing list
- crafting the perfect e-mail for the mailing list
- on release day, sending two separate e-mails, one for the people you know are real on the mailing list, and the other to the people you suspect are scammers
- clearing the confirmed scammers out of your mailing list when their e-mails bounce
- answering congratulatory e-mails from your mailing list
- creating the perfect Goodreads event well in advance of release day, making the duration of the event at least one day for each thousand friends you have on GR
- inviting all of your Goodreads friends to the event in blocks of a thousand, a hundred at a time, because Goodreads won't let you invite more than a thousand people to an event in a 24-hour period
- responding to each "yes" and "maybe" on your GR event with a personalized thank you, and to some of the "nos" if they've given some kind of justification with an offer of some sort or possibly just a condolence
- mention your release on any pertinent and apropos GR groups
- crafting the perfect Facebook post for the business page and scheduling it for release day
- liking (or loving) and crafting a personalized thank you comment to each person who shares your FB post
- after determining interest has waned on your business FB post, share it to your personal FB
- also like (or love) and craft a personalized thank you for everyone who shares your personal FB post
- mention your release on any pertinent and apropos FB groups
- crafting the perfect Tweet
- take advantage of Tweet sharing groups, etc., to get more eyes on your tweet
- craft a personalized thank you for everyone who shares your tweet
- monitor Twitter for mentions of your release that you haven't been tagged on and gradually retweet them and send personalized thank yous
- monitoring Amazon rankings, sometimes all night, in order to capture screenshots of your possible bestselling statuses, across every individual national Amazon store
- after determining your highest bestseller statuses, posting screen caps, along with a thank you to your fans, on FB and Twitter
- mention your release on any pertinent and apropos message boards you may belong to/participate in
That's everything I can think of that's release "day" specific. What do you think? How much of this is wasting my time and how much is actually driving sales? What do you do?
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