AMA: What You Need to Know Before a Book Launch
Answers about pitching podcasts, arranging book tours, making a social media calendar, self-care tips for book launch, and more
Hello, Protagonists!
My newest novel, Ideal Life, releases in a few days (Tuesday! August 18th!), so I opened up our community chat and asked what you wanted to know about what happens right before a book launch.
You asked about:
the order of book publicity—when to post on social media, record podcast interviews, etc.
when to pitch podcasts?
who arranges book tours and how do the bookstores get chosen?
how much work should the author expect to do and how much will the publisher do?
are there self-care or emotional well-being tips for preparing for a book launch?
I’ve got answers for you. Let’s get into it!
💛 Evelyn
Notes from the Dragon’s Nest asked:
Is there a particular order in which certain things are done: social media posts, podcast interviews, etc?
Great question! You might be surprised to find out that podcast and TV interviews often happen 1-3 months before book release.
This lead time gives the studios plenty of time to choose who they want to have on their shows and then to edit the recordings. They will often hold your interviews until release week, though, to help you get attention on the book when the book is actually available for purchase. Sometimes, however, they will run a piece early, and that’s good for the author, too, because then you, the author, can use it to pitch more podcasts and TV stations.
For example, here’s an interview I did in July with NBC in Tampa Bay for their Florida morning show, “Daytime”:
Social media strategies differ from author to author, but I like to start talking about my book on Instagram about 2 months before the book comes out.
Here’s a detailed social media calendar for the 2 months leading up to a book launch:
And here’s a piece on working with influencers:
Barb Natividad asked:
Who sets up the book tour?
This is usually handled directly by the author, but keep your publisher in the loop because they can make sure that enough books are shipped to the event venues in time. There’s nothing worse than having an event and not having any books to sell!
Authors generally reach out to bookstores 3-6 months ahead of time. This is one reason why writers should attend book events at their local stores and introduce themselves to the booksellers there, even before you’ve written or published a book. That way, they will already know you by the time you ask if they might host an event for you!
On rare occasions (if your publisher expects your book to make them a boatload of money, or if you’re famous), the publisher’s in-house publicist will set up bookstore events for you and pay for your hotel and airfare and food during the book tour. However, this is increasingly rare these days. (I was lucky enough to get sent on several all expenses paid book tours at the start of my career, when publishers still did that for normal folk.)
Barb Natividad also asked:
How are the tour destinations decided on?
If the author is the one setting up bookstore events, then it’s usually their local store or one where they have a friend or family nearby (on whose couch they can crash.) In almost all cases, authors pay their own travel, lodging, and food for their tours. You are also in charge of finding a conversation partner, if you’d like one. (I know that on social media it might not look like authors are paying for their own tours, but believe me, most of them are.)
If you are one of the rare few whom the publisher does send on tour, then the in-house publicist chooses the bookstores. They let bookstores know which authors are available for events, and then the bookstores write pitches that explain how many attendees they think they can get, what they will do for marketing and publicizing the event, and how many copies of the book they think they can sell. Then the in-house publicist chooses the stores and finds conversation partners for each event (if the author wants a conversation partner).
In fact, it’s kinda funny, I actually have a scene about book tours and this behind-the-scenes process in Ideal Life because one of the characters owns a bookstore!
Evidence Matters asked:
How soon in advance to pitch podcasts?
Start 3-5 months before your book comes out. Most publicists pitch books one season ahead. Weirdly, the publishing world counts only 3 seasons, not 4—winter (Jan - April), summer (May - August), and fall (Sept - Dec).
For example, Ideal Life comes out in August, so my amazing publicist began initial podcast pitches for me around March/April and ramped up in May/June.
If you are pitching yourself, you want to be on the same timeline as the publicists; otherwise, they will get all the slots around your release date for their authors.
Of course, you can keep on pitching podcasts even as you get closer to your release date and beyond! You might not get to have an episode right when your book comes out, but any podcast appearances or publicity is great, whenever it happens. You want your book to have a long tail anyway, not just be a one day wonder on release day. So don’t stress too much!
James Wang asked:
How much work should you expect to put in relative to your publisher? 😅
Oof, this is a tough question, partially because what every publisher does is different, and for every book. For example, if you have written a hot romantasy, your publisher might do a lot of pitching for you to be in magazines and newspapers and podcasts, because they can sell a lot of copies in that popular genre.
But that same publisher might do very little for their author with a niche non-fiction book on color-changing lizards. In the latter case, the target audience itself is small and niche, so the publisher will leave a lot of the publicity work on the author’s shoulders. They’re hoping that because you wrote a niche book, you have connections to that niche audience and will be able to let them know about your book.
As an aside, let’s do a quick reminder on the difference between publicity and marketing departments within a publisher:
Publicity is in charge of trying to get your book coverage in newspapers, magazines, TV shows, and podcasts without paying for the spots. Articles in places like PEOPLE or The Washington Post are not pay-to-play. Publicists pitch the editors there, and the editors choose what they want to cover.
Marketing, on the other hand, is in charge of spending money, like on Instagram ads or paid collaborations with TikTok influencers.
The reality is that publisher’s publicity departments are spread super super thin. Sadly, each publicist is in charge of too many books, and no matter how hard they try, they can’t give full attention to every single one of them.
Publisher’s marketing departments are governed by a limited budget, which is not as $$$ as you might imagine, and that money has to be shared with all the authors. Again, they have to prioritize, and that often means betting on the books that are likely to sell well (positive ROI—return on investment).
The advice I got early in my career is: Nobody will love your book as much as you do. Which is to say, whatever you’re willing to do, your publisher will probably do less, if only because it’s impossible for anyone to love and care about your book as much as you, the author, does.
Katrina Donham asked:
How do you personally prepare for the lead-up to book launch? Do you have any specific self-care/emotional well-being tips or strategies? As an extroverted introvert, I'd feel so daunted!
I am also a social introvert. My #1 tip is actually to reserve time for post-launch to do absolutely nothing. Now, your book launch period may be more than one day, because maybe you have set up a series of events for yourself. But during your planning phase (before launch), block out several days on the calendar for yourself to recover afterward.
While I enjoy meeting all my readers and celebrating with family and friends, I normally need a whole week to recover post-launch! That means I budget not only time, but also money for spending on things like Door Dash so I don’t have to cook. It’s always worth it to me to spend a little less on swag for my launch party so that I can pay for small recovery help like Door Dash after my book launches.
As for other well-being tips, I’d recommend not reading reviews on Goodreads or social media, and not obsessing over Amazon sales rank. Stay hydrated, try to get some sleep despite all the adrenaline, and also let your friends and family help you. You don’t have to do everything on your own. (I say this partially as advice to myself because I’m bad at letting people help.)
Most importantly, enjoy the present moment! YOU DID IT! You wrote a book and put it out in the world, which is a bigger and braver accomplishment than most people ever achieve. Celebrate YOU!
📚 You’re Invited: Ideal Life Virtual Book Launch Party!
Sunday, August 23, 2026
8pm ET / 5pm PT
Other Events for Ideal Life:
Saturday, August 22 at 6:30pm: Launch Party at Fireside Books in Redwood City, CA - FREE RSVP
Monday, August 24 at 11:30am: Read It and Eat (lunch and book talk) at Towne Center Books in Pleasanton, CA - Tickets here
LAST CHANCE:
Handmade Bookmarks + Autographed Copies of Ideal Life
Bookmarks are limited edition gifts exclusive to Fireside Books if you pre-order from them before August 18th! They will ship to you!!
Please email your pre-order request to:
orders@firesideRWC.com
I will personalize the book if you like, just include the name I should write in the book (e.g., “To Andrew”)
Fireside Books will ship to you (U.S. and international) or you can pick up from the store if you’re local!
(note: Fireside Books is a small husband-wife run store, so they’re taking orders by email. They don’t have a website that takes orders—ordering from their Bookshop.org page will not ship an autographed copy or bookmark, since those orders go through Bookshop’s centralized distribution.)