How to create a chart-topping launch 💥

To the mooooooooon.  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

​ Hey, There was no email last week because it was my birthday, with yours truly engaged in all known shades of tomfoolery. But I'll make up for it this week by satisfying a long-standing request: showing you how to put together a humongous launch. Rather handily, this will serve as something of a recap for the mini-series I just concluded on How To Sell Books in 2022 while also showing you how to put all that to good use. (Fellow slackers: catch up with previous emails at the Email Archive). Birthdays are a time for counting your blessings – a handy distraction from counting those candles! And I have been blessed in my career as well as life. I was extremely fortunate to join Google just as what we used to call online advertising was really taking off. And it was pretty fluky of me once again to enter publishing just as Amazon, ebooks, and self-publishing were reshaping the book business. Not prescience, I stress, just dumb luck. Getting in the game early and having some pre-existing digital marketing skills has allowed me to do some interesting things over the last ten or eleven years. Most fascinating of all has been working as a consultant on launches for some bestselling authors. There's no other way to describe it: getting handed a bunch of money to put a book at the top of the charts is fun. A healthy budget for ads brings pressure too, of course, but the satisfaction from hitting the mark is immense. I've learned a lot from it also. Every genre has its own quirks, and each author puts the pieces together a little differently. They all nail the product part, for those who remember my How To Sell Books emails – these all tend to be good books, presented attractively. But the promotion can be quite different, and that's affected significantly by what kind of platform the author has built over the years. Some lean more on their huge mailing lists, or rolodex full of genre connections. Others go hard on social media, or ads, or have diligently created an army of superfans through clever and creative engagement over an extended period of time. Recipes may vary in the details, but all these successful authors plan their launches in some manner – a task I've been able to help with over the years, trying to take what I know and adapt it to their particular circumstances. (This isn't some sideways hustle for clients, BTW. I'm not looking for clients. All requests will be met with a polite refusal. I merely mention all this to give context.) There's no One True Way to launch a book. Everyone puts the pieces together differently. Some authors I've worked with are incredibly analytical and plan everything out to the atomic level. Others are more instinctive and might change things up on the fly. One of these things isn't necessarily better than the other, but I do think it's important to at least start with some kind of a plan – even if you tear it up halfway through Launch Day 1. Planning provides a structure to build on and gives an opportunity to examine all the various things you can throw at the launch. For me at least, a launch plan is a way of cohesively stitching all those things together in a way that draws maximum benefit, using each tool for the job it is best at. The goal might vary, but your success in achieving that goal depends a lot on recognizing what it is each tool is good at, and then deploying it effectively. This latter point is important, so let's whip out our tools right away for a good gander. This will be slightly different from my take in the How To Sell Books Emails as we are particularly looking at all these marketing options in terms of how they might support a launch – a big budget launch – and showing how to put the pieces together, which is where some authors slip up, I think. Knowing the individual strengths and weaknesses of each marketing tool at your disposal is key to putting together the parts in a way to maximize results, and to do things like prompt the Amazon algorithms to begin recommending your books to its customers on a grand scale. So, here's what you have to play with. Newsletter The primary tool for pushing a new release… obviously. Nothing will give you a stronger and more immediate dump of sales for your launch, but most authors like spreading the love a little bit, generally aiming at stimulating Amazon's algorithms by posting several days of strong sales, rather than one giant spike which collapses the next day. The only downside to your mailing list is its size – growing a substantial list takes time, especially if you are seeking good quality subscribers – so authors generally look for other marketing options to add scale to the foundation your newsletter will provide. Depending on the individual circumstances, I will do either a second send to the list later in the launch, or a re-send to non-opens of that first email – something which can be a second free hit, if handled correctly. But as with all things email, you have to be careful not to overdo it. Newsletters can be less effective at promoting existing books (in large part because your existing readers might already own them), but can still be useful in that regard, especially if you are running discounts on earlier books. Leveraging your fan base to spread word of the deals is wise also, as is inviting engagement either on social channels, or simply through organic replies – both have value. The author's newsletter, its size and relative levels of engagement, will be the center of any planning I do around a launch. Amazon Ads These can be pretty good at providing a consistent level of sales on existing books, but not great at providing the insta-dump of sales you might want for a launch. Delayed reporting and the nature of the platform makes it a high-risk proposition to back a new release at a larger budget. However, I like having some money in play here because Amazon Ads are uniquely positioned to nail down quality Also Boughts for new releases, because it's the only platform which allows you to target specifically at the book level. Amazon Ads can also boost any earlier series books which will eventually provide sellthrough to the latest – and provide more visibility for the series overall. So, lots of indirect uses around a launch, but less direct support – at least from my perspective – so not something that features heavily in any launch plan I might draw up. Promo Sites The newsletter sends might be the foundation of a launch in terms of the actual new book being released, but generally I like to discount earlier books in the series as well whenever possible. Bringing in a tranche of new readers every time you release a new installment creates a lot of synergy – new readers are excited by deals and existing readers are delighted to get another installment of a series they love; together, they can help you cut through the noise. While some promo sites – or deal sites if you prefer – have options to feature new releases, I normally avoid those and use promo sites for what they are best at: promoting freebies and steep discounts. I usually get more aggressive with discounts as a series gets longer, and often alternate between leading with free offers and 99c deals. The exact promo sites I use will depend on what offers I'm pushing, but I tend to grab whatever series promos I can and then add a handful of free/99c promos from a selection of trusted and reliable sites. As with the newsletter, I'll spread these over successive days which will help any discounted books get stickier in the charts post-promo – a similar goal to the new release, aimed at maximizing visibility in the charts over time. Opening up my page of recommended book promo sites is literally the first thing I do when planning any launch or promotion, no matter what budget the author has to play with, or what size her mailing list might be. BookBub Ads Unfortunately, an afterthought these days when planning a launch. This platform was previously one of my favorite tools for directly supporting a new release because the platform was the most consistent and most responsive – meaning you could gamble with big budgets, and get near-instant feedback on ad performance, along you to scale up or down as required, or make any necessary tweaks to your ads. These days, the platform is far more inconsistent (for all the reasons I laid out in my previous emails), and far less responsive as well. A killer combo for launches and big budgets. However, I will almost certainly run some ads on the new release to the author's own "Readers" on BookBub, and test some to the tightest comps too – although these days I expect little from the latter. If it's a wide author, I'll use BookBub Ads for those harder-to-reach pockets on the smaller retailers. If it's not, I'll use BookBub Ads for Canada, Australia, and probably at least the UK as well. Series ads used to be money-printers for me on BookBub, but are also inconsistent these days too – but I'll generally at least try some at a smaller budget, ready to ramp up if I strike gold, assuming I have series deals on earlier books in the mix for this launch. BookBub Ads can still have a use if you are a wide author or otherwise looking for a slow drip of sales on a certain book, at a lower daily budget – if you restrict yourself to CPC ads and modest bids. But that makes them nearly useless for the kind of scale needed for a big launch – without ROI collapsing completely these days. I will use the free New Release Alerts (but I generally won't touch the overpriced Featured New Release promotion) and I might use the Pre-order Alerts, depending on the circumstances. (Maybe.) But these days I'm much more likely to keep almost all the ad budget for… Facebook Ads The most responsive platform today, with the largest audience, making it the best candidate for higher risk/higher budget strategies, or anything where you want to scale up quickly – like a launch. The platform is flexible enough to reach your readers in any country or using any retailer (although BookBub is better for those smaller pockets of readers, in my experience). I tend to have campaigns running in all major markets and will have specific campaigns pushing the new release, as well as separate ones promoting any deals running on earlier books in the series. Those might include static image ads, video, retargeting, series page ads, or carousels, depending, although static image ads tend to take the lion's share of the ad budget. When it comes to planning a launch, as with anything providing serious juice, I will try and balance the spend so that I'm getting a consistent push across successive days for both the new release and the earlier books in the series. Email Swaps Most authors fall into one of two camps with email swaps: they barely use them… or completely overuse them. The value in email swaps is obvious, you get to share your new release and/or deals with someone else's audience, usually at no cost (although you will reciprocate). If you choose the authors well, you can see real results from this in terms of sales – with both authors helping each other to grow by pooling audiences. However, often authors don't choose well – I see many being far too scattergun. Common mistakes made here include choosing an author who isn't a great fit (simply because they were willing to feature you in return). This means you get less value from their mention, and then you recommend books to your audience that they may not like so much. The other error I see a lot is authors imply engaging in too many email swaps, meaning their newsletters end up being crammed with one mention after another. This starts coming across like you are just mentioning books for the sake of it, and your audience will start to place little value in your recommendations – something which tends to be mirrored on the other side, with the whole thing devolving into a reader experience which can be quite spammy, even with the best intentions, and have little impact on sales at the cost of tanking your newsletter engagement. I recommend being more judicious – and only recommending books you genuinely enjoyed and really think your audience will love. If this means you only do a handful of email swaps a year… great. With all due respect to anyone doing it differently, especially if it is working for them, in my opinion you should be that judicious. Anyway, these can be very useful for adding some free oomph to a launch, while helping prompt Amazon to recommend your books to your target audience, if it fits in with the rest of your planning. Amazon Deals To avoid confusion, I specifically mean promotions arranged by Amazon – e.g Kindle Daily Deals or Kindle Monthly Deals or Prime Reading promos. These might not be something you have much control over, but you do tend to get a little notice about them and sometimes it can be useful to arrange a launch around that, should you have some flexibility. It's basically free fuel for whatever else your doing, if those dates line up. Group Promotions I feel the same way about these as I do about swaps: be selective with these, and don't let your newsletter devolve into a continual promo parade. That said, doing a group promotion of the list builder variety can be a useful exercise in the weeks leading up to a launch, padding your list with potential buyers and giving you a quick take on the quality of those new sign-ups. Social Media Much like your newsletter, social channels can be great for getting the word out to existing fans. However, the social aspect means you should invite engagement from existing readers who will be excited about your launch – especially on Facebook where you can turn that launch post into an ad, one which can be very convincing to on-the-fence purchasers. There's no better social proof than dozens of readers raving about your books. Goals and Planning Those are all the tools available to authors for a launch. Knowing what each is good at (and not so good at) is an important step towards building a solid launch plan. My aim with a launch can vary, but it's generally some form of (a) selling as many copies of the new release as possible and (b) moving as many copies of earlier books in the series as possible… which in turn will feed into (a) both in the short term and over the long term. Some authors might be seeking to maximize income with a launch – a perfectly valid goal. But many of the bigger authors know the value of visibility, and then lean more towards maximizing sales/visibility as they know that will drive greater income over the longer term. This is especially true if the author has a long series (where the lifetime value of getting the reader hooked on Book 1 is considerable), and/or if this particular series is in Kindle Unlimited (where visibility is even more lucrative). The Balancing Act Generally, the approach is to sell as many books as possible… once the clicks are coming in below a certain threshold. And overall, I will always seek to spread the love. Some of this will be done at the planning stage – like splitting the mailing list over several days (assuming it is large enough to bother), or booking promo sites over successive days, or arranging for my three email swaps to go out separately etc. – but a fair bit will have to be done on the fly. You don't always know exactly how much power you will have on each day. Swaps are inherently unpredictable. Sometimes a BookBub New Release Alert goes out early and surprises you. Occasionally a social media mention of your book can go a little viral before you have hit most of your list. Often a technical problem or three will have you scrambling – and perhaps hitting a segment of your list early… leaving a gap for you to fill with Facebook Ads the next day. You'll never get it totally balanced – and are likely to go mad trying – but just aiming for a balanced push can help a lot with Amazon's algorithms, which in turn will give your latest release (and those earlier books in the series too) much more staying power in the charts. I hope you found this breakdown of how I approach launch planning useful. Don't forget, if you need specific resources on each aspect here, the How To Sell Books series in the Email Archive (link up top) will see you right. And as I mentioned in those emails, if you want an over-the-shoulder video of me building a launch plan like this then check out Module 5.4 – Building A Monster Promo – in my free course Starting From Zero. Amazon's Pesky Algorithms Oh and if you want to learn more about Amazon's algorithms, why we go to such contortions to appease them, and how they can be the secret sauce in any launch or promo, then check out my book Amazon Decoded. BTW this book doesn't just break down how the algorithms work. There's an entire section covering strategy, with a particular focus on launches and backlist promotions, showing you how to build a marketing plan that works with Amazon's algorithms, instead of against them. ​ Amazon Decoded is available for $4.99 from all major retailers, as well as one intrepid library in New Zealand. Respect. Finally, you may have seen me posting about this on social media but indie author Tawdra Kandle is fighting a ridiculous trademark infringement case and needs our help. You can join me in donating here, if you are able – where you can read about this case with worrying shades of #cockygate. David Gaughran @DavidGaughran Indie author @Tawdra Kandle is fighting a completely ridiculous Trademark infringement claim and has set up a GoFundMe here for donations. It's #cockygate all over again and she needs our help. Donate here: gofundme.com/f/legal-expens… Legal Expenses to Fight False TM Infringement, o... I'm an author of contemporary romance, published for ten years. Recently,… Tawdra Kandle needs your ... gofundme.com August 22nd 2022 11 Retweets 8 Likes I'd also appreciate a share on this tweet above or this Facebook post to help get the word out. Dave P.S. Writing music is OMC with How Bizarre. Broomfield Business Park, Malahide, Co. Dublin K36 AT04 ​Unsubscribe | Update your profile​