Book launch checklist for indie authors: four weeks before, launch week, the week after

This is the launch checklist on one page: what an indie author does in the four weeks before release, in launch week, and in the week after. Each line is one job. Print it, tick it, and start the next book. It assumes the manuscript is edited, the cover is finished and the files are ready, so it begins where production ends. If you want the longer version with the reasons behind each step and the twelve weeks before this one, read the 12-week launch timeline.

The list is limited to what an author does, not everything a marketing guide could suggest. Where a job has its own article, the line links to it. Nothing here needs a budget beyond author copies and postage, and every item works whether the book is in KDP Select or sold wide.

Four weeks before launch

1. Set the publication date and write it down everywhere you will need it: KDP, your website, the press release and your diary.
2. Upload the final ebook and paperback files to KDP and any other stores, and order a printed proof.
3. Read the proof cover to cover and fix anything you find, then approve it and order author copies.
4. Set the ebook preorder live if you are using one, so the store page and its link exist before anyone needs them.
5. Buy or allocate the ISBNs for each print format, and register the title data with Nielsen or Bowker.
6. Write the back-cover blurb, the short store description and the one-line pitch, and keep them in one document.
7. Send review copies to your reader team now, with the release date and a request for a review in launch week. Give them a link to request a copy rather than attaching files to emails, so you can see who has one.
8. Build the press kit page: bio at three lengths, headshot, cover, blurb, ISBN, price, buy links and five interview questions. The press kit article lists what each person asks for.
9. Write the press release and send it to the local paper, local radio and any bookshop or library that stocks local authors.
10. Book the launch week newsletter swaps and group promos with authors in your genre. The swaps and promos article covers what to agree.
11. Write the launch email to your reader list and schedule it for release day.
12. Write and schedule the social posts for launch week: cover reveal, a short extract, the release day post and a thank you.
13. Update your author website and your Amazon Author Central page with the new book, its cover and its buy link.
14. Add the new book to the back matter of your existing books and upload the revised files.
15. Ask two or three authors you know for a quote you can put on the store page or the cover.

Launch week

1. Check the live store page on release morning: cover, price, description, categories, look inside and the series link.
2. Send the launch email to your reader list, with the buy link first and the story of the book second.
3. Post the release day announcement and reply to every comment the same day.
4. Email the review team a reminder with the direct review link, and thank each one who posts.
5. Send the swap and promo partners their copy and links on the day you agreed.
6. Switch the website homepage to the new book and check that the buy buttons go to the right edition.
7. Post one copy to the British Library within the month, as UK law asks. The legal deposit article gives the address.
8. Deliver signed copies and download codes to anyone who bought direct or preordered from you.
9. Note the sales rank, reviews and list sign-ups each evening in one spreadsheet, so you can see what moved.
10. Thank the people who helped, by name, in your newsletter and on your page.

The week after

1. Send a second email to readers who did not open the first, with a different subject line and the same link.
2. Follow up every review copy that has not turned into a review, once, politely.
3. Reply to any press or podcast that answered the release, and offer dates.
4. Fix anything readers reported: a typo, a formatting glitch, a wrong link in the back matter.
5. Add the first good reviews to the store description, the website and the press kit.
6. Write down what sold the book and what did not, while you still remember, and keep the note for the next launch.
7. Plan the first price promotion or free run for four to eight weeks out, when the launch rank has settled.
8. Thank your reader team and tell them what the next book is.
9. Open the file for the next book.

How to use the list

Copy the three blocks into whatever you plan with, put a date against each line, and treat the four-weeks block as the one that cannot slip, because everything in launch week depends on it. If you find yourself writing the press release on release day, the problem started in week four.

Most of these jobs live in different places: the store dashboard, your email tool, your website, a spreadsheet of reviewers. The Indie Author Toolchest keeps the author page, the reader list and its emails, the review copy requests and approvals, the press kit with its headed press release, and the swaps and group promos on one dashboard, so the checklist is shorter when the book lives there. It is not required for any item above.

The list leaves out the writing. A second title, started before this one is out, gives every item on this page somewhere to send a reader next.