The following excerpt is from the Louderlines 28-Day Book Launch Programme. Day-by-day prompts to build your audience and a great book launch and all the tools you need. Try it free for 14 days.
Connect with your publisher team (if you have one) and share this outline plan with them. Ask what plan they have, how you can align, make sure you are not doubling efforts, and spot any gaps in the process.
If you can, schedule a 20-minute call with them. It helps keep everyone focused and aligned. Share a link to your website and socials so they can link to you.
If You Have a Publisher: Working With (Not Waiting For) Your PR Team
For traditionally published authors, this has an extra layer that indie authors do not have to navigate: the publisher’s internal marketing and PR team.
The single most dangerous assumption a traditionally published author can make is that this team is handling your launch. They are handling a launch, alongside dozens of other titles on their list. Unless you are already a major commercial name, the support you receive will be focused on invisible infrastructure: metadata optimisation, trade distribution, ARC mailings to librarians and professional reviewers, and retailer pitches. All genuinely valuable. Almost entirely invisible to you and your readers.
The mindset shift that actually works: treat your publisher like a business partner with poor communication habits. They have capabilities you need. You have audience access and platform knowledge they do not have. The partnership works when both sides know their role.
What to ask your publisher’s marketing team for, proactively:
Request extra ARCs early, before their standard print run, so you can run your own giveaways to your email list and street team. Publishers often have spare copies and are happy to provide them; they simply will not offer them unless you ask.
Ask specifically which trade publications and review outlets they are pitching, and which they are not. There will be gaps, things like niche blogs, specific podcast genres, and community newsletters, that fall outside their standard list but are perfect for your audience. Fill those gaps yourself.
Bring your own media pitch ideas to your check-in calls. If you have identified five podcasts whose audiences perfectly match your book’s themes, say so. A good publisher PR team will fold strong author suggestions into their outreach. A stretched one will be grateful someone else did the research.
Get your metadata reviewed together. Ask which Amazon subcategories your book is listed under and whether there is room to optimise for more specific, less competitive categories. A sci-fi novel listed broadly under “Science Fiction” will be buried. The same book listed under “Cyberpunk Detective Fiction” can rank first in that subcategory with a fraction of the sales volume.
On timing: start these conversations as early as possible, ideally six months before publication. Publisher PR teams lock their promotional calendars months in advance. Arriving at three months out asking for changes means most decisions have already been made. Get a regular check-in cadence established early, even a monthly 20-minute call, and you will get considerably more out of the relationship than authors who communicate sporadically and reactively.
Reach out to your publisher and ask if they have a launch or marketing plan. Share this document with them as your intended schedule and ask them to send you any relevant graphics and alert you to any conflicts or timing requirements. Identify local and niche gaps you can fill yourself.
