Checklist for a Book Launch

John 3:16 Marketing Network

Checklist for a Book Launch

Lorilyn Roberts

Blogger/Writer/Author Name:  

Completed Books:    

Published Books:

Current Projects:      

Future Projects:       

Number One Goal for 2013:     

Review Date:            

Author Platform and Readiness for a Book Launch
My goal with this checklist is to help authors identify areas they need to focus on to rise above the pack of thousands writing books today. The competition has never been greater.	To contact me (Lorilyn Roberts): llwroberts@cox.net Website: http://LorilynRoberts.com Blog: http://LorilynRoberts.blogspot.com Blog: http://John16mn.blogspot.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/LorilynRoberts Twitter: http://twitter.com/John316Network
Objectives
	Yes	No	Comments
1.     Do you have a blog or website? 2.     Do  you have a share button for social networking?			Make sure you have a follow button toward the top of your blog or an option for visitors to follow you by email. Also make sure your name is somewhere on your site – you want to promote yourself as an author. You should post something at least once or twice a week. Static sites aren’t as good. You want visitors to interact with you by being able to leave comments. Make sure you have a button for easy sharing – it will boost traffic to your site.
Amazon and Book Platform
	Yes	No	Comments
Are you a published author (self-published or traditional?			If you don’t have any published books yet, keep reading. You will learn some valuable tips.
Do you have a minimum of ten reviews with at least a 4.0 overall rating for your book or books?  If the book is rated by reviewers lower than a 4.0, you need to figure out why. Poorly rated books don’t sell (unless they are pornographic or media-driven).			At the Florida Christian Writers Conference VIP’s said traditional publishers want self-published authors to have more than 100 book reviews. This would come into play if you wanted to traditionally publish a self-published book.
Do you have an avatar and up-to-date bio on Amazon?			This is free advertisement. A must, especially if you are self-published.
Have you set up and completed all the tasks in Author Central on Amazon?			If you haven’t done this, the link is https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/profile Make sure you answer all the questions, not just your bio and avatar, but your Author Page URL for Amazon, blog feed link, twitter feed link and multimedia if you have a book trailer.
If you have published books on Amazon, is all the information filled out for each book on Amazon?			Amazon allows authors a lot of space at the top for editorial reviews, product description, et cetera. Don’t waste this space. Use it.
Have you answered the “book extras” that link to Shelfari?			This is directly from Amazon: Readers can see Book Extras for your book on the Kindle and Kindle apps for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. You can write them in Shelfari, the community-powered encyclopedia for book lovers. This information appears before, during, and after the reader experience, so put your one-of-a-kind knowledge to use. The link for this can be accessed through Author Central.
Have you written book reviews?			This is one way to help other authors and be sociable. Amazon will track your ranking as a reviewer—another way to gain exposure.
Are your books priced competitively?			List the price of the author’s book in the first block and a best-seller in the same category in the second block. Compare. If you book is priced higher, lower it.
Is your public profile completely filled out on Amazon?			The public profile is found under “Your Account,” go down a ways, and look under “Community.” Here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/css/homepage
Does your book cover show up well on Amazon?			Can you read the name of the book and the author’s name easily? How does your book cover compare to others in your genre?
Have you filled out the appropriate categories for your Kindle book on Amazon?			For Kindle, this is done through the Kindle Direct Publishing site at https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/dashboard
Have you entered the best key search words for you Kindle book through Kindle Direct Publishing?			If you need help doing this, please read this article I wrote: http://bit.ly/YBnaJY
Has your Kindle book been properly formatted?			A spot check for this can be done by clicking on the book’s cover on Amazon. The first few pages of the book will open. Check for incorrect spacing, boxes, strange lettering, et cetera.
Has your book been edited by at least one professional editor, preferably two?			Readers will tell you if they find mistakes. Better you find the errors and correct them – your reviews will suffer if your book is poorly edited.
Other Social Networking Sites
	Yes	No	Comments
How many twitter followers do you have?			At the recent Florida Christian Writer’s Conference VIP’s said they wanted authors to have 5,000 followers.
Are you sociable—do you host other authors on your blog or website? Do they host you?			Do you know others in this industry that would be willing to endorse you or recommend you? Writing is a solo journey, but marketing can’t be done alone. You need others to help you.
Do you have a presence on Facebook?			While Facebook’s importance in marketing is minimal, it’s still helpful for making connections with others.
Opt-In List
	Yes	No	Comments
Have you set up a service like Constant Contact to build your email list?			The new recommendation is that you have 5,000 people on your email list.
Do you have a free gift you can give away to build your opt-in list?			You should have at least one permanent free gift available on Amazon, Smashwords, your website, et cetera.
Do you subscribe to helpful blogs for marketing and writing?			A writer should constantly be working to improve his writing and marketing skills. Blogs on relevant topics are more current than books, particularly with marketing trends. Reading blogs is a must.
What Books Have You Read to Help You With Writing?
	Yes	No	Comments
Are you a fiction writer?			Here is a link to a post I wrote on good books for fiction writers. http://bit.ly/YqwqXc
Are you a nonfiction writer?			Nonfiction books on writing I recommend: On Writing Well, by William Zinsser Writing to Change the World, by Mary Pipher Writing for the Soul, by Jerry B. Jenkins
Have you attended any writer’s conferences in the last year? Other extras to consider: Does your book have a book trailer? Youtube is highly trafficked, don’t skip this marketing opportunity.			List the writer’s conferences you would like to attend in the future. To make a free book trailer, go to: http://animoto.com/pricing/a
What Books Have You Read to Help You With Marketing?
There are so many good ones, I am not going to list them, but be sure you read my book, How to Launch a Best-Selling Christian Book if you have joined or are interested in joining the John 3:16 Marketing Network.			Here is the link for Kindle: http://amzn.to/YqyxKx Here is the link for print: http://amzn.to/YqyGO8
What are your strengths?			You have some – don’t just focus on what you need to do, pat yourself on the back for what you have already done and done well.
What are your weaknesses?			Be honest – no one hits a home run every time he stands up to the plate in baseball. Many strike out – but they come back again and again, unless they don’t have the talent and then they are sent down to the minors. If you have the ability, you will succeed if you keep learning and don’t give up.
How much money should you spend each month on marketing?			Don’t go into debt - ever! There is no guarantee that your costs will be recouped in book sales.
What are the things you can’t skimp on when it comes to marketing and selling your book?			An editor, a book cover designer, and pay the hefty fee and buy your own ISBN numbers from Bowker if you need to purchase your own. Don’t buy from a cheap source.
A well-written press release is also helpful.			If you are not a top-notch writer, hire someone to write one for you.
Should you spend money on publicists, formatting books for Kindle and Smashwords, expensive email blasts, book trailers, overpriced POD publishers, or anything that costs more than $100? Like expensive book contests?			Absolutely not. You can do what a publicist does yourself. If you can read, you can format your own books for Kindle and Smashwords. Using Animoto (listed above), you can do your own book trailer for free. You can publish through Lightening Source and Create Space for a very reasonable price (less than a hundred bucks on either one), and the best book contests don’t charge or only charge a small amount to cover the basic costs.

General Observations

I would recommend you look over the list above and your responses and make an assessment of what your strengths and weaknesses are. Be kind to yourself – just going through this list is the first step in learning more about how to market your book. One of my concerns with new authors coming into the John 3:16 Marketing Network is sometimes they want to launch a book too soon. You need to work towards the goals above, particularly the Amazon platform goals, to have a successful launch. Waiting until you have a lot of reviews, a minimum of ten and preferably thirty or more with at least a 4.2 rating will go a long ways toward selling books and having a successful launch.

Call to Action – what three things will you work on now—don’t wait. Fill in the list below and shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you will land among the stars.

ID	Action Item	Start	Achieved
1			[mm/dd/yyyy]
2			[mm/dd/yyyy]
3			[mm/dd/yyyy]

Additional Comments:

After reading through this list, if you would be interested in some personal coaching, I will be offering one-one-one coaching via phone, Google-plus Hangout, or on Skype on a limited basis for $55 for one hour. Only one hour per person. My goal is to help you learn how to market your book and make you self-sufficient. Knowledge is power. You can do it!

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I will be hosting a Google Hangout tonight at 7pm (April 29) to discuss book launches, specifically the new way we are doing them and why. 

Our Newest Feature to Help Authors Write Good Books - Beta Readers

OUR NEWEST FEATURE TO HELP AUTHORS WRITE GOOD BOOKS - BETA READERS!

Dear AUTHOR:

I hope you will find the experience of working with beta readers an invaluable part of your publishing adventure. My success with beta readers has been worth the expense and time I allowed for it and I will always use them in the future.

We have streamlined the process to make it easy for you and time effective for me.

I will send you two articles I wrote about how to use beta readers effectively and what I need from you to proceed with the process. When you send me back the letter, “first letter to beta readers,” and include a payment via PayPal for $75, I will submit the letter to our list of readers.

The $75 is used in the following way. Each beta reader, upon reading your book and submitting his or her feedback, will be sent a $5 Amazon gift card via email from me. You don’t have to worry about that part of the process. I will select seven beta readers from those who respond. They will be chosen in the following way:  Those who have given the best feedback on previous books will be chosen first to read your book.

From experience, I know that some people will say they are going to read your book and then not follow through. Percentage-wise, if I choose seven, it’s safe to predict five will follow through and give you good feedback. If you get all seven to respond, pat yourself on the pat and take it as a sign you’ve got a great book.

All the readers who provide feedback will be sent a $5 Amazon gift card. If you get five, that’s good. If you get less than five, I will resubmit your request out (at no additional cost) until you get five completed responses back on your book. I will know what the status is because the process will go through me – that way it will cut down on the time involved and communication – et cetera.

The remainder of the money, $50,  compensates me for my time. I figure I will spend anywhere between an hour and two hours coordinating and helping you. The price might be adjusted up or down in the future, depending on how the process goes.

Let me know if you have any questions.

If you would like to proceed, let me know, and I will send you the “first letter to beta readers” to get you started. My email for payment through Paypal is llwroberts@cox.net.

Beta Readers Can Help You Edit Your Book

By Lorilyn Roberts

You have finished your manuscript – the first draft, which is more than a first rough draft. It is your edited first draft. I interpret that to be my first draft that I have edited as much as I can. That means I don’t know what I need to fix and/or I can’t find any more errors. In other words, I have no more objectivity. If this sounds confusing, I don’t mean it to be. I want to emphasize you don’t want to give your manuscript to beta readers until you have made it the best you can.

Does that mean your book is a masterpiece and ready to be published? Hardly. It means your manuscript is as good as it will be without input from others. Good beta readers will find the weaknesses, flaws, and issues that need to be fixed.

One of the hardest things for me to do is to take that first-draft manuscript and give it to someone to read when I am the only one who has yet to read it. Part of me wants to share it and part of me doesn’t—I want the feedback, but I also fear what others will say—suppose my book is horrible? Even if it’s not horrible, the process is humbling.

This is the most critical stage in writing a book. Anybody can write a first draft, but not everyone can take the risk of submitting it to someone and then evaluate the feedback objectively—what’s good, what’s worth considering, and what is totally “screwed up”? And yes, some will be way off base, but I can almost guarantee you, for every ten beta readers who read your book, you will get one or two gem readers that will amaze you with their insight—and that’s what makes the process of beta readers invaluable.

I offer some tips from my own experience, having used beta readers for two books—one fiction and one nonfiction. How can you get the most out of beta readers?

1. Have a list of specific questions you want the reader to answer.

On my recent fiction book, Seventh Dimension – The Door, a Young Adult Christian Fantasy, an example of a question and helpful response was the following from Hannah Bombardier:

Did you stay interested throughout the story until the end? If not, where did your interest wane?

At the very beginning I had a hard time staying focused, but I became interested when I got a couple chapters in, and my attention was caught by the time Shale was transported to the Seventh Dimension. However, I think that was partly because I was confused at the beginning, and I tend to be bored when I’m confused, but your revision should help with that a lot.

Consider your target audience and who is providing the feedback. Hannah is a teenager so I took her feedback seriously. Obviously, I have some work to do on my beginning, and that’s what I need to know BEFORE I publish my book.

2. Give a deadline on when you want your beta readers to finish reading your manuscript. Some readers will give you feedback quickly; others won’t. It will help if you give them a timeline.

3. Don’t expect beta readers to “edit your book.” They are reading your manuscript for flaws of story. You will still need a professional editor to fix grammar, typos, English, diction, et cetera; i.e., a copy editor.

4. When you receive your feedback, thank the person for his input regardless of whether you like his comments. The reader took his precious time to give you feedback and that is a gift.

5. If you have offered something in return for the reader’s comments, follow through quickly. In my case, I offered a $5 Amazon gift certificate—not much, I’m a poor author, but each person will also be recognized in my book on the acknowledgment page when published and will receive a free Kindle copy of the book.

6. Go through each comment and evaluate what the reader wrote. Weigh what he said and consider his feedback against the comments you receive from others. Some comments will be contradictory; others will be consistent. This is the value of beta readers. If one comment is consistent, that is definitely something you need to consider.

7. Recognize that not everybody will like your book. Those who don’t, consider why not and if there is a way to fix the issue or issues.

8. Remember, the book is yours—you know your story better than anyone else. Take all the feedback to heart and get busy editing, tossing out those comments that are not useful and incorporating those that are.

9. Where do I find beta readers? With my first book Children of Dreams, I approached the leader of the readers’ group at my church. I had never attended any of the meetings, so I did not know many of the readers (don’t include your mother as a beta reader; she will love your book no matter what). Some of my best feedback came from those readers. For my fiction book, I used the readers for the John 3:16 Marketing Network, almost all of whom I did not know. Sometimes friends can find it hard to be objective.

10. While implementing the process of beta readers takes more time, costs money, and requires extra work, in the end, your book will be better because of it. Beta readers as a whole can provide valuable feedback for authors, especially those who self-publish and do not have the benefit of a high-fluting editor at a prominent publishing house. If you have “problems” with the content, the readers will find them and give you the input you need before publishing, increasing your odds of getting those five-star reviews on Amazon.