#157. 10 Surprising Lessons From My First Book Launch

So , yes , for me , having my book be an Amazon bestseller was a fun surprise , but I definitely sleep easier at night knowing I'm not hanging my hat on that orange flag as a way to get my book in the hands of readers . Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy podcast . My name is Savannah Gilbo and I'm here to help you write a story that works .

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In today's episode , I'm sharing 10 surprising lessons from launching my book last month , and a lot of these are things I expected or knew were probably going to happen , but for some reason , they still surprised me , and some of these lessons are more practical or tactical and others are more emotional or having to do with mindset .

So there's a fun blend of different types of lessons , and my hope in sharing these lessons is that you can avoid some of the mistakes I made and or you can capitalize on some of the things that I did in my book launch that worked well and things like that .

So I hope you enjoy the episode and , without further ado , let's dive right into 10 surprising lessons from my first book launch .

And the number one thing that surprised me was how hard it was to ask for favors , and by favors I mean things like reading my new book before it was published , or asking someone to introduce me to somebody they knew like an influencer or another author , and then asking those influencers and authors if I could send them a free copy of my book .

And also asking for reviews during launch week , sharing about my book's release on social media , and so much more .

Now , yes , I knew I was going to have to do this and I was totally ready to ask for some favors , but what surprised me was how hard it was Not only to ask for the favor , but to follow up with people who either didn't respond the first time I asked or who said they'd do something and then got busy or just forgot to do it .

As you can probably imagine , I was super busy with all of the moving pieces during the book launch . So it was hard for that reason just juggling all of the moving parts . But it was also hard because I started to feel like a pest , you know , bugging people over and over and over , and I know that's a mindset thing .

I had to give myself a pep talk and just kind of bite the bullet about following up with people again and again . But what also helped me was knowing there was a date where I would stop bothering people , just because the launch was essentially over .

So , yes , all of that was expected and even though I was prepared to ask for favors and follow up with people , it was harder than I expected because it was uncomfortable . Now , do I regret asking for any of those favors ? No , definitely not . Do I regret any of the hard work ? Nope , I don't regret that either .

I just was a little more uncomfortable than I expected to be . So that's the first thing I learned is that asking for favors and then having to follow up with those favors makes me really uncomfortable .

On a similar note , the second thing that surprised me about my book launch was how hard it was to get people to leave a review on Amazon . So I had a goal of getting at least 100 reviews during launch week , but I only ended up getting around 50 .

Now don't get me wrong 50 reviews is still fantastic , but based on the amount of people I gave free copies to , I did expect that number to be higher . And if you've never launched a book before , the reason this is important is mainly for social proof .

When potential book buyers find my book on Amazon , the amount of reviews and the quality of those reviews can sway them into purchasing or make them leave the page without purchasing .

Reviews also help the algorithm , because the more people who buy the book leave reviews and interact with my book's page on Amazon , the more the algorithm will push it out and put my book in front of people who might like it .

So , all of that to say , reviews are really , really important and I did not hit my goal in terms of how many reviews I wanted in that first week or so . Now I can't share that lesson without doing a little shameless ask .

So if you've read my book , the Story Grid Masterwork Analysis Guide to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone , and if you haven't left a review on Amazon yet , would you please be so kind as to leave one ? Maybe with our collective effort , we can hit my goal of 100 reviews by the end of the month . We'll see .

I'll leave a link in the show notes that goes right to the review page . If you would be so kind as to leave an honest review , and thank you in advance for anyone who does . I so so appreciate it . Now , the third thing I learned from launching my book wasn't necessarily a surprise , but it was something I experienced for the first time myself .

So I've said this on the podcast before that no matter how you publish , you will have to be responsible for your own marketing . So that part wasn't necessarily a surprise to me , but I wanted to talk about it anyway because it might come as a surprise to you .

As you may or may not know , storygrid is the publisher of my book and they did offer some support when it came to marketing . They let Abigail and I record a few videos for their YouTube channel .

They sent out a few emails to their list about the book , and I know Tim , the CEO of StoryGrid , talked about the book to people in their workshops and things like that whenever it organically came up . So in terms of what I expected from them as my publisher , that was about right on track .

But here's what you might not know about my launch looking from the outside in I did not hire a PR firm , so I was the one responsible for reaching out to influencers , communicating with them , pitching myself to podcasts or YouTube channels , asking for blurbs and reviews and things like that . I was also the mastermind behind all of the marketing .

So I planned the bonuses that went along with my book launch . I wrote all the promo emails and planned out my social media content for the month , which includes creating the graphics and the videos and the copy and things like that .

So literally all of the heavy lifting was on me and in many cases when you launch your own book , it will be on you as well .

So I like to be very transparent about this because , yes , I did have a publisher on my team with this book , but the responsibility for all the marketing and the promotional efforts were all on me and , honestly , I love that stuff . So for me it was super fun .

But I know a lot of authors kind of dread that part of the process , and if I could give you any words of wisdom , it would be to embrace it and figure out what kind of marketing will work for you . I did a lot of different things in this promotion .

So I hosted a free training to talk about writing fantasy , and then I promoted the book at the end , I did giveaways and offered different kinds of bonuses throughout the pre-order phase and things like that . You don't have to do all of that , but for me it was fun and it worked .

Now , the fourth thing I learned during this book launch was something that I already knew again , but I feel like I proved it to myself during this launch and that is that having an engaged email list can make or break your book launch . So I just talked about how I had to do all of this heavy lifting when it came to marketing my book right .

All of those things wouldn't have mattered if I didn't have an email list Because , as you might have noticed , I didn't say anything about running ads . I didn't have an email list Because , as you might have noticed , I didn't say anything about running ads .

I didn't need to run ads because my email list is engaged and I communicate with them often , whether that's to announce a new podcast episode is live , or to invite them to a free training or whatever it is . So , yes , I did show up on social media during my book launch , abigail and I did go on Storygrid's YouTube channel and things like that .

But I can tell you without a doubt that I would not have hit my launch goals had it not been for my email list . So , rather than go into more about why list building is so important , I'm going to direct you to episode number 107 . That's called Email List Building Essentials for Authors .

If you want to learn more and get started with your own list building efforts . It's so , so important way more important than social media and essential even , if you like using social media . So , yeah , highly recommend going to check out that episode if you want to learn more about building your own email list .

Now , the fifth thing I learned in this book launch that kind of surprised me is that I ended up taking the goal of becoming a bestseller off of my list . So , going into my book launch , I had this question in the back of my head . That was something like do you care about being an Amazon bestseller ?

Because if you do , you know there are certain things you need to do to make that happen . And if you want that little orange flag , then you better make sure you're doing those things right . And eventually I just decided that you know what I don't really care about becoming an Amazon bestseller .

If it happens , that's great , but at the end of the day , the only thing it really gives me is bragging rights and , plus , I already had a lot of strategies in place to help me sell books and get the ball rolling in terms of visibility on Amazon .

So for me , I made the choice of going into the launch , really focusing on those foundational marketing things like having ARC readers asking for early reviews , sharing my book as much as possible , both with my email list and on social media and influencers and stuff like that . And you know what happened my book became an Amazon bestseller anyway .

So I'm telling you this not to brag or anything . I'm telling you because I think sometimes writers focus on being an Amazon bestseller or getting on the New York Times bestseller list and then that kind of starts to take over everything else . It's kind of like their field of vision narrows so much they can't see anything else .

Now , with that being said , I do think it's fine and respectable if becoming an Amazon bestseller or a New York Times bestselling author is part of your goal for your book and for your book launch , but I would also like to encourage you to focus more on foundational marketing principles like building a solid email list , getting ARC readers and influencers to talk

about your book , and things like that . Because here's the thing being an Amazon bestseller or New York Times bestseller it might help you sell more books , but it also might not , so I don't know .

I guess my advice is that it's totally fine if your goal is making any of those bestseller lists , but I'd also encourage you to have additional goals that will help you ensure the longevity of your book's sales .

So , yes , for me , having my book be an Amazon bestseller was a fun surprise , but I definitely sleep easier at night knowing I'm not hanging my hat on that orange flag as a way to get my book in the hands of readers . So just something to think about , okay .

So the next thing I found interesting during my book launch was how hard it felt to actually sell my book , and I don't mean my ability to market it and talk about it , more like getting people to actually push the buy button . Now , of course , one's ability to sell a book depends on a lot of things , right ?

It depends on the size of someone's email list , how much time and effort they put into marketing , the quality of the actual book itself , where it fits in the market and how saturated the market is , and things like that . But when you think about it , buying a book isn't really going to be on many people's lists of priorities .

It's really easy to say something like oh my gosh , you wrote a book , how exciting , I can't wait to read it . And then you kind of go about your day and forget about actually buying it , or at least buying it right away , even if you have the best intentions , right .

So this kind of ties back to what I said earlier about how I ended up feeling like a pest throughout my book launch , because I went really hard with my marketing efforts . I emailed my list multiple times a week for about four to five weeks , which is a lot . I was on social media all the time talking about my book and things like that .

But here's the thing . There's this marketing statistic that everyone quotes that says something like it takes about eight touch points with somebody to convert a lead into a sale . So what this means is that for every eight emails I send to one person , I might get one sale out of those eight emails .

And so , as you can imagine , you do have to talk about your book a lot if you want to actually sell your book . So , yeah , at times it's going to feel a little bit pushy and , if you're like me , you might feel like a pest as you promote your book . But here's the other thing I actually hit my sales goal .

So , yes , I sent a lot of emails , I showed up a lot on social media in the month of July and into August , I did podcast interviews and YouTube videos , and all of that because I knew it was going to take about eight touch points to convert one person into a sale .

So , yes , even though I said it felt like it was really hard to actually get someone to buy your book , it is also very possible to sell them . You just really need to stay on top of it and remember that little stat about taking eight touch points to actually convert someone into a sale .

Okay , so the next thing I learned in this book launch is that you'll be equally surprised by who shows up for you as by who doesn't show up for you and , to be honest , I was more surprised by who didn't show up for me during my book launch and I know this sounds sad and negative , but just stay with me for a second .

What this looked like for me is that several people who promised to share my book or talk about it on social media or do some other favor that either I asked them to do or they volunteered to do , they just didn't do it , and who knows why . That is right .

Some people actually told me what happened , so maybe life got busy or someone in the family got COVID , or they just plain forgot . But other people completely ghosted me , which honestly , I found a little strange , because I like to think I'm a pretty easygoing human and I totally understand that life happens and things like that .

But you know , just like whenever you get ghosted , it can hurt your feelings a little bit , right , and I kind of hate saying that because my book launch went really well , but I am a human and I have feelings , so I'm going to share it anyway .

Now , on the flip side of that , other people showed up for me in ways that I never expected , so people that I either never asked for anything or never expected anything from . They showed up , and that was really incredible .

There were multiple times throughout the book launch that I felt an immense sense of gratitude and love and appreciation from friends , family , past clients and students and even random strangers on the internet . So in the end , it was all fine .

Like I said , my book launch went really well , but next time I launch a book I can do a better job mentally and emotionally preparing for some people just not showing up when they said they would or when you expected them to . So just a lesson learned and something I can take into my next book launch .

Now , the other thing I learned while launching my book is something I think I knew about myself , but it definitely got highlighted during the launch , and that is that I don't love when things are out of my control . So part of this is just my personality .

Part of it is that I've been running my own business for almost a decade now , so I'm used to having things in my control , as much as things can be in one's control . But because StoryGrid was my publisher , there were a lot of things that I didn't have my hands in , like setting up the book on Amazon or choosing the book cover and things like that .

We also had some delays with Amazon , things that were outside both my control and StoryGrid's control . So , for example , on the actual publish day , the paperback was marked as sold out for most of the day , which is totally not ideal , right ?

We still don't really know what happened and , oddly enough , I've seen this happening to other authors books who are print-on-demand books as well .

Now , what's funny is that in my book launch master plan , I did plan padding into my schedule , so I think I had about two weeks total of padding between some of the key tasks , Like , for example , around the date that I was supposed to get the digital galleys to send to my ARC readers .

I gave myself a few days in between when I was supposed to get the digital galleys and when I was supposed to send them out to ARC readers , and what ended up happening overall is that I used up all of that padding time and should have probably built in a lot more white space .

This is something I'm going to be much better at with the next book I publish . So please learn from my mistake .

Plan in some padding and then maybe even double that time , because you just never know what's going to happen , and if you can relate to what I'm saying about wanting things in your control , I think that's something really important to think about when choosing how you're going to publish your own book someday , or if you're going to work with a publisher .

I guess I would just say go into it expecting to let go of control and expecting to go with the flow a little bit more than you normally would . Okay now , the last lesson I want to share with you is that it's so important to celebrate yourself when you publish a book .

This is something I almost didn't do , because I actually really hate being the center of attention , but one of the writers I work with she said to me one day . She said , savannah , you always tell people to celebrate their wins , no matter how big or small , and you're about to publish a book .

Like how are you not going to celebrate yourself when you always tell other people to celebrate their wins ? And she was 100% right . So , even though sometimes it doesn't feel real that I actually wrote a book , I did write a book and I published that book and now people all over the world are reading that book , like how cool is that ?

So , yes , it wasn't super natural for me to celebrate myself , but Nathan and I went out to dinner the night before the publish day .

We took the dogs to the beach the next morning and then that night , abigail and I hosted a virtual book launch party , which was actually really fun , and every time I got a text message or a voicemail or a DM on Instagram , I made sure to sit with those messages for a second and internalize the kind words that people were sharing with me , because , like

Ferris Bueller says , life moves pretty fast . If you don't stop and look around once in a while , you could miss it , and I didn't want to speed through my book launch and miss it . So I guess the point here is to make sure you celebrate yourself , because it's important to recognize your hard work and because you deserve to be celebrated .

So , with all of that being said , those are the 10 surprising lessons I learned from my book launch .

I won't recap them for you because this was more of a casual conversational episode , but I hope this was helpful for you to kind of hear a behind-the-scenes take on what worked , what didn't work , what I'm glad I did and what I would do differently next time .

And if you haven't gotten a copy of my book , the Story Grid Masterwork Analysis Guide to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone . I will put a link in the show notes for you to grab it on Amazon If you have purchased a copy . Thank you so much . If you'd be so kind as to leave an honest review on Amazon , I would very much appreciate it .

So that's it for today's episode . As always , thank you so much for tuning in and for showing your support . If you want to check out any of the links I mentioned in this episode , you can find them in the show notes listed in the description of each episode , inside your podcast player or at savannahgilbocom forward slash podcast .

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