Things To Remember Between Finishing and Publishing Your Book

So, your book is finally written. Congratulations! Those long hours of plot twists and character development have paid off and your book will soon be published. All you have to do now is sit back and wait for publication day, yeah? Not quite…read on to find out some things to remember between finishing and publishing your book.

Who knows about your book?

Whether you have a publisher behind you or you have opted for the self-publishing route, one thing is for certain, you are going to need to make a lot of noise about your book, just to get your voice heard.

Your trusted friends and family are likely to be your biggest cheerleaders, so it’s important they are fully aware and on board with what you are doing. Make sure they know what your book is about and when it is going to be released, so they can help spread the word.

Do you have a workplace noticeboard or staff newsletter? Your colleagues could also provide invaluable help with getting your words out there and into the public domain.

How is your social media set up?

Are you planning to promote your book via your personal social media accounts, or will you set up separate ones for yourself as an author, where your readers will be able to engage directly with you, without having to see your birthday greetings to your Aunt Doris or your latest rant about the local takeaway delivering late, again. (Maybe that one is just me…)

There is a thriving book based gang on Twitter. Bookstagram has been a massively popular section of Instagram for years now and somewhat surprisingly, BookTok, a little corner of TikTok has really come into its own recently.

A dedicated set of social media accounts, stripped back, only revealing the author side of your personality will look more professional but more importantly will make your book the focus and the thing that garners new followers.

Getting these in place between book completion allows you to work on building that following ready for your book launch.

Have you thought about a virtual book tour?

There are a number of highly successful book tour companies around, and many experienced book reviewers who can provide honest feedback while simultaneously promoting your book and bring it to a much wider audience. The bookish community is huge and there are many avenues to be explored.

I can only speak from experience here, as a keen book reviewer myself and someone who now helps to book tours for my authors, the absolute queen of virtual book tours is Kelly Lacey from Love Books Tours. There is no-one more helpful or knowledgeable on this subject and she really does go above and beyond for all her clients, working tirelessly to ensure their tours are a success. Additionally she is extremely personable and easy to deal with, which is a massive bonus.

Kelly has curated an army of book reviewers, all passionate about books and keen to spread the word. Reviews are shared on blogs, on social media and more importantly, with Amazon and GoodReads, which are both really vital to boost the popularity of your book.