For Betrayed, the first new book I’d launched (aside from a coloring book and omnibus print edition) since Starless Night (November 2021)… I wanted to give it the full launch. But with a little over three years since the last big launch (which had me double and triple checking my math because where did that time go?) I had some catching up to do, some notes to revisit, and whole new systems to build.
This post is where I do a post-mortem of the launch so I can see what I intended to do, versus what actually happened.
First off…
The Marketing Plan List – I made myself a list. It wasn’t a list of any particular order, but it was what I referenced every time I had time to work on the launch but couldn’t remember what needed to happen next. Anytime I thought of something that needed to be done for the launch, I added it to this sheet.
Analysis
I want to make a more streamlined version of this list for future projects, though I’ll expect it to be messy each time. Also, this eventually got spread across two or three sheets.
This list was very helpful with keeping me on track.
Let’s see what all ended up on that list. I attempted to somewhat organize these into logical categories, though they most definitely weren’t organized on my original sheet.
Goal – I created a goal for myself so that I could focus on what needed to happen and make choices based on that goal. This time it was: “Funnel readers into newsletter through Deceived and catch interest for rest of the series.”
Analysis
Most of my early setup was focused on this goal. It appears I added three organic subscribers to my list via this method.
Something needs to be adjusted here. Further analysis will need to occur to figure out where the hangup is. (Marketing? Branding? Writing style?)
Newsletter
Review DHU Newsletter Automation – I wanted to make sure the current automation I had set up in MailerLite was 1) still functional and 2) up-to-date.
Analysis
Complete! I did find a couple things that needed updated… namely in regards to author bios since Isaac had finished his PhD.
Subscriber Landing Page for Initiated – Turns out I already had this set up on MailerLite, but it did need updated.
Analysis
In the future, I’d like to create a landing page that isn’t specific to MailerLite. That way if I ever need to switch email list hosts, I don’t have to remember to update the back matter of every book with that page.
Test Initiated Subscriber Page – Since I updated the sequence, I wanted to make sure that the automations were all working correctly.
Analysis
Had to swipe Isaac’s email for testing, but so far, so good!
Deceived Updates
Fix Backmatter in Deceived – I updated the newsletter info and subscriber page URL, and added a page for Betrayed, now that I had the info for that.
Analysis
Reviewing the backmatter was useful for checking how it might funnel readers through the series, since I hadn’t reviewed it in over three years.
Review Deceived Blurb – I wanted to update the blurb to be stronger, but with time running out, I decided it was fine for now.
Analysis
I would like to update the blurb eventually, but it didn’t happen for this launch.
Upload updated Deceived ebook at all retailers – With the backmatter updated, I wanted to make sure it was uploaded to all retailers.
Analysis
Complete! And it was here that I realized I had somehow missed adding Deceived to Google Play. That’s now been fixed.
Set Price of Deceived to Free – Since I wanted to run a promotion on Deceived in order to draw attention to the Betrayed launch, I needed to set this to free.
Analysis
For the stores with price change promo systems… super easy. For KDP I set it to 99cents first, in case I had trouble swapping it (though it did mean that the “regular price” shown was not what it will ultimately return to), and then set it to free at all other stores. I created a list of Kobo links at the different territories I wanted Amazon to price-match, then sent them the email asking for the change. It took a couple days, but swapped over nicely. (Now I just have to remember to update the price… and the royalty percentage… when the promo ends).
Promotions
Review Paid Newsletter Info and Choose Submissions – Several years ago I used to run paid ads in a variety of newsletters that showcased free and discounted ebooks. I had made a list of those most likely to work for my books, as well as detail about what they accepted, price, and various other notes.
Analysis
I updated the most promising choices on the list and removed ones that were no longer applicable. I ended up choosing four newsletters (small and medium size) to stay under my $50 budget for the launch, and I’m promoting Deceived in them while it’s free. I ran one before the launch, one day of, and a couple spread out after. I paid $44 for various promos, and earned back $33 across all books on all retailers during the start of the promos to two weeks after the last promo ran.
There are several other newsletters on my list I still need to update.
Kobo Ad – Kobo has a promotion tab for various promotions, which I’ve submitted to in the past.
Analysis
I didn’t realize it at the time, but since I already had a specialty price promotion scheduled for the book, it was not eligible for the usual promos I apply to. I ended up passing on this promo this time.
Book Funnel Promos – I originally planned to place Initiated (newsletter exclusive prequel to Deceived) in a few Book Funnel group promos, or possibly make a couple niche promos of my own.
Analysis
Ran out of time to set these up and ensure they would get promoted in my newsletters. I’ll still likely do these in the future, just not part of the launch. Additionally, I need to work out a better system of transferring subscribers to my newsletters. (There is an automated version, but this costs more).
Update Subscribers from Mailchimp – There are still a few straggler signup pages that I’ve missed from Mailchimp, so I need to periodically check the lists for anyone new, then transfer them to the correct list.
Analysis
Not yet complete. Additionally, I need to figure out where the sign-up sheets are hosted that are still funneling into the Mailchimp list.
Upload Subscribers from BookFunnel – This is more of a periodic endeavor, since I don’t have the automated subscription. However, since I haven’t been running consistent giveaway promos through BookFunnel, this tends to get overlooked.
Analysis
I’d like to get back to a consistent practice with BookFunnel giveaways and find a smoother way to make sure I get subscribers uploaded into MailerLite.
Write a DHU short story for the launch – I wanted to make a related short story for the launch, something that those who were already familiar with the universe could enjoy, and something that might entice readers who hadn’t yet read the stories (or only read the freebies) to go try something else from the universe.
Analysis
I had a few ideas in mind, though the main ideas I had seemed a better fit for the next book in the series. Ultimately, I decided to create a set of “dossiers” on each of the characters from Deceived, with a “school ID” style photo and short passage from the point of view of an upcoming antagonist. Stuff that’s happening behind the scenes during Betrayed. I got two complete and sent out during launch. The other three planned ones needed to be completed later and sent out in the regular newsletters. Ultimately I hope to compile them into a mini ebook that can go in the Newsletter Subscriber bonus section.
Update:
Dossiers completed with eight chapters, and six dossiers, and the final chapters goes out in an email on April 27th (three months after the launch…) I’m additionally considering whether to only have this as a newsletter bonus story or to also make it a “1.5” story available for free or 99 cents.
Newsletter Subscriber Bonus Page Updates – I wanted to better organize the bonus page, which is currently a giant gallery of art thumbnails. I also wanted to add some of the flash fiction short stories that I’ve sent out to the newsletters.
Analysis
Not yet complete, but something I would still like to update. Will probably need to decide how to better organize that page.
Betrayed
Upload Betrayed to Retailers and set Pre-Order – I chose the pre-order date of January 28th, 2025, and waited until I had the book complete and ready to upload before creating the different retailer pages. I did this around the two week to release mark.
Analysis
This took a few steps since Smashwords still needs its own version of the table of contents and I had to create the Google Play version of Deceived, first. But it otherwise went smoothly, and I have since learned that Amazon takes the D2D epub for Kindle, which looks great, so I’ll probably switch to that method from the previous method of creating a ZIP file.
Upload Betrayed to all Distributors – I made a list of all distributors (KDP, Kobo, Google Play, Smashwords, D2D, BookFunnel) so that I could easily mark when I had updated the backmatter to Deceived and when I had uploaded Betrayed. I also used it for BookBub and Goodreads.
Analysis
This was very helpful for keeping track of everything.
Create BookFunnel Sales Page – I intended to create a sales page with links to all retailers as something that would let me create a sample that would then point to where readers could find the rest of the book.
Analysis
This didn’t get completed, however, I did create a Books2Read page and updated the one for Deceived, and that was extremely useful for my newsletter. I definitely want to review the other universal links I have for future use and make this link for future books.
Add Pre-Order Links to Infinitas Publishing Page – Once the ebook was uploaded to a retailer and had gone live, I added the link to the landing page on our Infinitas Publishing website. I had a “coming soon” note beside any of the links that I was still working on uploading or hadn’t yet gone live.
Analysis
Complete!
Marketing
Betrayed Blurb – I wanted to review the Book Blurb Magic course notes I had and create a blurb for Betrayed.
Analysis – Complete! It may still need revisions long term, but I got both the blurb and the shorter pitch version written.
IP Website Page for Betrayed – I needed to create the landing page for betrayed on the Infinitas Publishing website, which meant I first needed the cover (all variants already created a while back when I did the early release on Wattpad), and the blurb. Initially I simply listed the pre-order date since I didn’t yet have links. This also meant creating the appropriate links on the world and series pages.
Analysis
I still would like to add a link to sample pages, as well as include Goodreads and BookBub links on all books. Also, it really helped having the cover already made, so I would like to lean toward finishing the cover and blurb earlier in various projects so I can get these pages uploaded sooner.
Check Backmatter of Distant Horizon and Glitch books – The idea was to make sure their backmatter is up to date.
Analysis
This did not get done, but I would still like to do this before the next related launch.
Backmatter for Initiated – I wanted to check that all backmatter was up-to-date.
Analysis
Complete.
Make sure Whispers in the Code is set to free – This is a permafree book, and since it is related, I wanted to ensure it would still be available for free. (Amazon has a habit of unmatching the prices after so much time on different territories).
Analysis
I checked both Whispers in the Code and The Wind Mage of Maijev in all the links and sent my template email to KDP to ask for a price match in the necessary territories. I also created myself a private web page with clickable links to make it easier to check each territory. That made it super easy (and didn’t make it so hard to load tabs on a browser as I’ve done previously), so I plan to make more lists for any future books that need to be checked for price matching.
KDP A+ Content – Since I’ve already been making art for the newsletters, I was planning to transfer some of that art into A+ content (the image promotions on a book page) on Amazon.
Analysis
Ran out of time for now, and still need to make some of the art I’d like to, but I still want to give this a try, at least for first-in-series books.
Deceived Free Social Media Announcement – Goal was to post variations of the same announcement I made in my newsletter to this blog and Facebook, and Instagram.
Analysis
Complete, except for Instagram. Not sure how much impact it had.
Betrayed Pre-Order Social Media Announcement – Goal was to post variations of the same announcement I made in my newsletter to this blog and Facebook, and Instagram.
Analysis
Complete, except for Instagram. Not sure how much impact it had.
Betrayed Launch Day Social Media Announcement – Goal was to post variations of the same announcement I made in my newsletter to this blog and Facebook, and Instagram.
Analysis
Complete, except for Instagram. Also posted to X/Twitter. Not sure how much impact it had.
Review Goodreads and BookBub Pages – Some of the books need to have their updated covers added, or duplicate entries merged.
Analysis
Ran out of time to complete this. I’d still like to do this at some point in the near future.
Improve Keywords – In general I’d like to review all books and improve their keywords for retailer search functions.
Analysis
Ran out time, not yet complete.
Add BookBub and Goodreads link to Infinitas Publishing Website Pages – This hasn’t yet been added to any of the books, but I think it would be helpful for readers looking to read reviews, so I wanted to get these links added to the website.
Analysis
Not yet started. I’ll likely do this after I get the book covers updated on those websites.
Advance Reader Copies
Create ARC Request Form – As it had been a while since I had sent out ARCs (advance reader copies), I put out a call for interested reviewers to the Distant Horizon Universe newsletter. In order to simplify things, I created a simple Google form that allowed me to collect responses, and I uploaded them manually into MailerLite.
Analysis
I realized from doing this that I already had an ARC list (as well as a beta-reader list, which needs to be transferred to MailerLite and updated). So I updated the form I already had and transferred the ARC list. This should go smoother next time since it’s already set to go, though I may put out another call in the future for ARC readers both in the Distant Horizon newsletter and in the Wishing Blade newsletter. I also hope to push this much earlier in the launch process for future launches.
Ask for ARC Readers – I mailed the Distant Horizon Universe newsletter list, as well as anyone who indicated interest on the previous list, and offered ebook copies of both Betrayed and Deceived. First, I uploaded the necessary files for Betrayed and the updated file for Deceived into BookFunnel and used those links for ease of use.
Analysis
I did do a reminder email after a few days for anyone interested in signing up for the ARC who hadn’t done so yet, which had one person show interest. However, my newsletter host shows that they never checked the follow-up email, so I don’t know if they were still interested. I’ll likely try follow-up reminders again in the future, but if they have similar results, I may hold up on follow-ups after that.
Create Follow-up ARC email with details – I created an email to automatically go out on the day of the launch with all updated links and to let ARC readers know that the book was live.
Analysis
I’m not sure if this is helpful for them or not, but since it’s basically an updated form of an already-written email, I’ll probably do this again next time, too.
Create ARC Thank You Email – Originally I planned on crafting a standard thank you email as a template to start with whenever a reviewer might respond to let me know they had posted their review.
Analysis
I ended up just writing a direct response. They’re already quick, and this way I can personalize my response easier.
Refresh Beta-Reader List – After updating the ARC list, I realized I had a beta-reader list that I hadn’t transferred from Mailchimp when I switched email hosts. My intent was to transfer the list.
Analysis
Ran out of time; not complete. I would like to complete this before my next launch, however, so I can send out a call for beta-readers for the next book.
One thing I learned was that it really did take me the whole month to set everything up for launch, and even then I didn’t complete everything I hoped to. Still, there are several systems now in place that weren’t there previously, so that should help for next time.
Anyway, I hope this overview has something of use to you as well. 🙂
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Stephanie Flint - Author and Artist 