What Does Book Marketing Involve for First-Time Authors?

Most authors spend years working on their book, and very little time and effort on book marketing. And this is not because they don’t know it’s important. Many do. Most authors just don’t know where to begin.

According to Written Word Media’s 2024 Indie Author Survey, 78.5% of authors say marketing is the hardest part of publishing — harder than writing the book itself.

Do I need a website? A social strategy? A website and a social strategy? Podcast features? Media placements? A book launch party? Multiple book launch parties?

Where do you begin?

This post breaks down what a book marketing strategy involves, when it starts, and what separates authors who build lasting momentum from those who burn out.

Why Book Marketing Feels So Hard

Writing a book and marketing a book are two completely different skill sets, and most authors don’t discover that until their book is published. Writing rewards patience and solitude. Marketing asks you to be visible, consistent, and comfortable talking about yourself. Those are different muscles entirely.

But the deeper problem isn’t discomfort. It’s confusion about what marketing even is. Most authors default to tactics they’ve seen work for someone else — a colleague who went viral on LinkedIn, a peer who landed a podcast interview — and try to replicate them without understanding whether those tactics fit their own book, goals, or audience.

Aryn Van Dyke spent over a decade in publishing, including years at HarperCollins under the Thomas Nelson umbrella working alongside New York Times bestselling authors, before building her own consulting practice. 

Her view: tactics without strategy are just activity. Doing more doesn’t help if you don’t know what you’re working toward.

What Is a Book Launch Marketing Plan?

A book launch marketing plan is a documented strategy that connects your book to its target readers before, during, and after publication. It defines who your reader is, how to reach them, what to say, and in what order. A strong plan covers roughly a 90-day window around your release date, with a longer-term foundation built to sustain visibility well beyond launch week.

The Step Most Authors Skip: Messaging

Before any tactic — before social posts, media outreach, or email campaigns — there’s a more foundational question: Who is your book for?

Aryn starts all client conversations with a messaging exercise. Who is the target reader? What does that reader need to hear to understand this book belongs in their hands?

Authors tend to describe their book in terms of what it contains. Readers make decisions based on what it does for them. Closing that gap is where marketing begins, and it has to happen before anything else.

Get the messaging right and every other piece gets easier. Social posts become clearer. Media pitches land. Word of mouth travels. Get it wrong, and you can execute every other tactic perfectly and still struggle to gain traction.

What a Book Marketing Strategy Covers

Once messaging is clear, a strategy pulls together the tactics that make the most sense for that specific author and those specific goals. That looks different for everyone, which is why copying someone else’s launch rarely works.

A well-built plan typically addresses several areas:

1. Audience outreach

Who already knows you, and who should? This includes your existing network, relevant media contacts, podcast hosts, and local press. Reaching out to local media and podcast producers is one of the highest-return moves a first-time author can make — these outlets need compelling guests and stories, and a newly published expert is exactly that.

2. A launch team

A small, committed group — typically 20 to 50 people — who receive an advance copy and agree to leave an honest review, share on social media, and spread the word in their own networks. This creates early social proof and organic reach without paid advertising.

3. Promotion materials

Shareable visual assets that make it easy for others to talk about your book. When someone wants to post about your book, they need something to post.

4. A timeline

What happens when, and in what order. Some outreach, like pitching long-lead media or booking podcast appearances, needs to happen months before release. Asking for Amazon reviews is best timed to the first week after launch. Sequence matters more than most authors expect.

When Should You Start?

Earlier than you think.

For authors who want to make the most of launch week, starting two months before the release date gives enough runway to set up infrastructure, build a launch team, and get media outreach in motion.

The sweet spot for most authors is beginning the month before publication and working through the first month after release. That window covers real pre-launch momentum while keeping a knowledgeable guide in place during those first weeks — when questions come up daily and the temptation to either do everything or nothing is at its highest.

Should You Try for a Bestseller List?

Almost every author asks this. The honest answer: probably not, at least not as a primary goal.

Hitting a traditional bestseller list like USA Today or the New York Times requires selling a significant number of copies within a very specific, very short window. For an author building a platform from scratch, that’s a steep climb. The energy required often leaves nothing for what comes after, and what comes after is where the real value lives.

For professionals who want their book to generate speaking opportunities, attract new clients, or establish credibility in their field, consistent marketing over months and years will outperform one concentrated push every time. Books that get tended keep working. Books that get one big push and then nothing tend to fade.

Why Posting on Social Media Isn’t a Strategy

Social media is a tactic. A useful one, deployed well. But a tactic is only as useful as the strategy behind it.Posting without clear messaging produces inconsistent content. Reaching out to media contacts without a timing plan leads to missed windows. Asking for reviews without a launch team in place produces silence in week one.

The authors who get the most from social media, email, and media outreach know exactly what they’re trying to say, who they’re trying to reach, and why a reader should care right now. That clarity doesn’t come from posting more often. It comes from doing the foundational work first.

What Working With a Book Marketing Partner Looks Like

Authors who complete a structured book marketing program consistently describe the same shift: they walked in overwhelmed and walked out knowing exactly what to do next. Not because marketing got simpler, but because they finally understood which pieces mattered for their specific situation, in what order.

Part of what makes that shift happen is simply having someone break it down without the overwhelm. As Aryn puts it:

“I love sitting and working with authors on almost peeling back the layers of marketing a little bit and giving them the confidence to say, ‘oh, I can actually do that when we break it down that way.'”

The goal isn’t to hand everything off. Most authors will always carry the bulk of their own marketing — the relationships, the conversations, the content. A good partner takes specific things off your plate (outreach templates, promotion graphics, strategic direction) while coaching you through the rest. The aim, as Aryn describes it, is straightforward:

“Let’s get clarity on what marketing can do for you, and then let’s start to build your confidence in how you can approach marketing in a realistic way that works for you.”

That clarity is what separates authors who build durable platforms from those who burn out after launch month and never fully recover.

Build a Book Marketing Strategy That Works Past Launch Day

Book Launcher is ShareYourStory’s done-with-you book marketing program, built for authors who need direction. Over eight weeks, you’ll work one-on-one with a publishing marketing expert to build a custom plan, get your materials in place, and walk into launch knowing exactly what comes next.

If you’re interested in working with someone to launch your book, we’d love to help.