Three people have asked about this recently so I thought it would be useful to go over it here. You may find it interesting that in our work patterns and on tracking sheets we also name these “Pre-market” and “Post production”.
The soft launch happens as soon as the book is ready to go. Note it generally won’t really be out in the world for about four to six weeks. This is why I often suggest a launch for the final Thursday of the month in which we “hard launch”. Thursday, early evening, is a traditional time for book launches. The last Thursday in the month is a safe bet.
By “soft launch” time the book has had two proof reads, we have seen a hard copy and the Kindle book is up and running. We’ve put it into our online bookshop. We’ve registered it with Nielsen’s – a really important step in making it available.
They used to reckon that from registration with Nielsen’s it would take up to fifteen days for the book to reach all databases. Post-Covid that has become six weeks. You may now appreciate why there is a gap.
At the point of soft launch we provide you with four different copies of the cover – small, medium, full and 3D, two files for e-readers, a PDF, an order form so that you can buy author copies and an updated version of our marketing plan for authors.
The soft launch period is an ideal time to start getting reviews and persuading friends, family, fans and followers to buy.
By the time of “hard launch” the book should be widely available on all online platforms – Amazon, Waterstones, Tesco and all book shops can order it through their normal distributor / wholesaler. Hopefully it will already have several reviews.
The failsafe is that customers can always order directly from us.
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