Your book launch is your big day as an author. But having worked painstakingly to write and publish a book, how can you maintain book launch momentum going forward? Oftentimes, people forget about marketing after the book release because they are so focused on the launch, but once the book is out there in the real world, it can be difficult to know how to continue to promote your work and sustain book sales.

In this piece, we're going to look at what comes after the dust has settled on your book launch promotion and focus on post-launch book promotion. Long-term book marketing begins with your book launch strategies but never ends as long as you are an active author.

There's a lot of advice out there for book launch success tips, but not enough about post-launch marketing tactics for authors. Let's dive into some book marketing strategies you can use once the excitement of your launch has died down.

Start With the Right Book Launch Strategies and Book Launch Promotion

In order to maintain your book launch momentum, you have to build some first. So before we get into life after the launch, let's just touch on the fact that a book launch is worth doing right, and in order to do it right, you need to invest time, energy, and resources. If you are getting published through traditional means, you will have a lot of help setting things up, as you will with hybrid publishing. However, if your work is self-published, then there will be a whole lot of running around to make it happen. It can be useful to have some book launch success tips to ensure a successful start to your book's life, allowing you to carry on positive momentum into the post-launch book promotion.

Book Launch Success Tips

Plan your event well in advance, and be sure to start promoting the launch early! Let people know about the event a month in advance to allow people to plan properly.
You can use elements of a digital book launch to help reach a broader audience, but remember that offline events can be beneficial for ensuring you get to meet people face-to-face.
Consider hosting a collaborative launch with multiple authors to boost the attendance. If there are authors who write in the same genre and have a book coming out, it can help everyone involved to collaborate.
Promote your book launch widely on social media. Efficient social media usage is a crucial book marketing strategy.
Use the opportunity to network. Keep in mind that you are in a room with other enthusiasts of your genre, professionals, and experts on the topic. Take advantage of this and make connections that can benefit you in marketing after your book release and for future projects down the line.
Thank everyone for coming, and be polite. It's a small thing, but showing a basic bit of courtesy goes a long way toward people warming to you as an author and a person.

Following the right book launch strategies will aid you in your post-launch marketing tactics. Effective book launch promotion and conduct play into long-term book marketing for your new release and future projects, as well as helping you sustain book sales and interest in your author brand.

Be Realistic About What Comes Next

The book launch is a big event that requires a lot of emotional and physical energy. Your author journey has largely led up to getting your work published, and now you have a chance for your book to become a bestseller. Once the congratulations and well-wishes have been received, things can feel a bit flat as the book launch momentum that had been built up falters and flickers out.

The first thing to say is that coming down from the excitement can feel very negative, but it is completely normal, so don't be hard on yourself. Just as you may find yourself a bit disappointed that your birthday is over, it's natural to feel a bit lost after the big day for your book.

There's plenty to do in terms of marketing after your book release, but make sure you take time to reflect on your achievements and look after your mental health too. Oftentimes, people are so caught up in the work side of things that they forget to acknowledge that they have managed to publish a book like they have always dreamed of.

So make sure you give yourself a much-needed and well-deserved pat on the back too.

Building on the Book Launch Momentum

You may feel as though there's nothing left to do after the book launch. Your book is out there, and you won't be able to see any clear indication of sales for a while. Besides, you're probably exhausted at this point!

But the work isn't over just yet because you need to continue promoting your book and yourself as an author.

In addition to this, you will have made connections with people with whom you can discuss future projects, so take advantage of the existing momentum and buzz and get in touch with new contacts to build and nurture your relationship.

Post-Launch Book Promotion and Self-Promotion

It's key to remember that you are promoting:

The book you have released
Yourself as an author and your author brand

These things are different, but they are linked. Your author brand is who you are, which is expressed in your book. And your book is representative of your author brand. You can't really promote one without the other.

But how do you continue to promote post-launch? Here's some post-launch book promotion tips:

Podcasts are your friend. Appearing on podcasts will promote your book and boost your author profile. Guest appearances on podcasts allow you to share your wealth of knowledge about what you have written.
Write guest blog posts for blogs on the same topic as your book. This will allow you to come across as an expert while promoting yourself.
Continue to create multimedia content, such as videos or articles, on your website. Creating consistent content allows you to stay in the mind of your reader.
Share plenty of images on social media relating to your book and your life as an author.

In addition to this, you should continue to work on your own author website and platform. Consistently updating your author blog or website allows you to keep traffic coming your way online.

Marketing After the Book Release

In terms of maintaining book launch momentum in a marketing sense, you'll have plenty to do. We can break down marketing after a book release into three stages:

Immediately Post-Launch
Medium-Term
Long-Term

Post-Launch Marketing Tactics

When we talk about post-launch marketing tactics, we're talking about the couple of weeks following your book launch.

At this stage, a lot of what you are talking about will still be in relation to the launch of your book and the fact that it is a new release. This is the point where you'll want to make reference to how enjoyable the launch was and how grateful you are to everyone who came. You want to be sure to keep mentioning where people can get your book and that it is available now.

Sustaining Book Sales in the Medium Term

The medium term is after the original excitement has fizzled out somewhat. At this point, you'll be looking to vary the ways you promote yourself.

As mentioned earlier, helpful promotional tactics include guest appearances on podcasts and blog posts. This is the stage for doing this kind of thing. In reality, you should get in touch with content creators in advance of your book launch.

You'll want to be making frequent social media posts, which should break down to around 80% content and 20% promotion.

Long-Term Book Marketing

The first year of a book's life is indicative of how the book will sell in the future. So don't stop marketing just because your book has been on the shelf for a while.

Avoid overloading social media or your own website with posts repeatedly talking about your book. But be sure all the information about where to get your book is readily available.

At this point, you can think about attending in-person events to promote and sell your book.

Book Marketing Strategies

To finish, let's look at some of the basics of marketing your book. Here are six things to do to boost and sustain your book sales.

Authors are expected to have an online platform or presence in some way; the best way to do this is to ensure you have an author website.
Create a mailing list for your readers to sign up for (they can do this on your website). In doing this, you are ensuring you have contact with your readers and can nurture your relationship with them.
A strong social media presence is a must, so commit to posting regularly on two or three platforms. TikTok is particularly good for authors, with BookTok proving to be an excellent digital space to boost sales.
Make it your business to attend offline events like book fairs to sell your book.
Seek out genuine reviews from reputable critics who can provide genuine feedback and suggest why your book is worth reading.
It's worth budgeting some time and finances for marketing your book, so set time aside to create content and consider paying for ads on outlets such as Amazon.

Final Thoughts

It can be a challenge to maintain your book launch momentum as time goes on. But with the correct tactics for marketing after your book release, you can build on the excitement around having your book published.