It’s never too early to start engaging your readers on social media and getting the word out about your new book. Take pictures of your work desk, the finished manuscript, or a picture of you in our office and share them with your followers. Check out our Social Media Guide for authors for some great tips on how to build up your social presence.

Your book page on retailer sites and HBGusa.com goes live. Check to make sure there are no issues with the information displayed.

If you have your own website, update it with information about your new book and include links to your book and author pages on HBGusa.com as well as your book pages on retailer sites.

Claim your author profiles on Amazon, BookBub and Goodreads. If you established author profiles a while ago, make sure your information is up to date. For detailed instructions, please refer to our Social Media Guide for authors

Announce your book: once your book and author pages are in good shape, post the cover on social media, link to your book page on HBGusa.com, and share the joy of this major milestone. Consider updating the header and bio of your social media accounts to highlight your upcoming book.

As you’re building your social presence, we’ll be busy pursuing media opportunities, preparing sales materials, and developing the marketing plan. If you have media contacts or relationships with influencers and relevant interest groups we could partner with, let us know.

Ramp up your social activities:
• Post a picture or video of your finished book
• Post about events you are doing to promote your book or talk about your work
• Share anything you see us posting on our social media accounts. Be sure to tag us in your posts so that we know to share, too
• We will be reaching out to influencers who can help amplify our social media campaign
• Reward your followers by commenting on, liking, or sharing their posts.

Encourage your readers to preorder your book. Preorders are an important signal that will help us gain the support of retailers and the media. A great way to encourage preorders is by sharing links to the excerpt of your book on HBGusa.com.

Post to let your followers know that the book is out! We will do the same from our accounts and include your book in relevant newsletters. If you have a website, you may need to update it to reflect that your book is now on sale.

Post a picture of your books in bookstores. If you’re touring or giving any talks, make sure to share the schedule with your followers ahead of time and share photos of the event.

Once the book is on sale, it’s great if you can remain active online. Share reviews and links to relevant media. Be responsive to comments you’re receiving on your social posts. Give your reader a sense of what it feels like to have your book out in the world.

Continue to post about your book and interact with your readers and social followers. Look out for trends and events that relate to the topic of your book which may provide an opportunity to bring your book into the conversation.