The Not-So-Subtle Art of Launching A Book

Or, What We Talk About When We Talk About Launch Week

Friends, I can’t believe it.

We are officially ONE week away from WANT YOUR SELF pub day.

She is here at my house and she is beautiful.

To be completely transparent with you, I’ve been putting off this post more than…well, a lot of things that I usually like to put off (laundry, waiting in line at the post office, returning that one thing I bought weeks ago that’s still sitting out on my dining table because I’m somehow still convinced that’ll help me get it out the door…alas).

Why? I’ve been trying to land on it and I don’t really know.

At first, I thought it was because this stage of book promotion feels a little more, let’s call it *assertive* than I’m comfy with (says every author one week out from their book launch date).

Nothing can be subtle during this stage of the game.

This week is the final week of preorders, which means it’s the last chance for bookstores to look at the preorder data and decide they want to stock this book in their stores and on their site during launch week. Of course, they’ll be looking at the data after, too, but since all preorder data counts as “Week One Sales,” it’s really THE time for booksellers to see that there’s a ton of interest. Which, of course, will lead to the book being carried more places and being read by more people. Which, of course, is what leads to it getting on bestseller lists.

TL;DR This is basically my last-ditch-effort week to get as many copies of WANT YOUR SELF preordered and arriving at your doorstep next week.

And then I thought, maybe it’s because this is the stage of the book promotion process that I start asking people to not just buy the book, but leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads.

Both of these platforms are MASSIVE, and I don’t need to tell you how much reviews sway a decision (how many times have you bought one thing over the other because of the amount of stars/reviews it’s gotten?). There’s also some stat I heard recently that if a book gets around 1K reviews on Amazon, it’s basically set up for success to sell consistently for 25 years. Even if a FRACTION of that is true…can you even imagine?!? Plus, let’s be honest — from a very personal standpoint, I have been working on this book behind closed doors for close to a decade, and studying self-talk for way more. Reviews are a very straightforward way to let an author know: hey, guess what, I read this and it mattered to me, and I want people to know that, because we’re in this together, and I believe in you.

Yeah, it’s because of those things.

And/but/also.

Writing this makes the fact that this pre part of the process — preorders, prelaunch, previews, etc — is coming to a close.

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT PUB DAY

I might be in the minority of authors when I say this, but: I have loved this process so much.

The researching, the writing, the pitching, the writing, the pitching again, the writing again, the editing —count em, one, two, three, four, times, maybe more?—the recording, the meetings, the ideas, the sharing, the everything.

Does that mean it hasn’t been ridiculously hard? Definitely not.

I have logged so manyy hours of therapy, so many 3am bedtimes, so many questions, so many frustrations, so many worries, so much tough stuff that happens when you’re doing something really big in the midst of life happening around you at the same exact time. You can’t turn off one to work on the other, as much as I sometimes tried.

Writing this letter to you means we’re almost in a new stage of the book process, one that I find has way less step-by-step action plans to follow than bringing a book into the world. After this, it all kind of feels like things are out of my control. (And as you’ll read in Chapter Six, I do love control. Or at least a nice tidy spreadsheet of to-dos that I know I can follow, no matter how hard.)

So, what are we REALLY talking about when we talk about “launch week” or “pub day?”

We talk about the inner workings of it all, but also the inner WORK of it all.

This time period is a test of how well I’ve implemented one of my own biggest life lessons: the dance between the knowing and the not-knowing. How to do what I can and then let the rest go.

As we enter these final 7 days, here I am, with you.

We’re gonna take a deep breath, do what we can, and then let the rest go.

Be proactive, and also trust deeply that what is meant for us is meant for us and will always find a way.

katiehorwitch

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Before we get to how YOU can help, I would love to share some really, really fun things and special moments this process has brought to my life in these last few months…

ADVANCE PRAISE!

Authors, scholars, influencers, activists...my heart could burst. Tap on each one to read.

Asking people for “blurbs” for this book gave me stress dreams/insomnia for weeks. It was the vulnerable part of the process no one told me felt like the MOST vulnerable part of the process. All my fears around asking for favors were slowly and gently squashed with every single “I’d love to read it!” reply. I wanted this to be a book that had academics and activists reviewing it as well as authors and influencers—“personal development” aka self-help genre books can often be written off as fluff, and I wanted it to be clear that this book was anything BUT fluff. It’s the fluff anecdote, if you will. Here’s a sampling of some of the kindest words, from

Kara Cutruzzula

,

Karen Walrond

, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Fay Simpson, and Liz Moody.

LOCAL + NATIONAL NEWS!

These last few weeks, I’ve gotten to go to NBC (twice!), PIX 11 here in NYC, and record a ton of podcasts I can’t wait to share with you once they’re live. Here are two of my fav segments — one on meeting yourself where you’re at, and one on reframing jealousy to help you instead of hurt you!

BOOK LAUNCH CABARET!!

To celebrate the release of WANT YOUR SELF — I’m going to be making my NYC solo debut and author debut at the same time: Come join me in NYC at the iconic The Green Room 42 on FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6th at 7pm for a ONE NIGHT ONLY book release party like you’ve never been to before.

For this launch event, I wanted to completely reimagine what a book launch is “supposed to” look like. I wanted to combine ALL parts of myself to create something so special and unique that’s just for us. And what better way to celebrate a book about using and owning the entirety of who you are than showing you how I do that myself?

Tickets are limited and getting close to sold-out, so get yours now. (there are multiple entry times, pick whatever works for you — they’re all for the same show, just depends on if you want to get there early and eat beforehand)

And YES, I will be signing books and hanging out after, so please come up and say hello, I would love to hug you!

(Not in NYC? Not a problem. There’s a livestream ticket option, plus I’ll be announcing other October book tour dates next week)

YOU!!!!

Getting to share this process with you has been a game-changer. I truly do not know how authors do this without a preestablished community of people. Not because of numbers or market or whatever. Because of the camaraderie. From all you long-time readers and listeners to my fellow authors to the people who have taken my classes or workshops and met one another there and continued this work together, getting to share every high and low with you has boosted me when I’ve needed it most.

I’m doing a series on the WANTcast on the How-The-Heck-To’s of writing a book, which will culminate this week. Besides making this to answer the MOST asked questions I’ve gotten about this process, I wanted to make it to sort of put this all in a capsule. Because once the book is out there, I know memories might get a little fuzzy with distance. So we’re talking about it now, before the book is out, because you damn well know I believe in celebrating the journey while you’re still in it.

4 NOT SO SUBTLE ASKS…

Alright. Now we get really realy.

(*that was a typo, but I’m keeping it.)

LAUNCH DAY is TUESDAY OCTOBER 3rd, and I’m determined to get WANT YOUR SELF to as many people who need it as possible. Which is a lot of people. (Have you ever met anyone who hasn’t struggled with negative self-talk in some way, at some point? Me either!)

If you’d like to help spread the (good) word, here are some ways you can support this little-book-that-could:

1. PREORDER WANT YOUR SELF NOW: I feel like this one doesn’t need any more explanation, other than, it would truly mean the world to me if you ordered this book. Not just because I wrote it (I did). And not even because I believe in it (I do). But because I believe in who YOU are and who you WILL discover you are and what YOU will do out in the world once this book is in your life. This is also your last chance to get into our private Bagel Sunday launch party on Zoom, which is def worth a preorder IMO. Just fill out the form on the landing page and you’ll be set.
   

2. SHARE YOUR #WANTYOURSELFIE ON SOCIAL: You’re gonna get your book soon!!! Once you do, share a photo or video of yourself holding up Want Your Self on IG, TikTok, Facebook, or LinkedIn. I want to fill the internet with #wantyourselfies (and yes I’ve been sitting on this pun since I got the book deal). I’ll leave the caption up to you since I want it to be authentic to who you are and how you feel. Please include wantyourself.com and the hashtag #wantyourself (and #wantyourselfie, if you’d like) in your posts. And make sure to tag me @katiehorwitch so I can shout you out and show you some love
   

3. LEAVE A REVIEW ON GOODREADS OR AMAZON: These early reviews are essential, especially for a debut author like me (especially the nice ones, because there’s a trend of people leaving mean reviews who haven’t event read the books they’re reviewing…and that is just really sad). Every review, whether it’s a sentence or an essay, goes a really long way. And yes, you can leave reviews on Amazon even if you didn’t buy thru Amazon. If you get stuck, here are some review-starters for you:
   
   • What was your favorite part of the book?
   • How did you feel after reading it?
   • What surpised you or made you think?
   • What chapter did you especially like or find useful?
   • What can people expect when they read the book?
   • What did you love?
   

4. TELL A FRIEND OR FAMILY MEMBER: We’re going old-school analog here! If you love this book and think someone else you love will find it useful, there’s truly NOTHING like word of mouth.
   

So now that I have made all my very not-subtle asks, I will just say…thank you. I quite literally could not do this without you. Thank you a million times over for believing in this work, whether you’ve been here for two minutes or almost two decades (shout out to my original WANT crew from 2007!).

Here we go!!

katiehorwitch

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