Short answer. A book launch plan is five connected pieces: a comp set, a reviewer list, a budget, a metadata and keyword plan, and an outreach calendar. AI is excellent at the research-heavy parts of all five — finding candidates, drafting first versions, organizing the calendar — but the relationships and the final judgment calls stay with you. Start about 90 days out.

We will build a real one for Tidewater, a 92,000-word debut fantasy (Juna Vell, the drowning canal-city of Vereth, an engineered flood) launching with no existing platform and a budget under $1,000.

Piece 1: The comp set

Comps are the three to five recent books that share Tidewater’s audience and tone — the shorthand that tells a reader, a reviewer, or a retailer where it sits. AI speeds the research: it can scan recent fantasy, surface drowned-city and engineered-disaster titles, and propose candidates with reasons. The author’s job is the positioning call — picking the canal-city fantasy and the found-family adventure that flatter the book honestly, and rejecting the mega-bestseller it cannot credibly stand beside. Land on three to five and write one sentence each on why.

Piece 2: The reviewer list

Now find the people who reviewed those comps: BookTok and YouTube creators, book bloggers, and Goodreads reviewers who cover this exact corner of fantasy. AI can assemble a long candidate list fast and pull contact pages. You vet each one — is the audience a real fit, do they review debuts, do they take indie titles — and you write the outreach yourself, because a personalized note lands and a templated blast does not.

Piece 3: The budget

A debut launch under $1,000 might look like: cover $0–400 (AI-assisted prototype, or a designer if the book earns it), copy-editing pass $150–300, ARC/reviewer outreach $0–100, and a small ad test $100–200 you only scale if it returns. Spend on the cover first; treat ads as an experiment. AI can draft the line items and flag what is missing; you set the numbers against what you actually have.

Piece 4: Metadata and keywords

This is where books get found. Title and subtitle, the two retailer categories, seven keywords, and the blurb. AI is a strong keyword scout — it can propose category and keyword candidates from your comps and genre — but you choose the final set and write the blurb in your own voice. Bad metadata is the quietest way a good book disappears.

Piece 5: The 90-day outreach calendar

A simple schedule keeps the launch from collapsing into the final week:

1. T-90 to T-60: finalize comps, build the reviewer list, lock the cover, set metadata.
2. T-60 to T-30: send ARCs and reviewer requests (they need weeks), schedule social, draft the one-pager.
3. T-30 to launch: follow up with reviewers, line up launch-week posts, run the small ad test.
4. Launch week to T+30: publish, thank reviewers, collect early reviews, decide whether to scale ads.

The launch-plan checklist

• Three to five comps chosen, one sentence each on why
• Reviewer list built and vetted (audience fit, reviews debuts, takes indie)
• Budget set with the cover funded first
• Title, subtitle, two categories, seven keywords, and blurb finalized
• ARCs sent four to eight weeks before launch
• 90-day calendar on a real date grid
• One-pager and launch-week posts drafted
• Small ad test defined, with a rule for when to scale

What AI helped with — and what the author decided

AI did the research and the first drafts: comp candidates, reviewer lists, keyword options, a calendar skeleton, budget line items. Tidewater’s author made the calls that matter: which comps position the book honestly, which reviewers are a real fit, what the blurb sounds like, and where the limited money goes. That division — AI for research and drafting, human for judgment and relationships — is the whole method.

Where WriteLoom fits

WriteLoom keeps all five pieces in one project. The Market studio builds the comp set, finds reviewers, and holds the launch plan and line-item budget; the Sell studio covers keywords, back-cover copy, and the one-pager; the Pitch studio handles agent and submission tracking if you are querying. Because they share the project, your comps inform your keywords and your blurb, instead of living in five disconnected tabs.

For the edit that comes before all this, see developmental edit vs line edit vs copy edit.

Frequently asked questions

How far before launch should I start planning? About 90 days out for a debut. Reviewers and ARC readers need lead time — many want the book four to eight weeks before release — and metadata, comps, and a budget are easier to get right when you are not rushing. Ninety days is enough to do the research properly without losing momentum.

What should a debut author’s book launch budget cover? At minimum: a professional cover (or a strong AI-assisted one), a copy-editing pass, an ARC or reviewer-outreach effort, and a small ad test you scale only if it works. Many debut authors run a useful launch for under $1,000 by spending on the cover first and treating ads as an experiment, not a commitment.

Can AI write my book launch plan for me? AI can draft and research every piece — comps, reviewer candidates, keywords, a calendar — and that saves days of work. But it cannot decide your positioning, vet whether a reviewer is a genuine fit, or build the human relationships a launch runs on. Treat its output as a strong first draft you direct and correct, not a finished plan.

How many comps do I need for a launch? Three to five. Fewer than three is too thin to position the book, more than five dilutes the signal. Choose recent titles, ideally from the last three or four years, that share your book’s audience and tone without being mega-bestsellers you cannot credibly stand beside.