- A written plan covering five deliverables: comps, reviewers, budget, metadata, calendar.
- Spans T-180 through T+30 — six months before to one month after publication.
- Indie launches without a written plan capture roughly 30% less visibility.
- A plan exists to make decisions in advance, not to predict the future.
- Plans get revised at T-90, T-30, and T+30 based on what’s actually happening.
A book launch plan is a dated written document covering five deliverables — a comp set (2-3 recent titles), a reviewer list (50-200 names), a budget ($500-$5,000 for indies), retailer metadata, and a 90-day outreach calendar. The plan exists to make decisions in advance instead of during launch week. Most successful indie launches start the plan six months before publication.
Chapter i·Why it matters
Launches that aren’t planned are launches that happen to the author rather than launches the author runs. Writers who treat launch as a single day capture far less visibility than writers who treat it as a 90-day campaign. The plan is the difference between a launch that gains momentum and a launch that disappears from Amazon’s "new release" lists by week three.
Chapter ii·What to include
- A comp set of 2-3 recent titles for positioning, ads, and metadata.
- A 50-200 person reviewer list with contact, format, status.
- A budget with line items for editing, design, ads, promo, contingency.
- A retailer metadata package: titles, description, 7 keywords, BISAC codes.
- A 90-day outreach calendar covering T-90 through T+30.
- A "channel plan" naming which channel for each phase.
Chapter iii·Example
A second-time indie author writes her launch plan six months before publication: a comp set of three recent thrillers, a 140-person reviewer list, a $3,200 budget, a 4,000-character description with 7 keywords, and a week-by-week calendar through T+30. She executes the plan with three minor revisions; launch week generates 1,400 sales and 67 reviews.
Chapter iv·Related questions
WriteLoom’s Sell studio holds the five-component launch plan alongside your manuscript — comps, reviewers, budget, metadata, calendar — in one project.
See the Sell studio