What should be included in a book launch plan?
- Five components: comp set, reviewer list, budget, retailer metadata, 90-day calendar.
- Typical indie budget: $500-$5,000.
- ARC/reviewer list: 50-200 names.
- 90-day calendar spans T-90 through T+30 minimum.
- A specific channel per phase outperforms generic outreach.
A book launch plan includes five components: a comp set (2-3 recent titles), a reviewer list (50-200 names), a budget (typically $500-$5,000 for indies), retailer metadata (titles, keywords, BISAC, description), and a 90-day outreach calendar. Plans that name specific channels per phase outperform generic "tell everyone" launches.
Chapter i·Why it matters
A launch plan exists to make decisions in advance. The five components together answer the questions you’ll otherwise have to answer mid-launch under stress: who reviews this, what does it cost, where does it sell, what does it say, when does it ship. Plans are written documents — informal lists in your head do not survive launch week.
Chapter ii·What to include
- Comp set: 2-3 recent titles for positioning, ad targeting, and pitch language.
- Reviewer list: 50-200 names with contact, format preference, status.
- Budget: line items for editing, design, ads, promo services, contingency.
- Metadata package: titles, subtitles, description (long + short), 7 keywords, BISAC codes.
- 90-day calendar: T-90 through T+30 with weekly deliverables.
- Channel plan: which channel for each phase (newsletter, BookTok, Amazon ads, etc.).
Chapter iii·Example
A self-publishing author’s 90-day launch plan: comp set of three recent thrillers, 130-name ARC team, $2,800 budget, 4,000-character description with 7 keywords and 3 BISAC codes, week-by-week calendar through T+30. She executes it without changes and book one’s launch generates the data for books two and three.
Chapter iv·Related questions
WriteLoom’s Market studio holds the five-component launch plan as a working document, not a static file.
See the Market studio