How do authors manage launch timelines?
- Work backwards from publication date in T-anchors.
- Seven canonical anchors: T-180, T-120, T-90, T-60, T-30, T-0, T+30.
- Each anchor has named deliverables and named owners.
- A launch plan starts 6 months before publication; ends 30 days after.
- Missing a T-anchor cascades — early misses become late launches.
Authors manage launch timelines by working backwards from publication date in T-anchors: T-180 (begin launch planning), T-120 (cover and metadata finalize), T-90 (ARCs ship), T-60 (pre-order opens), T-30 (final retailer setup), T-0 (launch), T+30 (post-launch QA). Each anchor has named deliverables and named owners.
Chapter i·Why it matters
Launches that drift cause the second-most-common indie failure (after skipping copy editing). The T-anchor system makes the calendar concrete: each anchor is a hard date, each deliverable is named, each delay is visible six months in advance. The biggest gain is the ability to see slippage before it becomes a fire.
Chapter ii·What to include
- T-180: begin launch planning, set publication date, finalize comp set.
- T-120: cover final, metadata draft, ARC list assembled.
- T-90: ARCs ship to early reviewers; pre-order setup begins.
- T-60: pre-orders open at all retailers; press outreach starts.
- T-30: final retailer setup; ad campaigns built.
- T-0: launch day — coordinated push across email, social, ads.
- T+30: post-launch QA — review responses, fix metadata issues.
Chapter iii·Example
A second-time indie author launches her thriller on October 15. She maps every T-anchor in April and assigns deliverables. When the cover designer slips at T-120, she sees it in May and reschedules without affecting the launch. Books one and two had launch-week scrambles; book three lands without one.
WriteLoom’s Sell studio plots launch timelines with T-anchors, so slippage is visible months before it becomes a fire.
See the Sell studio