New Writers:
I don’t know that I’ve ever met an author who started promoting their book “too” early. But I regularly come across people who promote significantly late in the game.
From the moment you create your first author social media profile, you can start sharing with your followers bits and pieces of the process you’re going through, the things you’re excited about, the skills you’re learning, and even the doubts that you have (and a few cat videos never hurt anybody!).
If you don’t have any followers at the moment, it’s okay to post anyway. This just helps you catch the eye of potential followers and eventually gain some. If you tell your friends, critique group members, co-workers, and family members, they will likely be willing to follow your author profile.
Feel free to reach out to me if you’re still looking for those first few fans!
Starting to promote your work after it’s already published is what I’d consider late.
In general, I’d recommend starting to gather potential readers well before the day your book releases. Meaning months in advance, not hours or days.
I’ve seen many new authors get discouraged by low (or non-existent) sales on their release date. This is to be expected when they didn’t start telling anyone that the book was about the be released, or when the book was coming out, until maybe a month beforehand.
Consider how early you know about a new car coming out before it hits the market for sale. The same goes for films, shoes, and even video games. The creators don’t wait until a month before their new console is about to go on sale to start running commercials.
All of these products are often advertised somewhere around 6 to 18 months before they are ready to be purchased. This gives consumers time to gain an increased awareness of the product, decide if they’d like to buy it, and save up money to do so (for higher ticket items).
It may help to think of your book sales like harvesting plants. It’s hard to have a decent harvest (sales) if you just planted the seeds (promotion) a week ago.
In many cases, just by giving yourself enough time to gather a readership and generate acknowledgement of, and interest in, your book, you can exponentially increase your sales on release day.
That being said, don’t forget that promotion of your book is an ongoing process. The release of the book is the beginning, not the end. If you promote regularly, your sales normally increase or remain relatively consistent. But when you stop promoting, you’ll likely notice a steep decrease in sales day over day.
If you want to sell more books, don’t be afraid to promote more. If you want a lucrative release day, consider starting your promotions earlier.
