Book Marketing Checklist for Authors

Book marketing checklist: setup, outreach, measurement, repeat

Confirm that the book serves a specific reader, check the public buying experience, prepare one relevant promotion channel and review the result. Repeat only the tasks that improve those steps. You do not need to maintain every social platform or run a promotion every week.

This checklist is for ongoing marketing of a current book or catalog. It is not a replacement for file production or a release calendar. If you are preparing a new publication, use the separate book launch checklist for deadline and release-day checks.

1. Positioning and offer checklist

Complete once, revisit when the book or audience changes

• Write the primary reader in one sentence: genre preference, practical problem or reading situation.
• State the book's concrete promise without adding an outcome the contents cannot support.
• Identify comparable titles in the same format and marketplace to understand reader expectations.
• Choose the edition you will promote and verify its current price and royalty.
• For a series, identify the reading entry point and explain the order clearly.
• Choose the goal of the next test: paid orders, relevant discovery, reader feedback or another observable outcome.

Completion evidence: a short positioning note, the correct edition link and a named test goal. "Improve visibility" is not enough unless you define what you can observe and why it matters.

Check the promise with target readers

Ask what kind of book they expect from the cover and first description paragraph. Look for repeated misunderstandings, not only preferences. If an activity book looks advanced but contains beginner material, more advertising will not resolve that mismatch.

A Virtalibry cover or description poll can help organize this feedback. Use it to investigate presentation choices, not to claim a predicted sales lift. Save the actual question and the version tested so later comparisons remain meaningful.

2. Book page and marketing asset checklist

Check the public page, not only your setup fields

• Open the intended marketplace and edition on phone and desktop.
• Verify that the buy option, title, author name, cover and price are correct.
• Check the description opening for a specific hook, genre or useful outcome.
• Read a representative sample for clarity, formatting and consistency with the promise.
• Review keywords and categories for relevance, not merely low competition.
• Check series and format links for mismatches.
• Verify your Author Central profile and book associations where available.
• If using A+ Content, confirm the content is accurate and appears for the intended edition, marketplace and language.

Use KDP's keyword guidance for metadata rules. Author Central and A+ Content can add useful context, but neither is a substitute for a readable description and sample. The official book promotion overview explains the available starting points.

Keep a small, reusable asset folder

• Save the approved cover image, a short description and a longer description.
• Save one representative excerpt or interior image you have the right to share.
• Keep the final buying link for each promoted marketplace and format.
• Record the date and wording of a temporary offer; remove it from assets when it ends.
• Name files clearly so an older cover or price is not sent by mistake.

Completion evidence: a dated listing check and an asset folder containing only usable versions. If a sample or edition link is still processing, mark it as pending and consult the current publishing timelines before assuming it has failed.

3. Audience and outreach checklist

Choose a venue because its readers fit

• List a few relevant newsletters, partners or reader communities, with their actual submission rules.
• Record genre, format, price and review requirements before paying for a placement.
• Check the total cost, timing, included deliverables and cancellation terms.
• Use designated promotion threads or obtain permission before posting in a community.
• Send author-news emails only to people who opted in, and maintain a working unsubscribe path.
• Personalize partner pitches around a useful contribution to their audience.

Completion evidence: one selected channel with a clear audience match and permission to use it. A list of hundreds of possible contacts is not evidence that you have reached a reader.

Keep reader invitations independent

If you offer an advance or review copy, do not require a public review or a particular rating. Do not offer cash, gifts or purchase reimbursement for a review. Check KDP's customer review guidance. Track private feedback and public opinions separately; neither should be treated as a purchased campaign deliverable.

4. Before every campaign: readiness checklist

• Write the audience, offer and channel in a single campaign note.
• Test the exact link that will appear in the message or placement.
• Check that the public price matches any advertised offer before the message is sent.
• For KDP Select promotions, verify eligibility and schedule restrictions in the current setup.
• Set a maximum acceptable spend, a review date and a responsible person.
• For ads, check bids, average daily budget, any budget-overdelivery settings and campaign end date.
• Record what you will measure and what you cannot attribute reliably.
• Choose a pause condition: unavailable book, broken destination, inaccurate offer or unacceptable cumulative spend.

Completion evidence: a ready-to-run message or campaign with verified details and a stop rule. Use the Amazon promotion guide when choosing between advertising, price promotions and listing improvements.

Use a simple campaign note

"Audience: beginner puzzle readers. Offer: large-print easy Sudoku with a clear interior sample. Channel: a permitted placement in a relevant newsletter. Goal: test paid interest. Evidence: delivery confirmation, available clicks, reported orders and royalties. Constraint: a fixed spending ceiling. Review: after the agreed observation period and reporting delay."

Replace the example with your own facts. Do not add a target sales number just to make the plan look precise when you have no basis for that forecast.

5. Weekly marketing routine

Pick a realistic time block. A solo author does not need a daily dashboard ritual for a campaign that runs once a month. Check more frequently when paid spend or a time-limited offer is active, and less frequently when nothing material is changing.

The timings are an example, not a productivity requirement. The useful output is a decision or completed task. Repeatedly refreshing sales rank without changing a decision is not a marketing routine.

Questions to answer before closing the review

• Did the planned activity actually run and reach the intended audience?
• Is the promotion still describing the book and price accurately?
• Are there costs or reader questions requiring immediate action?
• What single task matters most before the next review?

6. Monthly review: continue, revise or stop

Compare channels using the goal you set. Keep paid orders, free downloads and Kindle Unlimited reading in separate columns. Compare promotion spend with royalties, not the retail value of sales. Record overlapping promotions rather than pretending that each channel independently produced all the same orders.

For example, a $45 placement that can be credited with five orders earning $3 each produces $15 in royalty against $45 of spend. That does not cover the placement. If attribution is incomplete, the conclusion is less certain, not more favorable. These figures are illustrative, not customer results.

• Continue an activity when its evidence and economics support another bounded test.
• Revise a task when a specific problem is visible, such as a misleading cover signal or wrong-marketplace link.
• Stop an activity when it repeatedly consumes money or time without reaching the stated goal.
• Archive outdated assets and remove expired offer wording.
• Set the next month's working-time and spending limits before booking new activity.

7. Keep a task board with evidence, not vague intentions

Use simple statuses: planned, in progress, blocked and done. A blocked task should name the missing input. "Waiting for public sample" is useful; "marketing not ready" is not. Do not mark a task done because you edited a field if the correction has not yet appeared where readers see it.

8. Avoid turning the checklist into busywork

Remove tasks that do not serve your reader, goal or decision. Publishing daily on five platforms, rewriting metadata without evidence and chasing an arbitrary review target can consume the time needed to improve the actual offer. More completed boxes do not automatically mean better marketing.

For a new release, start with the Amazon launch strategy and then use the release checklist. For a ready book with no audience, use the first-sales experiment. Return here to maintain the parts that prove useful.