How (and Why) to Evaluate Your Book Launch

One of the best ways to grow your author career is to evaluate what you're doing so you know what to keep, what to tweak, what to toss, and what new things you want to try. 

This is true for your writing process, the types of books you put on submission, how you market, and (the focus of today's issue of Real Talk for Writers) how you launch new books. 

Despite the wealth of knowledge that can come from a proper evaluation, most people skip this step. 

Which makes sense, since most of us were not taught how to evaluate our work without using that as an opportunity to tear ourselves down and poke at every insecurity and emotional wound. 

(Don't worry, the process I'm going to teach you is grounded in kindness.) 

For authors specifically, I see a resistance to evaluation because of the lack of reliable, timely sales data. 

And sure, would it be even more helpful if we had that kind of data at our fingertips? Obviously. But sales data is only one small part of the puzzle, and we don't want to throw away the entire evaluation process because we're missing that single piece. 

To give you context for what evaluating a launch looks like, I'm going to share the highlights from my own evaluation of launching With All My Haunted Heart, which came out two weeks ago (you can purchase a signed copy here!).

The "Why" of Evaluating a Launch

Evaluation is all about iterative learning and growth. It puts you in a curious "let's see what works" mindset rather than a pressure-filled "this is my only chance and I'd better get it perfect!" one. 

With launches in particular, because these are bigger events that happen fairly infrequently (for most trad published authors, we're launching new books approximately once every 12-24 months), evaluations also help us actually remember what worked for us and what didn't.  

As an author, you're already asking your brain to do a lot of work as you build out your books. Don't ask it to also remember what you did for your last launch and what you thought worked for you versus what didn't. 

When you evaluate within the first couple weeks of your launch, you get to capture your in-the-moment experience and provide a customized guide for Future You, who has to plan a launch again in the next year or two. 

Taking 10-15 minutes to do an evaluation like this ultimately saves you a ton of time and energy for the next launch (because you'll know what things NOT to do again next time) and helps fine-tune your launch process so you can have your best possible experience.

Because your joy matters, too. 
 

 
How to Evaluate Your Launch

The process for evaluating your launch is simple, but it's important to do it in the proper order.

Specifically, it's essential that you start with the GOOD stuff: the aspects of your launch that you enjoyed, that were fun, that you want to repeat again next time.  

The human brain is wired to focus on the negative as a survival strategy, so if you start with what didn't work or what you felt was a waste of your time, your brain is likely to fixate on the negative and decide that everything was terrible, actually, and nothing was good. 

So, go positive first then look at the parts that didn't work for you. 

The Evaluation Process

Step 1: Make a list of what worked for you with this current launch. These are the things you want to keep on your to-do list for your next launch. 

Step 2: Make a list of things that you mostly liked about the launch but that you'd want to do a little differently with your next book. Include how you'd want to tweak it for the next launch to make it even better. 

Step 3: Now that you've captured all the good stuff, you can make your list of things that you didn't enjoy doing or things that were a huge time/energy lift that you felt weren't worth repeating again. These are the things you'll  toss and skip next launch.

Step 4: Once you've gathered all of that information, ask yourself if there's anything new you want to try time. 

Evaluation Tips

As you evaluate, I want you to think bigger than just what "moved the needle" on sales. 

Partially because it's really hard to tell what moved the needle, especially when you're doing a ton of different things in the lead up to release week,  but also because sales numbers aren't the only thing that matter to your career. 

Your enjoyment of your release week matters.

Your sanity/stress levels matter.

Your ability to balance marketing with writing your next book matters. 

So as you complete your evaluation, consider those pieces, too. What made your release week enjoyable? What helped lower your stress? What brought your joy or delight? 

Those are just as important to capture as what marketing efforts you felt moved the most copies of your books. 

 
My Eval of With All My Haunted Heart

I won't bore you with all the details of my evaluation, but here are the highlights of what I'm going to keep, tweak, and toss for my 2027 release. 

You'll notice that some of the items on my lists are things that happened during release week and others happened months earlier to prep for or support my release week efforts. 

What I'm Keeping

Launch Events

• I really loved doing a day-of launch event with my local indie and then hosting another event on that first weekend closer to where my family lives for friends and family to attend.
• Note: reach out to set these up about 60-90 days ahead of the launch 

Release Day Lunch & Bookstore Visit

• It was really nice to go out to lunch with my spouse (and mom!) to celebrate the release and then pop over to the closest B&N to sign copies 

Massage Appointment the Day After

• I booked myself a 90-minute massage for the day after WAMHH came out, and having that time to relax and focus on my body instead of being in my head wondering how sales were going was a really great reset 

Preparing IG Graphics Ahead of Time

• Pulling quotes from the book while I was reviewing pass pages added basically zero time to that review process and made it super easy to create quote graphics later on (I never needed to go back to the book searching for good quotes!) 
• Batch creating graphics in Canva months ahead and storing them in a folder on my desktop made it really easy to schedule marketing posts so I didn't need to be on social media all the time 
  
  • Also, having the "Used graphics" folder within that folder made it super simple to ensure I used each graphic once before rotating back through them again 

Asking for Author Blurbs ASAP 

• I started asking for author blurbs as soon as the book went to copy edits, and I'm so grateful that I ended up with six fabulous author blurbs (especially since the book didn't get any trade reviews) 
  • Which means it's time to start reaching out for my 2027 book -- that's going on the calendar this week 

What I'm Tweaking

Event Schedule

• Keeping events local was really helpful (it was nice being able to sleep in my own bed every night!) but if at all possible, I want to avoid doing back-to-back event days 
• It was hard for me to bounce back energetically after doing events both days on the weekend.
  • If this can't be avoided, really committing to a day or two off the following week will be important 

IG Posting Schedule

• Even with pre-scheduling all the posts, I started getting sick of myself with the amount of posting I did in the 30 days leading up to the release (started with 7 posts per week and ended up around 20 posts per week in that final week).
  • Next time, I'll stick with 1-3 posts per week until the final 10 days before launch (use that for daily)
  • With the saved energy, I'll focus on daily posts for the 30 days post launch and then ease back down to 2-3 days per week for the next 30 since reader habits show people are way more likely to purchase once it's out rather than preorder 
• This means that I'll need fewer "coming on date" graphics and more "out now" graphics when I'm prepping them in Canva 

B&N Visit on Release Day

• This is a small tweak, but remember to bring my journal with me so I can sit in the café area after I've signed stock to do my celebratory reflections/journaling at the store instead of trying to remember to do it at home 

What I'm Tossing

Writing Bonus Scenes for the Preorder Campaign

• While these were fun to write, I don't think they made enough of an impact on preorders to be worth the time it took to plan, draft, edit, and format them 
• I'd rather save that time for working on other contracted projects or writing something that could work well as a newsletter sign-up incentive 

Focusing on Preorders in General

• I spent a lot of time putting together a preorder campaign with lots of different facets to it, and I don't think that time was really worth it given current reader buying habits
• I will, however, continue to push signed preorders through my local indie and maybe include one piece or art or something with that 

Commissioning a Coloring Page of the Cover

• I hired the artist who illustrated the cover of WAMHH to make a coloring page version of the cover, thinking it would be a cute preorder incentive and a way to potentially boost cover recognition by having people color it and post it online 
• It was fun (and the artist did an amazing job) but the work it would take to actually pull off having enough readers actually color it and share it is way more effort than I want to put into something like this 

New Things I'll Try Next Time

More Character Art

• While I did commission one piece of character art (a full scene from the book), I think it would be really helpful to also commission art of the characters separately so I could use those in different types of graphics 
  • Ex: "She's a 10 but..." and other character memes 
  • Reels with character dialogue going back and forth 
• This may not technically "move the needle" but I think it would provide some good variety to posts and it's fun and it feels good to support human artists this way 

Getting Ahead on Trade Reviews

• I don't understand why, but WAMHH did not receive a single trade review, which was a major bummer to me. So next time, I want to talk to my agent and my editor about what we can do to try to avoid this fate with the next book 
  
  • I don't know if anything can be done, but I want to have those conversations about 3-4 months before release 

There are other things on my list, but this should give you a good overview of the types of things to consider in your own evaluations! 

Making Sure You Use Your Evaluation

Filling out your evaluation is just step one.

It doesn't do you much good to write it all up and then put it in a drawer, never to be looked at again. Sure, you might remember some of it (so it's still better than not doing it at all), but you'll get the most out of your evaluation if you actually review it before you dive into launch prep for your next book.

Tips to ensure you actually use your evaluation: 

Save the document somewhere you won't lose it. Where that is will depend a lot on how you organize your writing life. Examples include:

• In a google folder (or desktop folder) where you keep notes for your next release
  • Bonus: bookmark the doc and add it to your favorite bar
• Printed out and stuck to your wall where you'll see it regularly
• As a sticky note on your computer's desktop
• In the notes app on your phone 

Add reminders to your calendar. If you already reliably use a calendar, add an event at the 6-month and 3-month mark before release to review your evaluation.

• I recommend adding a note to the calendar event that reminds you WHERE you saved the document so you don't have to go searching for it. 
  • Ex: The eval is titled "X" and is in the folder labeled "Y"
  • Eval is in my red journal with the broken spine, about 1/4 of the way into the book (I tabbed the page)
  • Eval is in my notes app in the folder labeled "writing notes"
• Even better if you can add a direct link to the document (if it's in something like google docs) so all you have to do is click the link in the calendar event and you'll be taken right to it

Whatever makes the most sense for you, your process, and your brain is great here. 
 

Final Thoughts

Whenever possible, I recommend filing out your evaluation within the first couple weeks after your book comes out, but don't let perfection get in the way of doing it at all. 

Even if your most recent book came out 6+ months ago, give yourself the gift of spending 10-15 minutes reflecting on what you want to keep, tweak, toss, and try next time. 

Each time you do this process, you'll get closer and closer to a book launch process that works best for you. One that's fun, that skips the shit that makes you miserable/wastes your time, and allows you to love your author career. 

Happy writing,
Isabel 

PS - Ready to build a sustainable author career that you love? Click here to learn more about private coaching. 

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