# The Launch Calendar
Six weeks out to two weeks after, with the advance reader and outreach trackers.

Counted backwards from publication day. Fill in your dates first, then work the list. The two weeks after the launch are on
this page because they are the part that is always missing from other people's calendars.

Publication day | Title

## The Calendar

WHEN | WHAT | YOURTASKS

Six weeks out | Manuscript final. Not nearly final. Final, formatted, proofed. Cover done.
Date | Start building your advance reader list. This is the long lead item and the one
that fails if you start it late.

Four weeks out | Advance copies go out. Metadata locked. Pre-order set up, if you are doing one.
Date | Start the outreach list: newsletters in your category, podcasts, communities,
reviewers who cover books like yours.

Two weeks out | Outreach sent. Launch week content drafted and scheduled, all of it, so that
Date | launch week involves no writing. Confirm your advance readers actually have
the file and can open it, because a meaningful fraction cannot and will not tell
you.

One week out | Reminder to advance readers with the exact publication date and clear
Date | instructions for leaving a review on the day. Final proof check on the live
ODINBOO K S . O RPersonal
listing. G/AI | AN AU
notes to the twenty people most likely toT buy
H O Ron
' S day
GUIone,
D E Tsent
O AI-ASSISTED WRITING

individually, not as a group.

Publication day | Publish, check the listing, tell your list, tell your people, and then stop
Date | refreshing.

The two weeks after | This is where the work is, and where almost everyone stops. Follow up with
Date | advance readers who have not reviewed. Continue outreach. Keep posting. The
window that matters is longer than the day, and the day is the part everyone
plans.

## Advance Readers

The long lead item. Ask people who read this kind of book, not people who like you. Disclose any material relationship if
they review. Never ask a family member.

NAME | HOWYOUKNOWTHEM | COPYSENT | REMINDED | REVIEWED

## Outreach

OUTLET OR PERSON | TYPE | SENT | CHASED RESULT

Do not touch your metadata while you wait. You cannot read a signal off a listing you keep changing.
