Ashante Thomas's Blog

You’ll hear it a million times from editors, publicists, and marketing specialists, and you can consider me adding 1,000,001 times:  Waiting until launch week to start marketing your book is a mistake.

By the time your book drops, you should already have at least six months of momentum behind you.

Smart strategy isn’t launching a massive, expensive ad campaign. It’s about leveraging small, one-off acts that compound over time. The following are three simple levers that I am sharing with you because they open doors and generate buzz.

1. Weaponize Your Acknowledgments: Most authors treat acknowledgments as a safe space to thank family, close friends, and thesis advisors. That’s fine, but it’s a missed opportunity. If you’ve ever appeared on a top podcast, contributed to a major magazine, or worked with a high-profile client years ago, thank them here. Name-drop the host or editor-in-chief. These people helped shaped your professional journey, even if your book deal wasn’t in sight back then. Gratitude is memorable, and publicly thanking industry heavyweights is a classy way to keep doors wide open when it’s time to ask for an endorsement or come back on their platform.
2. Real Estate Your Social Media: Please do not just drop an announcement post that vanishes on the feed in less than 24 hours. Make your digital footprint work for you 24/7. Update your background photos for a clean graphic featuring your book cover and a direct call to action, like “Preorder now wherever books are sold.” Pin your book cover as a highlight on your Instagram or X profile so visitors see it immediately.
3. Embed Your Offer Everywhere: Treat your everyday communications as free advertising space. Add a dedicated link to your preorder page directly inside your email signature. More importantly, talk up your book at every speaking gig, panel, and media appearance you do, long before the official launch window opens.

Pre-orders dictate your early momentum, bestseller lists, and publisher confidence. You want the latter to be talking about book 2 before the first publishes.

Start small, pub big!