How long did you plan your campaign during the pre-launch/outreach phase?
I started thinking about the campaign almost immediately after I knew I wanted to publish my book in October.
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I started by doing a lot of research, looking at successful Kickstarters, and getting advice from Facebook groups.
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I also created my Instagram very early and started following and interacting with people in the spaces where my book was concentrated: early sexuality education and child sexual abuse prevention.
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My first set of outreach was to expert reviewers in January 2021. I had some personal connections for expert reviewers, and I also reached out to experts that I found from reading academic articles, doing internet searches, and through Instagram.
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In early March, I started creating posts for my Instagram account, actively seeking followers, and being even more active interacting with accounts I was following.
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My next batch of outreach was to beta reviewers, which I started in late March once we had our final draft complete.
Engaged readers
For a sensitive topic like mine, I believe expert reviewers are essential. The beta reviewers were also incredibly helpful in providing different perspectives.
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I believe both sets of reviewers felt like they had a stake in the success of the book after they did their review, and so helped me spread the word about the book within their own networks more than they otherwise would have.
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I started collecting massive numbers of emails (over 1,000) for organizations and individuals that supported the mission of the book in late March and invited them to be beta reviewers.
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Mass outreach
Around two weeks before my launch, I did mass outreach to all of the contacts I had collected, letting them know about the upcoming Kickstarter and sending them a pdf of a watermarked final draft of the book.
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Then I reached out to everyone again the day of launch.