Book Launch and Author Platform Template
Three documents and three sheets that count every outside deadline backward from your publication date, not from today.
Free download · No account needed
Most book launch advice repeats one number: send review copies three months before publication, or start planning ninety days out. It is real, and it is also one recipient's own floor, not a summary of what every recipient wants. Publishers Weekly's own submission guidelines ask for its GalleyTracker submissions three months out, preferably four. Library Journal's own guidelines ask for six. A launch plan built on the more commonly cited number finds that out only once the earlier deadline has already closed.
On the worked launch, The Quiet Part by Petra Solheim from Cairn & Fen Press, publishing June 1, 2027, the Timeline sheet holds fourteen milestones, one row per outside deadline counted backward from that date. The earliest is six months out, December 1, 2026, set independently by Library Journal's own floor, by Booklist's own submission guidelines, which start at four to six months, and by NetGalley's own recommendation for when a title should be listed. Kirkus's own editorial desk guidelines sit at four to five months, still two months ahead of the widely repeated three.
The Outreach Register applies the same logic to bookstore events instead of trade outlets. The Authors Guild's own event-planning guide quotes a bookstore coordinator's standing advice: contact stores at least two to three months out. On the worked register, six of ten bookstore requests went out inside that window and produced four confirmations; the other four went out in mid-May, after the window had closed, and all four came back declined. The pitch never changed. Only the send date did.
What's in the pack
Publication Backward Timeline
Every outside deadline counted backward from your actual publication date, instead of a generic day-count bucket.
Asset Checklist
What has to exist by the earliest deadline, with a real owner and a real due date for each.
Outreach Register
One row per contact rather than per channel, the same discipline a source register for journalists applies to attribution.
Launch Plan
The narrative written last, from the Timeline and the Register once both carry real dates and contacts.
Outreach Templates
A distinct message per contact type, leading with the exact field that recipient's own page asks for first.
Media One-pager
The metadata block a reviewer scans first, title through ISBN, before a single sentence of description.
How it works
- 1
Open or download
Edit with AI installs the pack as a private Space and asks for the publication date a publisher fixes once a book proposal sells. Download gives you the blank files, no account.
- 2
Build the Timeline
Every recipient's own current stated lead time, counted backward from your actual publication date, not a generic month bucket applied the same way to all of them.
- 3
Build the Outreach Register
One row per named contact, not per channel, checked against that category's own known window before the send date is logged as done.
- 4
Write the Launch Plan last
The narrative that opens with the earliest real deadline and names the asset risk sitting behind it, written once the sheets have something to report.
Frequently asked questions
Is this free?
The download is free and needs no account: the real Publication Backward Timeline, Asset Checklist, Outreach Register, Launch Plan, Outreach Templates, and Media One-pager, blank, as Word and CSV. Edit with AI creates a free account and starts counting deadlines as soon as you send a publication date.
What format are the downloaded files?
Three Word documents and three CSV sheets, zipped. The documents open in Word, Pages, and Google Docs; the sheets open in Excel, Numbers, and Sheets. Nothing needs converting, and a PDF query string on the download swaps the documents to PDF if you want to circulate rather than fill in.
What does Edit with AI actually do?
It installs this pack as a private Space, then builds the Timeline from your publication date and the recipients you want to pursue. Every deadline gets counted backward and named against the recipient that set it, and the Outreach Register tracks every contact individually once you send your platform data.
Why does this use trade-review deadlines instead of the usual ninety-day countdown?
Because a ninety-day countdown is one recipient's own floor, not a summary of every recipient's. Library Journal's own current guidelines ask for six months; Booklist's own guidelines start at four. A plan built to the shorter, more common number misses both entirely before a single galley ships.
What if my publication date isn't fixed yet?
Use your best current estimate and revisit every row once it firms up. The Timeline recomputes from whatever date you give it, but nothing on it means anything against a placeholder like next spring, so get an actual month at minimum before treating any date as real.
Does this replace a publicist?
No. A publicist brings relationships and negotiates coverage a register cannot manufacture. This pack does the arithmetic a publicist also needs done: which deadline is earliest, what blocks it, and which contact is overdue for a follow-up, whether you have a publicist or are doing this yourself.
What has to happen before this pack starts?
Everything that gets a manuscript into print: a structural outline, a submission round, and the copyedit queries answered once an editor is assigned. This pack starts once a publication date exists to count every other deadline backward from.
Find out which deadline actually comes first
Download the blank Publication Backward Timeline, Asset Checklist, and Outreach Register as Word and CSV, or have River count every recipient's deadline against your own publication date.
Edit with AI