Book Launch and Author Platform Template

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.