Timelines: The Key to Success
- Ari
- Dec 11, 2025
- 8 min read
Updated: Feb 15
First of all, I really have to stress—you MUST begin messaging a lot of these places before you even launch your book! This was another one of my big mistakes and lessons learned. I would say start reaching out to places no more than six months before your book launches. Some places won’t even accept your book for review if it's already out!
For social media, I would start talking about your book a year ahead! Talk about the process and show people what it’s like. This will pull people into your story and make them feel more a part of it once the book comes out.
Social Media Ideas: Get Creative!
Before I dive into some content ideas for you, I have to stress—don’t try to do all of the platforms! You will burn out, especially if you are trying to write and illustrate your book at the same time. First of all, I didn’t even start posting on social media until I finished my book, which was a big mistake! But I can honestly say I got it done pretty fast since I wasn’t thinking about social media. It honestly takes time!
Find what you’re best at! If you enjoy writing about your experience, I would use Substack, Medium, or just a blog site or your own personal website.
If you love vlogging or making videos about your experience, you can do YouTube and add in reels as well. I will say short and long-form content are very different but somewhat go hand in hand. I personally don’t believe too much in just cutting videos from your long-form video and posting it (even though I’ve done it). For short-form, you have to have a hook, as well as a beginning, middle, and end—all within a minute (if you’re using YouTube Shorts). For long-form, I think you can be more yourself, like a sit-down and chat sort of vibe, depending on your personality and what you’re going for.
If you like designing cool stuff and making short videos, go with Instagram and TikTok. You can create rotating carousels explaining lessons learned or things about you that let you showcase your amazing design skills. For reels, you can just post both of them on Instagram and TikTok.
For smaller word content, you can use Bluesky, X, or Threads. There are apparently a lot of literary agents on Bluesky, but I just couldn’t get into it. I am such a visual person; I got bored after signing up on the first day.
If you like being a part of groups and want an older audience, do Facebook. Yup! Facebook is so great for joining groups, reading groups, publishing groups, creative groups, etc. I honestly deleted my Facebook about 15 years ago for no particular reason. I just never got into it, and it’s just not really my platform.
Anyways, let’s get into some great content ideas!
Show what your desk space looks like.
A typical day for you as an author/illustrator.
Process shots such as sketches or close-up environments.
Share mistakes you’ve made and the lessons learned around them.
Talk about why you wrote this book.
Discuss the lessons you want your book to teach people.
Mention books that have inspired you.
Describe how it felt finally holding your book in your hand.
Share how it felt getting that first sale.
Tease around the book launch.
Create polls/questions related to your book; (How do you deal with grief?)
My Target Blogs & Media Sites: Where to Focus
My book is a children’s book for kids (early readers) aged 4-8 years old. I am targeting book websites with a focus on children’s books, as well as mom blogs for mothers looking for the right book that will help them teach children the right messages around self-healing or dealing with grief. I will also be looking for sites around female entrepreneurship, starting a business, and choosing their own path as a creator and business owner. Lastly, I will be targeting mental health or spiritual wellness sites with topics around children who may have lost a family member or who feel out of place and want to heal themselves within.
The List: Where to Advertise
Now here are some great places to check out for advertising! The prices vary, but overall they are mainly around $300-500. Of course, there are way more expensive options with larger media companies, but this is honestly something I really wish I had before launching my book. (Another reason I want to write another children’s book and do it better this time!)
Before even messaging these platforms, I highly recommend reading their about page and finding what they represent. Make sure their voice and opinions match what you are going for. I’ve gone to many sites that looked like a fit, but when I read the about page, I knew I wasn’t what they would be looking for, and that’s okay!
Book Sites:
BookRiot: An online platform featuring all sorts of books. You can find their advertising sheet here along with advertising methods, types of books, and prices.
Kirkus: A book review site where authors can build name recognition and get noticed by agents, publishers, and other industry influencers.
BookPage: A trusted source for book reviews, recommendations, and author interviews.
Goodreads: A social cataloging website and app owned by Amazon that allows users to track the books they’ve read, are currently reading, and want to read.
WrittenWordMedia: Empower authors and publishers to grow their audience through specialized marketing services and software tools designed for book promotion.
Mom Blogs:
ScaryMommy: A parenting and lifestyle site for millennial moms who crave unfiltered and honest advice, opinions, and news about motherhood and women’s daily life.
Motherly: On a mission to help every mother thrive with expert advice, inspirational stories, curated solutions, and more.
Today Parenting: The parenting section of the new media site Today.
Romper: An online magazine for a new generation of moms figuring out what parenting means together.
Mental Health:
The Mighty: A growing community of people with lived experience sharing their honest stories around mental health, chronic illness, rare disease, disability, and more.
Dougy: Find support, resources, and connection before and after a death.
National Alliance for Children’s Grief (NACG): A national organization dedicated to supporting children and the networks surrounding them.
Female Entrepreneurship:
Rebelgirls: Inspiring girls to grow into confident young women.
BDG: Bustle seeks to empower readers to fearlessly pursue life’s big adventures. We cover everything from the new TV show blowing up your text chains to the beauty product we can’t live without.
Designfully: Provides a fresh perspective on the design industry with a focus on underrepresentation and gender disparity.
Local Businesses in Your Area: A Hidden Gem
I also wanted to mention looking into newspapers, magazines, or radio stations within your area. They will likely be interested in featuring local authors and sharing your story. I would even recommend having a copy of your book with you and just walking into stores with it! This way, the bookstore/gift shop, etc., can see it in person. You can also bring a business card or a one-page sheet about you and your book, complete with images of pages from the book.
Media Sheet: Your Promotional Tool
An author media sheet is a promotional tool for writers, providing essential information about the author and their book(s) to journalists, media outlets, and other collaborators. It is a concise document that includes an author bio, professional photos, book cover images, book description, and contact information. I have an example of my media sheet (with links) here if you’re interested in checking it out.
How to Position Yourself: Stand Out!
This is something I never thought about until discussing it with my friend. She mentioned positioning myself the right way to each media outlet. I have a few quick examples just to give you an idea of how to message each website.
Cool Mom Pitch: "I know that your readers are moms, and my book helps children with grief. That’s not always an easy topic to discuss. My book is also a great tool for understanding difficult topics in an easy way for parents to talk about."
Publishers Weekly: "I am an up-and-coming author who is also an artist, and I recently wrote a children’s book. I wasn’t fully inspired by the books currently out because I don’t think there are enough tools to talk about grief with children. I’d really appreciate it if you took a look at it."
Reelsimple: "My book is a simple way for children to understand and cope with grief, and I think your audience, mostly female and many are moms, would find this book useful."
Best Places to Advertise First: Start Small
To be honest, this list can be ENDLESS! But we don’t want to give too many options. I would start off with just three places and see where it does the best. Then find the best platform and figure out where to continue advertising when needed. It also depends on whether you’re advertising for Amazon, your personal website, or a Google Merchant page, etc. Anyway, I really hope this helps you decide.
Also, I have to mention—you might not get any sales in the beginning. It’s all about learning and growing! I did a Pinterest ad about a free digital coloring book after email sign-up and got nothing. I spent about $70 on it, but these are great lessons that you can learn.
Amazon Ads: This is, of course, the best option if you're planning on advertising your book on Amazon. I would recommend having at least three positive reviews on your book before advertising because reviews are VERY important when people are deciding to purchase your book. The way it works is you choose a budget and amount of days. For example, you can do $15 a day for 10 days and see how the results look.
Pinterest Ads: The reason why I recommend using Pinterest ads is that, based on data and my research, people are most likely to make a purchase on Pinterest versus other places like Instagram or TikTok (those are more for entertainment). The only thing is you will have to design your ads, which I did here using Illustrator.
Conclusion: Let’s Keep the Conversation Going!
Okay… that was a LOT! I honestly did not expect to write so much, but I actually think I could probably get into it more if you liked this one. I haven’t yet tested it, but I plan to look into sending out my book to media outlets, influencers, and publishing houses. So if you’re interested in that, I could write about my experience from it. I also haven’t delved into influencers, but from what I have done so far, I don’t usually hear back from them, or they message me a week later saying they are completely full on book reviews.
Anyways, please let me know your thoughts around this topic or if you have any advice or experience yourself. I’m still learning a lot about it, even with 10 years of experience in digital marketing. Haha!
Love,
Ari
