HOW TO WRITE AN 'I HAVE A BOOK COMING' EMAIL

A simple guide from my flu brain.

Good morning, I have the flu and we’re supposed to get six (or more) inches of snow this weekend (again). My kids and spouse have been out of school all week from last week’s ice and snow. And the cabin fever is nigh (shout out to Alan Cummings who single handedly brought back the use of nigh into my lexicon). So, I’m coming at you from this restless place with a very straightforward HOW TO: How to write those “I have a book coming out!” emails to your friends.

Thought last night was Thursday and was literally refreshing the Traitors page at 9pm. Flu brain.

Before we get going, I want to share the Stand With Minnesota donation directory.

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I don’t think you can be too excessive in talking about your forthcoming book. I am not a believer in “too much” and do not follow the Goldilocks formula. Muchness is a state of mind. That being said, I think you have to use your author contacts, particularly when reaching out directly in a mass email (not necessarily a newsletter, but a more targeted approach to folks you’re connected with), in a way that will really benefit you.

Remember when you’re sending emails to your contacts that you have a personality. It’s not all asks and tasks. You are funny, you are quirky, you are an interesting individual. The tone of these emails should reflect that about you. If it reads too normie or too formal, I’m clicking delete.

Also, it’s way more comfortable for most authors if this doesn’t feel like you’re shouting about yourself. So, bring other people in. If your editor said something cool about the book, include it. If your team made a sweet graphic, include it. If you spoke to the designer and they let you share the process, include it. Make it about the community of a book release, and it will feel easier. There are lots of ways to make these emails not “I wrote a book, now here’s what I need.”

I also have nothing in here about subject lines but they should name the title and be FUN. Here are my feelings about subject lines in emails. This was written three and a half years ago which SHOCKS ME to my core.

So, here’s my personal opinion on how to reach your people in the lead-up to launch.

FIRST EMAIL

• is the preorder link and an intimate story about how the book came into being. I include narrative here because people connect to narrative, not preorder links. This email should be conversational, direct, a little bit vulnerable, and include a backstory. It will include:

  • The preorder link and a direct ask to preorder. Consider writing it in one way at the top of the email and in another way at the bottom. At the top of the email it should be embedded in the story you’re telling about the book. At the bottom of the email it should include the many places to preorder (Bookshop.org, the publisher, your favorite independent bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, and a comment that if the person cannot for whatever reason preorder, to please request the book through their local library’s request form).

  • The cover because no one likes an email that is boring. Shout out the cover designer for fair play.

  • You can include blurbs if you want?

  • Ask people explicitly to mark it as “Want to Read” on Goodreads and Storygraph.

    

    Shouts to Zoe for making my life prettier.

    

    And here’s the more threatening version. :)

  • Name your publicist for review copies and share their email. If you have no publicist, say, “I have several review copies, I’d love to share an early version with you.” If your book is listed on Edelweiss or Netgalley at this point, share those links (both make widgets, see if you can include that to break up text in the email).

  • The story you will start creating about the book. You should have done work up to this point to figure out the narrative you can create around the book. You should have an intriguing log line (the kind of bold one sentence that goes at the top of your Amazon listing and helps with your metadata and algorithm—yuck all these words). At the very least, you have the following: the impetus for writing the book, the themes in the book, the characters you chose to follow, the story that called to you or ghosted you or you hunted or investigated, and a starting document of talking points around the book’s universe. Consider it all the realm of your book (my spouse will be so proud at the nerd status I am employing by the world “realm"). You have to situate your people in this email AND convince them that preordering serves their needs as well as your own. If you need help with any of this look at your query letter and see if your agent will share their letter to editors when you went on submission. If it’s just you (yay you!) look at how you’ve described what you’re working on to friends.

  • Here’s an example of the top of one of Zoe-Aline Howard recent pitches that is INTRIGUING. It is NOT a question. I saw this in queries and I see it now in pitches—a question like “What will they do when they find the killer?” or “What will she do if she doesn’t believe in closure?” is actually not intriguing. Cut those. Make them statements. Here is Zoe’s topper: “The year that New Orleans-born Nancy Lemann debuted with her cult-treasured wastrel novel Lives of the Saints, renowned Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown sent her home on assignment. Her task: a straight account of Governor Edwin Edwards’ corruption trial (and retrial–stretching into years). This book is not that book.”

    

    Gold foil is ALWAYS a yes, and no one does it better than Hub City.

SECOND EMAIL

• is 6ish (could be 4, could be 8) weeks out from publication date. This email will be more nitty gritty information about what’s happening. At this point you should have some trade reviews, blurbs you can share, information about your book tour, and more direct deliberate asks. This email will include:

  • The exact publication date at the top of the email and a note that folks still have time to preorder if they would like. Then tell them where to preorder. If you have a preorder goodie, or a bookstore that you’re signing book plates with, you share that at the top of the email.

  • Include if there are any codes that make the book slightly cheaper for a certain reason.

  • If the trades have not come through, share same NetGalley, Edelweiss, or early Goodreads / Storygraph reviews of the book. I like to have a “People are saying” section of those emails.

  • Events (with a tour graphic if you have that sort of thing). Start with the launch and then link to the events in all the other places. Say something like, “I’m coming to a town near you!”

    

    We know the truth about your calendar.

  • This is also the email for the street team asks, which can be: Want to have me write a guest essay for your Substack? Could we do an Instagram live to talk about x, y, z? Share the book on your socials and #xyz. If you would like to pitch a review or interview, here’s how to get a copy. (Netgalley, publicist contact, Edelweiss, whatever). Can I join your reading series? Come visit your class? Send you a desk copy? Come say hi to your book club? (I often link to any classroom guides, book club guides, etc, that we create during the campaign in these emails).

  • Make sure your social media handles are in this email so people can tag you if they share anything about the book. Ideally, your links would be in your signature.

  • I include a list of bigger library systems where the book can be requested and link directly to those request forms. This would be bigger city library systems, library systems in your region, any library system that’s connected to the book, or any library that you just love from travels. Make it so easy for someone to say, “Oh! I live in Orlando! Let me request since it’s linked right here.”

  • Finally, ask folks to forward the email to friends who may be interested in the book for WHATEVER reason.

THIRD EMAIL

• It’s launch day or launch week (depending on when things are coming out about the book). This email should be all invigoration, personality, and momentum. What’s happened? Where are you in the world Carmen Sandiego? How did you celebrate the launch? Share your photos! Bring people into your world! What are you most excited about that’s happening? And of course, say THANK YOU. This is as much a YAY! email as an acknowledgment email. Of course, for the people in the back, we need to include another round of order links. Never forget the order links.

  • Something I often see missed in these emails is the specifics. You can say, “I wrote about [insert interesting things] for TIME” and link to that essay. Show your work in these emails. I see a lot of cool girl websites that are just lists of three things in each of their pieces. “Mangoes, Stanley water bottles, and Marxism” for New Republic. That sounds WILD. I’m clicking. Intrigue! Intrigue! Intrigue!

  • Consider this your big thank you letter. It might even be more specific than your acknowledgements. Thank the people who are getting the email.

  • Order links and tour reminders! Where will you be and where should they buy the book.

  • And remember:

If you need Valentine’s Day plans, consider this VIRTUAL past flings & lovers event at Charis Books.

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As always, the Pine State calendar of events lives here, and you can buy our books here! You can also see what we’re working on and contact us through our website, Pinestatepublicity.com.

Kristen Millares Young’s debut memoir DESIRE LINES was revealed exclusively to PEOPLE Mag, Emma Burger interviewed Michelle Gurule for Zona Motel and Gurule wrote a craft essay on telling your life for Open Secrets Mag, Terese Svoboda’s HITLER AND MY MOTHER-IN-LAW was reviewed in California Review of Books and named unmissable in Electric Lit, Monica Ferrell was on last week’s The Slowdown with a sneak peek of THE FUTURE, Jocelyn Jane Cox wrote about moving her mother in for AARP, Nin Andrews, author of memoir-in-verse SON OF A BIRD, was the poetry spotlight at ONLY POEMS DAILY and so much more on Twitter & Instagram.