The Book’s After-Care

Listening to what your book still asks for.

Let’s talk a moment about the possible radio silence after just releasing your book.

In the beginning, you get all these congrats messages. A few reviews come in. You might get mentioned in other people’s posts. There’ll be some thank you notes.

And then, it falls still.

Your network knows about it, at least most of them. Some downloaded your book. You’re not getting many more downloads from your network now. So what’s next?

Are you now going to do something you never expected: running some ads on Amazon? Reaching out to influencers? Maybe just leave it, mention it when someone asks.

Was this it, then? The hype is over. No more peaks in the downloads.

You don’t care too much about it. But you might feel something else could be gotten out of it. Just for the book itself.

So you occasionally think about it. Sometimes you have a good idea. Usually you put these in the fridge. It might be too much work. You’re not a marketer by heart. You might pick it up later.

Time passes. You just had your first week with zero downloads. No worries, you think.

But what if the book worries? What if the book wants to be read? What if it wants to land in the hands of the right readers? Can it have a will on its own?

I think it does.

Most books don’t love getting zero attention. They need a bit of care. After-care too.

The quiet thankfully doesn’t mean it’s over. Something different wants to happen now. Less about the splash, more about the ripples.

Who knows, the book might be waiting for you to remember why you wrote it. The book remembers it, even when you forget.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Here’s a screenshot of the initial spike from my recently published book. It now asks for a different kind of attention. If you haven’t yet, you can download The Art of Unwriting on Amazon by clicking here or below.