If you ask any author what is the most important and the most stressful moment during the publishing process, they will most likely say book launch in unison.

Well, what’s the best way to create buzz around your book other than the book launch, right?

It doesn’t matter whether you want to create a buzz around your brand new book or the updated version of your book, doing a book launch is the way to go.

How most authors do their book launch

If you try to google book launch ideas, you’ll get tons of ways for you to do a book launch. In fact, you can choose to spend as little or as much as you can for the initial push for your book.

I’m pretty sure that you hear something like a publisher is throwing a launch party for the author’s new book in a swanky hotel in New York.

If you have the budget to do something like that, then good for you.

But some authors aren’t that lucky.

So, they may do something like throwing a Facebook event, going on a virtual book tour, making an appearance on TV or podcast interviews and even writing guest posts on other websites.

If you ask me, there are so many ways for you to do a book launch. But it’s not something that you can do in a day or two.

That explains why so many authors will say that the book launch phase tends to be the most stressful part of the publishing process.

But I want to do it

If you’re just getting started, it’s understandable that you don’t have any audience at all or connections that can help you with skyrocketing your book to the bestseller list.

So, doing things like the Facebook event will only fall flat on your face if nobody joins your Facebook event.

You can try the virtual book tour, booking your appearance on TV or podcast interviews. But it’s a lot easier for you to do it if you know the person in charge way before you begin writing the book itself.

I don’t mean to burst the bubble. This kind of book launch will give you the best result if you do it first thing before the writing process begins.

Let’s not forget it takes such a huge amount of time on your side too.

No wonder many authors are stressed out about it.

Yank it at the last minute

If you only begin to think about the book launch a month or a few weeks before your book comes out, you don’t have to worry about that.

You can rest assured that you’re not the only one who doesn’t think much about the book launch.

Heck, even I’m also in the same camp as you.

As I write this blog post, my new book, A Silent Killer is only a few weeks away before the release date. And yet, I haven’t even started doing anything to create a buzz around my new book.

Am I not putting much thought into the book launch?

Well, no.

But I’m just like most new authors.

I don’t have a huge mailing list. And I don’t even have a big following on my social media channels.

Doing the book launch the usual way will only put me in a major disappointment since I won’t get much traction from a small following.

Okay, maybe I can get substantial traction even with a small following. But I’m okay with keeping my expectation low.

That brings me to this question. Is it possible for anyone like me who can do a book launch even if the release date is just a few weeks away with no large following on social media and mailing list?

Well, the good news is it’s possible.

But will it work?

I don’t know.

My experimental approach to the book launch

If you’re like me who only have a small following on social media and barely existent email subscribers, there’s a way for you do it.

It’s just that you can’t do the same way as what most authors do.

So, how am I planning to do my book launch?

Well, my book launch plan is rather simple.

I’m going to promote the sample chapter from my new book.

Are you kidding me?

Sadly, I’m not kidding when I say that I’m going to promote the sample chapter from my new book.

If you want to promote something, it’s much easier to promote it with contents. And that’s what I intend to do with the sample chapter from my new book.

It’s still a content no matter how you look at it.

Will it ever work?

Like I say, I don’t know.

But one thing I know for sure is you can start doing it now even if you don’t have a large audience. In fact, it also works great for fiction authors too.

I remember back then when someone told me that she bought my book after reading the sample chapter that I posted on Wattpad.

So, promoting your sample chapter as much as you can is the simplest way to do a book launch for your book.

What’s even better, you can do it even when you only have a few weeks to a few days before the book’s release date. Not to mention, it won’t cause you to feel stressed about it.

I’ll go in-depth on how I plan to use the sample chapter to do a book launch for my book in my later blog post.

In the meantime, give this book launch idea a try. Let me know if you did give it a try in the comment below. I’d love to know how is it going for you.