Guide

Launching a book on social media

You do not need a campaign. You need a handful of good assets, one link, and a short plan you will actually follow.

By the Book Publishing Tools Online team · Updated 2026-09-07 · 6 min read

Make the assets first

Everything below uses the same five things. Make them in one sitting, before the launch, from the cover's palette:

  • A cover-reveal image (square and story sizes)
  • A release-day image with the date and the buy link's short form
  • Two quote images: a line from the book over a photo
  • A ten-second video: the cover, the title, one line, the date
  • The book page link, which is the only link you will ever post

The Image Creator exports the square, portrait, story, and link-preview sizes from one design, and the Video Creator makes the clip with the same fonts and stock library.

Sizes that fit

WhereShape
Feed post (most platforms)Square 1:1 or portrait 4:5
Stories and reels9:16
Link preview when you share the book page1.91:1
Video in a feedSquare or 4:5; 9:16 for stories

A four-week plan

  1. Three weeks out: the reveal. Post the cover with one sentence about the book. Pin it. Reply to every comment.
  2. Two weeks out: the why. One post about where the book came from, in your own words. One quote image.
  3. One week out: the details. Release date, formats, the book page link. The video goes out here.
  4. Release day. The release image, the link, and a thank-you. Ask readers who finish it to leave a review; reviews are the thing that keeps a book visible after launch week.
  5. The week after. The second quote image, a reader's kind words if you have any, and the link again. Then stop selling and go back to being a person people follow.

What not to do

  • Do not post a different link every time. One book page, always.
  • Do not buy followers or paid "promotion" accounts. They do not read.
  • Do not disappear after launch week. A post a week about anything keeps the account alive for the next book.
Bluesky and other text-first networks reward plain sentences over graphics. Keep the images for the reveal and the release, and talk like yourself the rest of the time.