I have a client who just used a pre-sale campaign on Publishizer to promote the book they’re writing and wound up with a pile of sales and a publishing contract as a result. One of the best moves he made was to take my advice to start promoting his book immediately after we started working on it. 

A lot of authors wait too long to talk about their books. They think they need a finished manuscript first. Then a cover, a launch date, a preorder link. Then maybe, once everything is polished and official and nobody can see the messy middle, they will start telling people the book exists.

I understand the instinct. Talking about a book before it is finished can feel vulnerable.

What if the idea changes?

What if the draft is bad?

What if someone asks when it is coming out and you have to say, “Great question, I too would love to know that”?

What if people judge the idea before you have had time to shape it?

I get it.

But if you wait until the book is done to start building the audience, you are making launch harder than it needs to be. Popping up out of nowhere and asking people to buy your book feels jarring and a bit rude to your audience. You can market your book before publishing without being annoying, salesy, or weird about it. In fact, pre-publication book marketing can be one of the most generous parts of the writing process. Because your book is already teaching you things, and those lessons can help your audience now.

Your Book Is Creating Content Before It Is Finished

When I was writing The Power of the Pivot, I was not just drafting chapters. I was processing my own life. I was thinking about what it means to lose a career, rebuild an identity, create a business with limited energy, and stop measuring success by standards that were never built for my body or my actual life. Every chapter forced me to ask better questions.

• What does success mean now?
• What do I value?
• What are my non-negotiables?
• How much energy do I really have?
• How do I build a business that fits my needs instead of forcing my needs to disappear?

Those questions are not only book questions. They are content questions. Each one could become a blog post, email, podcast conversation, workshop topic, or social post. The Power of the Pivot became a whole nonprofit program. You do not need to reveal the entire book before it is published, you can share the thinking behind the book.

What to Share Before the Book Comes Out

Here are a few things you can share while you are still writing.

1. The Problem You Are Exploring

Tell your audience what question keeps pulling you back. Maybe your book is about burnout in healthcare. Maybe it is about ethical leadership. Maybe it is about parenting after trauma. Maybe it is about building a business after disability. Maybe it is about helping therapists write books that do not sound like clinical notes. Whatever it is, name the problem and invite your audience to enter the conversation. 

2. The Story Behind the Book

People connect with origin stories.

Why this book?

Why now?

Why you?

When I talk about The Power of the Pivot, I cannot separate it from the moment I realized traditional employment was not going to fit my medical needs. I cannot separate it from the walker, the infusions, the kids at home during COVID, the medical bills, or the beginnings of freelance writing. That is not because every book needs a dramatic hospital scene. It is because every meaningful book has a why. Share yours.

3. The Myths You Want to Challenge

Great nonfiction often challenges a belief your reader has absorbed. For my work, some of those myths are:

• You need unlimited energy to build a business.
• Marketing is manipulation.
• A book is only successful if it sells a massive number of copies.
• You have to be fully healed, fully ready, or fully confident before you start.
• Thought leadership is only for people with huge platforms.

Your book has myths too. Write about them.

4. One Useful Idea at a Time

You do not need to give away the whole book. Also, let’s be honest, most readers are not going to piece together your entire framework from six LinkedIn posts and run off into the sunset without hiring you. Share one useful idea.

• A question.
• A reframe.
• A short story.
• A mistake to avoid.
• A behind-the-scenes lesson.
• A small exercise.

This builds trust and helps you test what resonates before the book is out.

5. The Reader’s Transformation

What do you want your reader to believe, feel, understand, or do differently by the end of the book?

• Will they feel less alone?
• Will they understand their options?
• Will they have a framework for making decisions?
• Will they know how to take the next step?
• Will they see their story differently?

That transformation should guide your content long before publication.

What Not to Share Too Early

Now, a word of caution. I am not saying you should crowdsource your entire book. Please do not hand your fragile first-draft idea to the internet and ask everyone what they think. That is how good ideas go to die under the weight of conflicting opinions.

Early feedback can be helpful, but only from the right people at the right time for the right purpose. I help my clients find the right beta readers for their projects and craft the feedback questions carefully. There is a difference between building an audience and letting the audience drive the book. You are the author, you are allowed to protect the work while it is becoming. Share enough to build connection, keep enough private to preserve the creative process.

A Simple Four-Week Pre-Publication Content Plan

If you are writing a book and have no idea where to start, try this. Do one type of share each week, and then repeat (the category, not the specific article or post) until your book launches. 

Week One: Share the Problem

Write a blog or email about the problem your book addresses.

Make it reader-centered. Help people see themselves in the issue.

Week Two: Share the Origin Story

Why are you writing this book?

Tell the story in a way that connects your lived experience or professional experience to the reader’s need.

Week Three: Share One Useful Idea

Teach one concept from the book.

Not all of it. One piece.

Give your reader something they can think about or use right away.

Week Four: Invite Them Deeper

Invite them to your email list, waitlist, free resource, early reader group, or book updates.

Do not make it complicated.

Say something like:

“I’m writing more about this in my upcoming book. If you want behind-the-scenes updates and practical tools as I go, join my email list here.”

Simple. Clear. Human.

Book Marketing Starts With Trust

We could erase the word book from that heading and just say marketing starts with trust, but we do books around here. Resist the urge to hold the book writing and publishing process close. Share it with your audience. Good marketing 

• is letting people see the heart of the work.
• is helping them understand why the book matters.
• is giving them language for their own experience.

Good marketing is making sure that when the book finally arrives, your audience does not think, “Wait, you wrote a book?” They think, “I have been waiting for this.”

If you are writing a book and want to build an audience before launch, Connected Ghostwriting can help you shape your message, plan pre-publication content, and create a strategy that supports the book long before release day. Book a call now.