The Launch Plan You’ll Actually Use (Because It’s Small)

manageable beats ambitious

You wrote a 47-slide launch plan and executed two slides.

That's a launch failure caused by an ambition problem. The plans most authors build are designed for a team of three. You are a team of one with a day job and a small dog. We build the Maven 12-step launch plan — small enough to finish, big enough to count — and the rule that decides whether any new launch idea is in or out: if it doesn't take less than two hours and replace something already on the plan, it doesn't make the plan. That's the discipline. Plans that finish move books. Plans that don't are just expensive Word documents.

Ambitious plan · manageable plan

The 12-step launch plan

• Cover reveal (with sign-up incentive).
• ARC distribution to 20 readers.
• Sneak peek to newsletter (chapter 1).
• Pre-order push.
• One podcast guest appearance.
• One newsletter blast on launch day.
• One cross-promo with another author.
• One Goodreads giveaway.
• One paid ad test ($100 cap).
• One bookstore appearance or virtual event.
• Three review requests post-launch.
• 30-day check-in: what's working, do more.

A launch plan you'll finish beats a brilliant one you won't. Build for the team you actually have — which is you, on a Tuesday, after work, slightly tired.

— L.A. Walton, The Book Maven

From the Maven Catalog

• Master Course — Small Launch Plan
• eBook — 12 Steps, No More
• Planner — Launch Planner
• Toolkit — Launch Plan Toolkit

Use the 12 steps. Replace, don't add. The plan finishes. The book launches. Bigger plans died in your Notes app. This one ships.