You're 6–12 Months From Publishing Your Book. Here Are the Top 3 Things to Focus On

In preparation for my program, "Sell Your First 1,000 Books on LinkedIn," I asked VIP participants which topics they wanted to cover in a special call we have before the program.

One author asked:

I loved this question because, as with anything in business, there are a million things we could do, but a few targeted ones we'd be better off focusing on for peak results.

So, I decided I'd write my answers in this week's Start Small Brand Big issue. If I had a book coming out in a year or less, these are the three things I'd absolutely prioritize to maximize my chances of selling as many books as I could, drum up brand awareness for myself as an author and expert, and hit the speaking circuit.

All three activities center on one, grim but true reality...

That makes the 6-12 month runway the build window.

First and foremost: inventory every relationship you have ever developed

I would open a spreadsheet and not stop until every person was in it — former bosses, old colleagues, clients from three jobs ago, the woman from your MBA cohort, the guy who hosted you on his podcast in 2019, your college roommate who now runs L&D at a Fortune 500, group chats, conference friends. Every last one.

This will feel shameless and embarrassing. It is not. Most people will be happy to help you, you just take yourself out of the game because of limiting beliefs like "this is shameless and embarrassing." I've seen this over and over again in launches.

And this is imperative, because I don't care what snazzy marketing tactics you use or skip.

What makes or breaks a launch is how many people raise their hand to commit to something specific: post a review during launch week, buy in advance, share it with their network, or advocate for you into their association, their workplace, or their conference stage.

Each of those is a different ask, so your database needs a column for each. Then you build a simple raise-your-hand page and let people self-select the commitment they can keep. People say yes to a defined, small ask. They usually ghost on a more nebulous, "Will you support my book?" Not because they don't want to, they just don't know how to, so you get allocated to the back of their mental to-do list.

This is why, in the second module of Sell Your First 1,000 Books on LinkedIn, we have preconstructed Google Forms for our authors to copy and simply customize to distribute to their relationship list. The form makes very simple asks, and then guides you on how to follow up with them to execute their ask at the time the book most needs it. (Like ensuring they post a review on pub day.)

Amy Porterfield ran Two Weeks Notice this way and landed on the New York Times list. She has said she launched the book the same way she launches a digital course — a runway, not a week. Her presale window ran roughly four months, fall through the February pub date. That timeline gives you enough runway to walk specific people through a specific sequence of asks.

Tim Ferriss did the analog version before The 4-Hour Workweek: he asked successful authors how they had promoted, concluded bloggers were the leverage point, then went after them in person — sitting in blogger lounges at conferences, asking about their work instead of pitching his.

In the campaigns I've studied up close, this pattern of leveraging real-life relationships for specific asks is the one that can skyrocket books forward. The singular celebrity share does close to nothing. Trust me, I've been on campaigns where a celebrity endorsement or social share was an asset an author was banking on, only to find out a mention does next to nothing to move the needle. The person you helped five years ago, however? That does move the needle when they are committed to a specific request, like bringing it to their association.

Second and second most: build a list through a newsletter

LinkedIn newsletter, Kit (my favorite off-platform option, and the one most authors seem to love), beehiiv, Substack — pick one and start.

One clarification first, because I watch authors get this backward constantly. Social is discovery. The list is conversion. Almost nobody builds a book audience on the list alone anymore — people find you on LinkedIn or Instagram. What the list does is turn someone who found you into someone who reads you.

The numbers carry the distinction. beehiiv's 2026 State of Newsletters report put 2025 open rates at 41.24%, up from 37.98% the year prior. Social engagement rates live in the low single digits. Same human being, two different relationships. A book is a long-form ask, so it converts off the long-form relationship: a follower consumes you in passing, while a subscriber has agreed in advance to read something long from you on a schedule. That second behavior is the one you're about to ask a book buyer for.

Now, a podcast can do similar work, but there is a glaring gap: you don't have your listeners' email addresses unless you've built an opt-in that captures them. Do that before you need it.

A high-subscriber newsletter also tends to secure a book deal rather than follow it. James Clear started writing at jamesclear.com in 2012, two articles a week, and went from zero to 30,000 subscribers in his first year. By the time Atomic Habits was published in 2018, he had north of 400,000. The book has since sold more than 30 million copies in 60+ languages and is a mainstay on the bestseller lists. (Looking for a 6 or 7-figure advance? Traditional publishers will not hand those out without an email list of min 50k subs)

Tiffany Aliche is another great example here. The Budgetnista ran the free, opt-in Live Richer Challenge for years, and the women who signed up named themselves — Dream Catchers. She self-published The One Week Budget and the Live Richer Challenge series to #1 on Amazon in budgeting. Then in 2021, Get Good with Money hit the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today lists. The movement has passed two million women, every one of whom raised a hand to join something before there was a trade book to buy.

Emily Oster (a fav of mine) shows what the list does for every book after the first. ParentData's weekly newsletter now reaches hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and she's past a million copies across four titles. (Again, she has a podcast and socials that have risen as her popularity as a parenting guru has also.)

None of these authors launched a book to strangers. They launched them to subscribers.

Shameless plug: This is also why we have a whole section in "Sell Your First 1,000 books on LinkedIn" about selecting and growing a newsletter to support your book launch:

Third and third most: document every single aspect of the writing

Snaps of you writing. Snaps of your screen. The blocks you carve out of your calendar and how you protect them. The chapter you cut. The interview that changed your thesis.

Austin Kleon's argument in Show Your Work! is to become a documentarian of what you do — photograph your process, keep a work journal, share small pieces of it. He credits his blog with essentially everything good that has happened in his career.

The reason this works is behavioral, and it's been measured. Norton, Mochon, and Ariely's IKEA effect research in the Journal of Consumer Psychology found that people who assembled something themselves bid roughly double for their own creations versus a partner's identical one. A 2025 meta-analysis across 55 studies confirmed it holds for valuation, liking, and sense of ownership.

When you invite people into the making of the book, you hand them a small piece of authorship. By the time it publishes, they aren't evaluating a product from a stranger. They're seeing something they watched get built, and they buy it, share it, and defend it accordingly.

A lot of authors I know are doing this expertly by having their audience vote on book cover. It works because people loveeeeee giving their opinions!

Feel like too much to think about? In "Sell Your First 1,000 Books on LinkedIn," we have an entire library on how to "publish aloud" on social media, with plug-and-play templates, captions, and post ideas.

Next Steps…

If you read all of this and thought, okay, I want this, that’s exactly what Sell Your First 1,000 Books on LinkedIn is for.​

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It's the full launch system I built for authors, customized to YOUR book.

We start August 31 and run through October 2 — training videos you keep forever, plus live coaching with me across September, where I'll look at your actual pages and edit your actual copy.

Best fit: nonfiction — business, leadership, self-help — with a book still ahead of you (not already published). If you're writing fiction, I will buy your copy and read it, though this program is built around LinkedIn and the speaking circuit that follows. If you've already published, reach out, and I'll point you toward better-suited help, since so much of this depends on sequencing the stages of a launch in order.

Cart closes August 30.

​→ Grab your seat here​

About the Author Kait LeDonne is a New York-based personal branding strategist and LinkedIn coach who helps thought leaders, executives, and corporate teams turn expertise into visible authority, influence, and qualified deal flow. She is a featured instructor for CNBC Make It's "How to Build a Standout Personal Brand," bringing practical executive-grade playbooks to a broad audience. Her LinkedIn audience and "Build a Brand" newsletter community exceeds 80,000 professionals. She has delivered training for organizations, including the United States Air Force and Kia. Listed by Favikon among the Top Personal Branding Influencers in the U.S., Kait is frequently cited in the media for clear, results-driven personal brand strategies professionals can sustain. ​ ​

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Sources: Circana BookScan figures via Jane Friedman; Berrett-Koehler Publishers, "The 10 Awful Truths About Book Publishing"; Mixergy and tim.blog on the 4-Hour Workweek launch; beehiiv State of Newsletters 2026; jamesclear.com; hebudgetnista.com and Penguin Random House; Penguin Random House author page for Emily Oster; melrobbins.com and Publishers Weekly; Norton, Mochon & Ariely, "The IKEA Effect: When Labor Leads to Love," Journal of Consumer Psychology (2012); Pelled et al., Psychology & Marketing (2025).