What to Post About Your Book Before It's Published

EPISODE ONE HUNDRED TWO

If your book isn't published yet and you keep telling yourself you'll figure out marketing after it's done, this episode is specifically for you. Jenn dePaula breaks down the real reason pre-published authors struggle to post, why waiting until launch day is the single most common regret she hears from authors, and the belief shift that changes everything: you're not marketing a book that doesn't exist. You're showing up for the reader your book is being written for. Includes Rachel's full story - from hesitation to 187 email subscribers and 94 first-week sales.

Links

Free Resource: Download the Book Marketing Blueprint - a free 15-minute diagnostic that shows you exactly which pieces of your marketing foundation are missing.

The 90-Day Book Sales System includes the New Author Marketing Playbook, built specifically for pre-published authors who want a real plan before their book comes out.

Transcript

The most expensive mistake I see pre-published authors make isn't a bad cover or the wrong genre.

It's waiting.

Waiting until the manuscript is done. Waiting until there's something to show people. Waiting until marketing feels less premature. And by the time the book is finally ready - arriving at launch day with no audience, no email list, and no one waiting - wondering why nothing happened.

I'm Jenn Hanson-dePaula. I've spent nearly 20 years helping authors build marketing that actually sells books. And if your book isn't out yet, this episode is specifically for you - because what I'm about to share is going to change when you start, and what you do when you get there.

Here's the moment I hear about over and over from pre-published authors.

You know you should be building your audience. You've read the advice. You've heard that starting early matters. But every time you actually sit down to post something, the same thought stops you cold:

What am I even talking about? I don't have a book yet.

So you do the reasonable thing. You close the app. You tell yourself there's no point starting now,  that it would feel fake to market something that doesn't fully exist. That you'll figure all of this out when the book is done, when you have something real to point to.

And on the surface, that reasoning makes complete sense. You're a writer. Your job right now is to write. Marketing feels like a separate thing - something for later, when there's actually something to sell.

The problem is that later arrives on launch day. And by then, you're already behind.

I want to name something before we go any further, because I think it's very important.

The instinct to wait is not laziness. It's not avoidance. For most authors it actually comes from a place of integrity, this feeling that it would be somehow dishonest to talk about a book that doesn't exist yet, to ask people to care about something you haven't finished.

And I understand that completely. Most authors I've worked with feel exactly this way. The blank screen wins not because they don't want to show up, but because nobody has ever shown them what showing up actually looks like before a book exists.

So this isn't a discipline problem. It isn't a motivation problem. It's a framework problem. And once you have the right framework, the blank screen stops being an obstacle.

Here is the reframe that changes everything for pre-published authors.

You are not marketing a book that doesn't exist yet.

You are showing up for the reader your book is being written for.

Those are completely different things. Marketing a book that doesn't exist requires something finished, something you can hold up and say "here, buy this." But showing up for your ideal reader, that just requires knowing who they are and what they care about. And you already know that right now, before the manuscript is done.

Let me show you what that distinction looks like in practice, because it's different depending on what you write.

If you're a fiction author, your content isn't about your book. It's about the emotional world your book lives in. The themes it explores. The feelings it creates. The kind of stories your ideal reader is already looking for and why they love them. You're not selling something that doesn't exist. You're becoming the author that your ideal reader recognizes - the one who understands exactly what they're looking for - before your book even exists to be sold.

If you're a nonfiction author, your content is about the problem your book solves. That problem exists in your ideal reader's life right now, today, before your book is published. They're already struggling with it. They're already searching for answers. Showing up for them today, before the book is done,  isn't premature. It's exactly the right time.

In both cases, you have everything you need to start. The book being unfinished is not the obstacle. Never having the right framework was.

I want to tell you about one of my clients - I'll call her Rachel.

Rachel was a debut novelist, nine months away from publication. Zero social media presence. Zero email list. No idea where to start. And when I first talked with her about building her audience before the book came out, she hesitated.

She told me she wasn't sure it was the right thing to do. That it felt a little dishonest to talk about a book that wasn't finished yet, like she was asking people to care about something she couldn't fully deliver on. She'd been telling herself she'd figure out the marketing side after the book was done, and starting earlier felt like it was jumping ahead of herself somehow.

What finally changed her mind wasn't excitement about marketing. It was one specific question I asked her.

I asked her to picture what launch day would actually look like if she waited.

She pictured publishing her book and readers finding it. What she hadn't fully pictured was announcing that book to a feed full of people who had no idea who she was - no relationship, no trust, no reason to stop scrolling. Not because her book wasn't good. Because she'd never given them a reason to pay attention before she needed them to buy. She'd be introducing herself to strangers on the day she needed those strangers to spend money.

That image was enough.

So she started nine months early. With an unfinished book and everything to build.

She worked through the foundation work first - who her ideal reader was, what her book gave that specific person, what the emotional experience of her novel was going to feel like. That clarity let her create content about her book's world - the themes it explored, the feelings it would create - without ever needing a finished product to point to.

She built a lead magnet around a simple idea: what to read while you wait for my book. A curated reading list for readers who loved the kind of story she was writing. Fiction readers loved it. They signed up.

She wasn't selling anything. She was building a room full of people who wanted to be there when the doors opened.

By launch day, Rachel had 187 email subscribers who had been following her journey for months. A small but genuinely warm social following who knew her voice and trusted her. Real pre-launch anticipation she hadn't had to manufacture, because the relationship was already there.

She sold 94 copies in her first week. She'd expected 20 to 30.

Same debut novel. Same author. A completely different launch because she didn't wait.

Here's what we can learn from Rachel's experience that every pre-published author can apply to their marketing.

There are three phases of book marketing. And most authors only know about one of them.

The first phase is the Attraction Phase. This is where Rachel spent her nine months. You're not selling yet. You're building - awareness, relationships, and an email list of readers who are genuinely interested in what's coming. Your only job in this phase is to make the right readers aware you exist and give them a reason to follow your journey.

The second phase is the Promotional Phase. This starts roughly three to four months before launch and runs through the first two weeks after your book comes out. This is where you sell. Where you announce. Where you build anticipation and drive pre-orders. This phase works because the Attraction Phase happened first. You're selling to a warm audience, not strangers.

The third phase is the Follow-Up Phase. It starts two weeks post-launch and runs indefinitely. This is actually where most book sales happen - long after the launch window closes. Most authors don't realize this phase even exists because nobody ever told them marketing doesn't stop on launch day.

Most authors try to skip straight to Phase 2 on launch day. Which means they're selling cold, with no list, no warm audience, and no trust built. And then they wonder why the launch didn't perform.

Rachel didn't skip Phase 1. And that's the only difference.

Every week that passes without building the Attraction Phase is a week of potential subscribers, reader relationships, and trust that won't exist by launch day.

The launch window is finite in energy and momentum, even if the book's life isn't. You will never have more visibility for your debut novel than in the weeks immediately after it comes out. And if you arrive at that window as a stranger, you'll spend that visibility introducing yourself instead of selling to people who were already ready.

The authors who look back on their launch and say I wish I'd done more almost never say they wished they'd posted more graphics or tried a different hashtag strategy. They say the same thing, almost word for word: I wish I'd started earlier!

The authors who don't say that are the ones who started before it felt necessary.

Nearly 20 years of working with authors across every genre and every stage of their career. And the pattern is consistent enough that I can say this with complete confidence:

The authors who have the best launches aren't always the ones with the most talent or the best books, though Rachel certainly had both. They're the ones who understood that launch day is not the beginning of marketing. It's the payoff of marketing that already happened.

If you're pre-published right now, you are in the best possible position to do this right. Not despite the fact that your book isn't done yet. Because of it.

The reason I created the New Author Marketing Playbook as part of the 90-Day Book Sales System is specifically for this.

Most marketing resources are built for authors who already have a book out. The Playbook is built for authors who are still writing, and it walks you through exactly what to create in each of those three phases. What to post during the Attraction Phase. How to build your email list while the manuscript is still in progress. How to set up your promotional window so you're opening doors for people who've been waiting rather than meeting strangers for the first time.

And like everything inside the 90-Day System, it starts with the foundation work first- your ideal reader, your core messages, what your book gives the person who reads it. By the time you're creating content, you're not guessing at what to say. You already know. The Playbook just shows you where each piece goes in your timeline.

It's included inside the 90-Day Book Sales System at no extra cost, because pre-published authors deserve a real plan just as much as authors who already have a book out. You can find the link to the System in this episode’s description.

And if you're not quite ready for the full System yet and want to understand what's missing from your foundation right now, whether your book is out or still being written, start with my free Book Marketing Blueprint.

It takes about 15 minutes and shows you exactly which of the six essential marketing elements you're currently missing. That's the fastest way to know what to build first.

The link is in the this episode’s description.

Next time I'm talking to the authors on the other end of this - the ones who have a book out, who've been showing up consistently, and who still feel like something in their marketing isn't quite working. If that's you, don't miss that one.

I'll see you then.