Some honest thoughts on book publication days
My seventh novel, After The Fire, was recently published in both the UK and the US, by a division of Bloomsbury (of Harry Potter fame).
Even when I type that now, it amazes me that it’s true.
I’ve had seven novels published!
When I was a kid, I only ever wanted to have one novel published. And now I’ve had seven!
And my eighth is scheduled for publication in 2026 (if I ever finish my structural edits 🙃).
SEVEN publication days.
'Awkward book selfie no 7'
And yet… the truth is that even typing that, I actually feel very little about the days themselves at all.
I didn’t get the swelling sense of purpose and validation on publication day that I might have expected when I was unpublished.
I remember my very first publication day - for my debut novel The Rival.
It felt like such a big deal that I didn’t even have a ‘publication day’ - rather, I had a PUBLICATION WEEK.
I had a launch party in Covent Garden Waterstones a couple of days before the book actually came out, and then on the day, I celebrated with my close family.
There were expensive dinners out, posh dresses and new shoes, lots of champagne, even a cake with the cover of my book on it.
It felt like a really big deal. And of course, it was, but it was also exhausting and slightly… disappointing.
My book didn’t immediately rocket up the Amazon charts.
The hardback didn’t even get stocked in any shops near me, so I couldn’t go and ‘see’ the book on the shelves and feel like a real writer.
Here’s what I’ve learnt since about publication days…
(I reckon you could probably apply this to any ‘big’ event, ESPECIALLY if you are an author/introvert and big events aren’t something you generally relish).
They are often simultaneously slightly anticlimactic and also hugely overwhelming.
I would go so far as to say that many authors I know (not all, of course there will be some authors that love them!) don’t really enjoy their publication days at all.
There is SO much build up to ‘the day’ and the fact that your book is out there in the world and you’ve DONE THE THING and finally you are a legit published author, but most of the time, not much actually happens on the day itself.
Here are a few things that might happen on your book’s publication day:
You might get a gift from your publisher - which is actually always so lovely. Flowers, perhaps. Or chocolates.
(But some authors don’t, because not all publishers send them.)
You should at the very least get an email with some kind of acknowledgement and congratulations.
You’ll probably get tagged in tons of social media posts - which is totally lovely, but can also bring a bit of anxiety with it… what if I miss responding to someone and they think it’s a deliberate slight?! Or what if no-one actually posts about your book at all, or only a handful of people do?
Sidenote: I really do believe in acknowledging nice comments, shares and reviews as much as you can - ignoring readers who are championing your book is not a great look.
You might go out for lunch with friends - which of course will be fab, unless they start asking you how many books you’ve sold (NEVER ASK A WRITER THIS, PEOPLE 😂!) and how come when they popped into the bookshop on the way here, they didn’t see your book anywhere? 😭
You will definitely check your Amazon rank three million times, while praying that none of the two-star reviews from Netgalley have been copied across.
Another side note: I will NEVER forget the publication day when I rushed excitedly to Amazon to find that I had only ONE review so far, and that it was A TWO-STAR ONE.
It was absolutely the most crushing thing ever - and meant I really didn’t want to triumphantly tweet ‘my book’s out today’ and link to Amazon as I’d planned, because everyone who clicked on the link would think my book had a two-star average.
(If you’re a reviewer - maybe hold off on posting the two-star reviews until the author has at least a few more on their page!?)
Thankfully a few more reviews appeared during the course of the morning but it still really took the wind out of my sales (pun intended).
You might venture to your local supermarkets / bookshops to try to find your book on the shelves and take a photo next to it for social media.
I am yet to find this anything but a cringey, slightly surreal experience, but that might just be me!
Top tip: if you do decide to try to find your book in supermarkets, then it’s probably best to wait until the afternoon. The book stock in the UK is changed over on Thursday but not always first thing, as I learnt to my peril in February when I went to my local Tesco and had to linger like a complete weirdo for 45 minutes while the woman restocking the shelves got my book off the crate and into its position.
She DEFINITELY spotted me lurking in the book aisle for ages and clearly thought I was unhinged. Either way, the whole experience was painfully awkward (but again, that might just be me!).
But perhaps your book didn’t get any retail slots (surprisingly common).
Despite the fact that my previous pen-name book, The One That Got Away, got into two supermarkets, After The Fire didn’t get a single placement, which means it’s only available to buy online.
Crushing, but again, SO COMMON.
The truth about most traditionally published novels →
The truth is that nothing MUCH actually happens on publication day, unless you’re Richard Osman or something and you’re appearing on breakfast TV to promote your book.
Publication day biscuits from my literary agency 😍
So it can all feel a bit: now what?
You’ve been working towards this day, this goal, this DREAM for what feels like most of your life and now you realise that NOTHING HAS REALLY CHANGED.
It’s the same with all goals.
Really, the journey is what matters, not the destination.
This is a mantra that I really believe authors must embed into their souls, in order to cope with the challenging rollercoaster life of a writer.
The writing is the good part. Honestly.
The book deal, the foreign rights deals, the reviews in mainstream press, the table-slots in bookstores - they are all great, but they’re just the cherry on the top.
Your sense of pride and satisfaction absolutely has to come from the writing itself, otherwise you’ll go mad.
There’s a phrase I love (that I actually used in my seventh book): wherever you go, there you are.
Having a book PUBLISHED doesn’t change anything.
The real success is in the effort, resilience and hard work it took to write a publishable book in the first place, and not in the ability to order your book on Amazon and have it delivered the next day, or the number of copies you sell in the first week.
Before my debut came out, I had these weird, naive ideas about the publication of the book somehow ‘changing’ me in some way.
Making me into a BETTER person somehow.
I even posted in a writer Facebook group to ask:
How has your life changed since your first book came out?
And I got a barrage of (perhaps-justified) piss-takes in response:
Oh I can’t walk down the street any longer without people stopping me and asking me to sign a copy.
Obviously I’ve bought a yacht and taken a younger lover.
Well, I now write every sentence with utter confidence and self-belief.
Etc etc…
I felt really stupid.
But to be honest, those were fair responses in the face of my sweet naïveté.
The truth about publication day
Publication day is just another day in the many varied and interesting days of being an author.
We might be a little bit more visible that day - especially online - but really it’s the weeks and months after publication that truly count.
If your book doesn’t do as well as you’d hoped (which is VERY common with both self- and traditionally published books) then how do you deal with that?
Do you throw in the towel and sink into a pit of despair, or do you dig deeper and keep going?
I have learnt that the best thing to do is accept the difficult feelings, be kind to myself, and take a few days to rage about how hard it all is, then move on with the next book.
I’ve also learnt that designing a publication day that suits you can be really beneficial.
Feel too busy and stressed to celebrate on the actual day? That’s absolutely OK.
Don’t like the thought of hosting a launch party? Again, totally fine. In fact, your publisher will probably be pleased (there’s evidence they don’t make much difference to overall book sales, even if the pics do look nice on social media).
I have my own publication day routine - which involves being on my own for most of the day, and spending a lot of time thanking readers on social media, then having a nice celebratory dinner in the evening with my family.
No fuss or fanfare. No fancy lunches or outfits.
But you might want to go all-out. And that’s fine too.
Don’t feel pressured that your publication day has to look a certain way, or involve something that makes you uncomfortable (many authors don’t like looking at their Amazon ranking or reviews at all, and that’s probably extremely sensible).
I think this is my most important takeaway - it’s YOUR publication day, so spend it how you want to.
FAQs on book publication days
What exactly is a publication day?
A publication day is the day that your book is officially released to the world. You can have more than one - for example, if your book is publishing in multiple editions, such as hardback and ebook, you may find the publication days vary for each format of the book.
What day of the week is book publication day?
For self-published authors, you can set your book to release on any day of the week. But for traditionally published books, they are released on certain days of the week.
In the UK, books are released on Thursdays. In the US, they are released on Tuesdays, which is why if you have a book deal in both countries, you may find that your book comes out slightly before in the US than it does in the UK.
Why do some books come out first in ebook?
This is known as a split publication - when different formats of books are released on different days. For example, the ebook of my debut came out a couple of weeks before the hardback did.
Then with my last psychological suspense, The Wrong Mother, the ebook came out a whopping six months before the paperback!
Your publisher will have their reasons for staggering publication like this - if you want to understand more then just ask them and they should be happy to explain their rationale.
Who chooses the publication day for a book?
If you’re traditionally published, the publisher will decide which date your book will be released on. And this will be decided based on their own editorial calendar and schedules, and what time of year they think your book will best be received - by both readers and the retailers (eg, you don’t want your summer romcom to come out at Christmas and be swallowed up by all the celebrity memoirs and gifting books!).
Do publication days change?
Yes! They definitely do. Publishers change dates of publication quite often, depending on schedules and potential clashes with other books. They want your book to have the best chance for its moment in the spotlight, so don’t worry if they decide to push your publication date back a little bit. It may be frustrating, but they are (usually!) doing it for the right reasons.
