Do you feel overwhelmed by everything you have to do to launch and promote your book? With outsourcing, you delegate tasks to an assistant or freelance expert, and this frees up your time so you can focus on more important and interesting tasks. Here are some of the launch tasks you can outsource.
Social Media Marketing
Outsourcing social media marketing is tricky because your interactions about your book launch need to be authentic, but there are still tasks that can be delegated. A virtual assistant (VA) can post content for you and reply to comments. They can also monitor your social media activity. If you need more in-depth help, look for a social media marketing expert. Be careful that whatever they do is on-brand and looks like you. Don’t outsource anything that requires strictly personal communication.
Video Production
Not everyone is good at making videos, but video content is excellent for promoting books. You can outsource virtually any step of the process, from shooting the video itself to editing and posting. If you’re inexperienced with video, someone who specializes in this area can make your amateur content look slick and professional. One area many choose to outsource is voice-overs. You can also hire someone to perform in the production if you don’t like getting in front of a camera.
Book Design
Design is another area that will be a challenge if you aren’t a graphic designer by trade. Outsource the design of your book and its marketing materials to someone who can easily come up with professional visuals. Re-vamping the book cover can give a book new life. An assistant could help by designing logos and other branded visual language using software like Canva.
Scheduling Interviews and Guest Blog Posts
A great way to promote your book launch is to get interviewed on someone else’s platform or write guest blog posts for another person’s blog. However, this takes a great deal of work and planning. Your VA can help locate opportunities to appear, reach out to influencers, and schedule interviews. This is an ongoing effort, so it’s helpful to have someone take care of it for you.
Reaching Out to Influencers
If part of your strategy is to reach out to influencers, this is also something that requires research and scheduling. You may choose to write messages personally, but there are a number of related tasks a virtual assistant can help you with.
Finding the Right Help
You need help with your launch and beyond, and a good VA can take on a variety of tasks. The best way to find someone is to ask people in your network for referrals. If you can’t find anyone suitable this way, you can try searching on social media sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter.
For tasks like book cover design that require a specific skillset, use sites likes Fiverr, Upwork, and other freelancer websites.
Before you start contacting people, set out the conditions of the job. Identify exactly what you need done and when, as well as a budget you’ll pay for the work. Contact several freelancers and discuss the details of the job with them.
Once you have help in place, you can start delegating tasks and free up your time to focus on other things.