If you’re preparing to publish a book but have no email list, few followers, and no established readership, this episode gives you a clear place to start. Jenn breaks down a practical 90-day book marketing plan for building your author platform, connecting with your ideal readers, growing your email list, and creating interest in your book before launch. You’ll learn what to focus on during each 30-day phase, what you can safely postpone, and why you don’t need a massive audience to launch your book successfully.

LINKS

The Book Marketing Blueprint

The New Author Marketing Playbook

Done-WITH-You Sessions

Your book is getting closer to being published, but there’s a problem.

You don’t have many followers on social media. You don’t have a group of readers waiting for the book. You don’t have an email list. 

So you start looking for marketing advice, and suddenly you have a list of 47 things you’re supposedly already behind on.

You’re being told to start a newsletter. Create a reader magnet. Post every day. Build a website. Find early reviewers. Start a street team. Learn how to make videos. Join every platform where readers might be.

It’s overwhelming because nobody is telling you what needs to happen first.

So today, I’m giving you a 90-day order of operations for building your reader’s journey.

The goal isn’t to build a massive audience in 90 days. It’s to create a working system that helps the right readers discover you, stay connected, and feel like your book is exactly what they’ve been looking for..

I’m Jenn dePaula, and I’ve spent nearly 20 years helping authors simplify their marketing, connect with readers, and sell more books.

Let’s walk through exactly what to focus on during your first 30, 60, and 90 days.

Before you start on day one: You need to change the goal

When you’re starting without an audience, it’s easy to assume your first goal should be getting as many followers as possible.

But a follower count isn’t an audience-building system.

You can have thousands of followers and yet have no one joining your email list, responding to your content, or buying your book. You can also have a much smaller group of people who are incredibly interested in the kind of book you’re writing.

That smaller group can be far more valuable.

Your goal during these 90 days is to create a simple path for the right reader.

First, they need to recognize that your book or content is relevant to them.

Then they need a way to discover you.

Once they find you, they need a reason to stay connected.

Over time, that connection gives them a reason to pay attention when your book is released.

Think about it like creating a path to your front door.

You don’t need thousands of people wandering around outside. You need clear signs that help the right people find the door, understand what’s inside, and decide they want to come in.

Followers may be part of that path, but they aren’t the entire path.

That distinction will help you make much better decisions during the next 90 days.

Let’s start with days 1–30 and Build the Foundation

During the first 30 days, your job is not to create a ton of content.

Your job is to make sure that the content you eventually create will attract the right people.

Start by answering three questions.

Who is this book specifically for?

Why would that person be interested in it?

Where is that person most likely to discover you?

These questions sound simple, but most authors answer them too broadly.

If you write fiction, “women who enjoy romance” isn’t specific enough to guide your marketing.

You need to consider things like what kind of romance do they love? What emotional experience are they looking for? Do they want something comforting, funny, suspenseful, deeply emotional, or filled with tension?

What themes, character dynamics, settings, or tropes make them reach for one book instead of another?

You’re trying to understand what your ideal reader wants to experience.

If you write nonfiction, start with the situation that causes someone to need your book.

Think about what they are struggling with? What question are they trying to answer? What have they already tried? What do they want to understand, solve, or change?

You’re trying to understand what’s happening in their life before they go looking for a book like yours.

Once you have that clarity, create one simple statement that connects the reader to the book.

A fiction author might say:

“This book is for readers who love small-town mysteries with complicated families, long-held secrets, and an amateur investigator who has a personal reason to uncover the truth.”

A nonfiction author might say:

“This book is for first-time managers who are good at what they do but feel unprepared to lead a team, and it will help them handle the conversations and decisions they’re now responsible for.”

Now, these statements won’t necessarily appear word for word in your marketing. Their purpose is to help you decide what actually belongs in your marketing.

If a piece of content has nothing to do with the reader, the experience, the problem, or the book, that’s when you need to consider whether it needs to be there or not.

The next decision is where you’re going to show up.

Choose one primary discovery channel for these 90 days.

That could be Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, a podcast, Substack, a blog, local events, or another place where you actually enjoy spending time.

Because when you enjoy spending time on a particular outlet and feel comfortable creating content there, the more likely you will stay consistent. 

Do not create five new accounts because you’re afraid of choosing the wrong one.

One platform used with a clear purpose will teach you far more than trying to juggle five.

By the end of the first 30 days, you should know who you’re trying to reach, why they would love your book, and where you will begin connecting with them.

That is progress, even if your follower count is still small.

Now let’s talk about days 31–60: and let’s turn visibility into a relationship

During the next 30 days, you’re going to start creating content and give interested readers a way to stay connected.

Your content should help the right person recognize that they have found an author or book that they have been looking for.

For fiction authors, that means creating content around the emotional world of your book.

You can talk about its themes, the kinds of relationships it explores, the reading experience, relevant tropes, or other books your ideal reader may enjoy.

You’re not asking people to become excited about a book they know nothing about. You’re showing them that you understand the kinds of stories they already love.

For nonfiction authors, your content can address the questions and problems your book helps readers navigate.

You don’t have to give away the entire book. Offer one useful explanation, example, or first step.

Help your readers understand their situation more clearly.

This is also when you need to create a simple way for people to move from your social media or visibility outlet to your email list.

Social media is useful for helping new people find you, but it is rented space - you don’t own it and you can’t control what happens there. And, most importantly, you don’t control whether your audience will actually see every post.

An email list gives interested readers a more dependable way to stay connected.

You don’t need an elaborate funnel right now.

All you need is a clear signup page, a relevant reason to join, and a simple welcome email that tells subscribers what they can expect from you.

The reason to join should connect naturally to the book and to the reader.

A fiction author might offer a curated reading list, a bonus scene, a prequel story, a character guide, or another experience connected to the kind of story they write.

A nonfiction author might offer a checklist, short guide, assessment, resource list, or first step toward solving the problem their book addresses.

The best reader magnet isn’t necessarily the one that attracts the most people.

It’s the one that attracts people who are likely to care most about what the book offers.

I worked with a debut novelist named Rachel.

When she began, she had no social media presence and no email list. She started working with me about nine months before her book was published and we focused on clarifying her ideal reader and the emotional experience of her novel.

Then she created a curated reading list built around a simple idea: what to read while you wait for my book.

By launch day, she had 187 email subscribers and a small but very loyal social media following. When her book launched, she sold 94 copies during her first week. She originally expected to sell 10, maybe 15 copies.

Rachel did not have an enormous audience. She had an attentive audience who knew her book was exactly what they were looking for.

By Day 60, that’s what you want to be building.

You want content that reaches the right people and a clear next step for those who want to hear from you again.

Finally, let’s talk about days 61–90: Where we will connect your audience to your book

During the final 30 days, begin making a clearer connection between what your audience cares about and the book you’re writing.

This doesn’t mean you suddenly turn every post into a promotion.

It means the book becomes a more visible part of the conversation and relationship you’ve already started building.

You might share why you chose a particular theme, or introduce readers to part of the book’s premise, orexplain a problem the book addresses. Maybe you could talk about the research behind it, or invite people into the publishing journey.

For fiction, the goal is to create desire for the story and the experience of reading it.

For nonfiction, the goal is to help readers see how the book relates to the result they want or the problem they’re trying to solve.

What you do next depends on the actual status of the book.

If the manuscript, cover, publication date, and your store or Amazon page are ready, you can can start to do a bit more promotion. You could start talking about preorders, early reviews, launch opportunities, or how readers can purchase the book.

If those pieces aren’t ready, you don’t have to invent urgency or announce a publication date you may not be able to keep.

What you’ll want to do is continue growing your email list. Continue learning which topics and ideas receive the best response. Continue talking about the book in a way that creates interest.

This is important because the 90-day plan doesn’t require you to publish on Day 90.

It gives you a foundation that will make your promotions more effective when you're finally ready to launch your book.

If your book is still six months or a year away, fantastic! You’re setting a solid foundation that you can continue to build on. You have more time to deepen the relationships you’ve started.

And if your book is already published, you can still use this roadmap. A book has a long life ahead of it - you haven’t missed your window. 

So let’s talk about what to measure after 90 Days

At the end of the 90 days, don’t judge the plan only by how many followers you gained.

You need to ask better questions.

Are the right people responding to your content?

Are people joining your email list?

Are subscribers opening your emails, clicking your links, or replying?

Can you clearly explain why a particular reader would be interested in your book?

Does an interested reader have an obvious next step they can take?

You may finish the 90 days with a modest audience.

That’s okay.

A small system that works can be improved and expanded. A large follower count with no clear path to the book is much harder to turn around. 

Your first action is to decide which part of this pathway is currently missing. And if you’re wondering how you can figure that out, download my free Book Marketing Blueprint, and in less than 15 minutes, you’ll have a clear answer. 

And if you’re ready to take the next step and want help building the full marketing timeline around your book, the New Author Marketing Playbook walks you through the Attraction, Promotional, and Follow-Up phases so you know exactly what to focus on before launch, during your promotional window, and after the book is released.

You can find the link in the description.

What I want you to remember is that starting with no audience doesn’t mean you have to launch to crickets.

For the next 90 days, focus on building one clear path to the right readers. Give them a reason to discover you, a reason to stay, and enough time to care before you ask them to buy.

I’ll see you in the next episode.