Checklist category
Launch & Ongoing Maintenance
Publication day is a checkpoint, not the finish. Audit availability, price, date, and author associations in launch week, chase the corrections still pending, then repeat the audit at 30 days, 90 days, and once a year. Keep your public materials current, add later editions as they appear, review sales and rights reporting, and export the whole record so it is yours.
The tasks in Launch & Ongoing Maintenance
7 tasks, 17 steps
Run the launch-week availability audit
5 stepsOn the day, every announced format is actually buyable at the right price on the right date, the book's details match everywhere, and it is attached to your author profiles. This is the one audit that cannot be done later.
CorePublication day and the first weekAuthor and Publisher and DistributorSomeone else may do it. Inspect the result yourself.
Resolve metadata corrections
1 stepEvery correction you reported has either landed or been chased again, with a date beside it. Corrections travel through several systems and quietly fail in the middle more often than anyone admits.
RecommendedTwo to six weeks after each correction is reportedAuthor and publisher togetherCheck again on a schedule, or after something changes.Metadata or distribution
Repeat the post-publication audits
3 stepsYou run the same short check at fixed intervals instead of whenever you happen to worry about it. Listings drift, editions split, and links rot, and a scheduled look catches it while it is still small.
RecommendedThirty days, ninety days, and then once a yearAuthor and PublisherCheck again on a schedule, or after something changes.
Keep public materials current
2 stepsYour bio, media kit, book page, and review links say what is true today. The cost of a stale page is small every day and embarrassing on the one day someone important reads it.
OptionalWhenever something real changesAuthorYou normally do this yourself.
Add and audit later editions
2 stepsA paperback, a translation, or an audiobook gets its own record and its own version of the work that a first edition needed. A new format is a new product everywhere, not an update to the old one.
ConditionalWhenever a new edition, translation, or format is announcedAuthor and PublisherSomeone else normally owns it. Get an answer, then record it.Metadata or distribution
Review sales, royalties, and rights
3 stepsYou can see your own sales and royalty reporting, you know when statements arrive, and you know which rights and territories have moved. Nobody chases this for you.
RecommendedAfter publication, then at every reporting periodAuthor and Publisher and AgentSomeone else may do it. Inspect the result yourself.Legal or contract
Export the permanent book record
1 stepYou keep your own copy of everything settled about this book: identifiers, dates, contacts, submissions, results, and corrections. Platforms close, publishers change hands, and your record should outlive both.
RecommendedOnce a year, and whenever anything important changesAuthorYou normally do this yourself.
Common questions
What is a baseline?
A dated record of what the stores and search results looked like before and on launch day. It is what lets you prove later that something changed, and it takes ten minutes.
From Run the launch-week availability audit.
What if a format is not available on the day?
Report it immediately to whoever controls the feed or the platform, and record the time you found it. Launch-week availability problems are the most expensive kind and the most fixable if caught fast.
From Run the launch-week availability audit.
Why check author profile associations again?
Because a new edition or a data change can quietly detach a book from your author page, and launch week is when the most people are looking.
From Run the launch-week availability audit.
How long should a correction take?
It varies by system and by who owns the feed. A few weeks is normal, and longer is common. What is not normal is nobody checking whether it happened.
From Resolve metadata corrections.
The store fixed it and then it changed back. Why?
Almost always because the feed overwrote the store-side edit. The fix has to happen at the source, or it will keep reverting.
From Resolve metadata corrections.
Is this really necessary after launch went well?
Data changes without anyone telling you: a price update, a new edition, a store migration. The thirty-day check catches most of what launch week could not have seen yet.
From Repeat the post-publication audits.
What am I checking each time?
The same things: availability, price, date, description, cover, contributors, duplicates, and links. The point of a repeat audit is that it is the same list every time.
From Repeat the post-publication audits.
Can I skip the annual one?
You can, and many authors do. It is the cheapest insurance in the whole checklist, and it is where out-of-print surprises and broken links usually turn up.
From Repeat the post-publication audits.
What counts as significant news?
A review, an award result, a new edition or format, a new role or credential, a change of contact. If you would mention it in an introduction, it belongs on the page.
From Keep public materials current.
How often should I refresh?
There is no schedule worth inventing. Tie it to events: when something happens, update the four or five places that say who you are.
From Keep public materials current.
Why does a paperback need its own steps?
Because it has its own identifier, its own listing, its own price, its own date, and often its own review window. Treating it as a variation of the hardcover is how new editions end up unlisted.
From Add and audit later editions.
What about a translation?
It is a separate book in every system that matters, usually with a different publisher and territory. Record it separately and check who controls its data.
From Add and audit later editions.
What is the difference between a sales report and a royalty statement?
A sales report estimates copies sold through some retailers. A royalty statement is what your publisher owes you under the contract, on its own schedule, after returns and reserves. They will not match, and only one of them is money.
From Review sales, royalties, and rights.
Why check my reporting access?
Because access is usually granted once, at setup, and quietly fails: an old email address, an unmigrated account, a portal nobody mentioned. Finding out at royalty time costs a reporting period.
From Review sales, royalties, and rights.
What is there to check about rights?
Which territories, translations, audio, and subsidiary rights have been sold or reverted. Each one changes who controls the data for an edition, and sometimes whether an edition still exists.
From Review sales, royalties, and rights.
What should the export contain?
The identity sheet, every identifier, the publication dates, the contacts, the submission and award history, the review results, and the correction log. Anything you would have to reconstruct from memory.
From Export the permanent book record.
Where should I keep it?
Somewhere that is not an account you could lose access to. A file you own, backed up, in a format you can still open in ten years.
From Export the permanent book record.