Here is the whole publishing checklist in one sentence: from the year before publication through the book's long-term life, give every task an owner, meet the deadlines that cannot be recreated later, and check the result instead of assuming it happened. This guide is for a first-time author whose manuscript is substantially done, on any publishing path, and it walks the tasks in the order they come up.
I got my book deal the boring way. A friend suggested I reach out to Wiley using her name as a reference, so I did. I'd already put together a one-pager and a sample chapter, and I had a pile of statistics about what we were building at Buried in Work. A warm introduction from someone the editor already trusted beat any cold pitch I could have written. I went one for one, and I know that's not the typical experience.
Then the manuscript was in, and I honestly wasn't sure what happened next.
A book needs more than editing, a cover, and a place to buy it. It develops an identity across publisher databases, retailers, libraries, review publications, award programs, search engines, and author profiles. Some of that happens automatically. Some of it belongs to the publisher. Some of it belongs to you. Almost all of it deserves to be checked.
This checklist starts after the manuscript is substantially done and follows the book from the year before publication through its long-term life. The exact schedule will vary. A traditionally published book may have a year or more of lead time. A self-published book can move much faster. What matters isn't finishing every task on the same schedule. It's knowing which opportunities have deadlines that can't be recreated later.
The short version
If you remember only ten things, remember these:
- Create one authoritative record of the book's title, contributors, formats, ISBNs, publication dates, description, price, subjects, and links.
- Decide who is responsible for every major publishing task.
- Verify what your publisher says it will handle.
- Prepare advance copies early enough for trade review deadlines.
- Audit the metadata attached to every edition and format.
- Make the book easy for retailers and libraries to order through their normal channels.
- Create and connect your author profiles.
- Build an awards calendar before the relevant windows close.
- Track submissions, corrections, results, and follow-ups in one place.
- Audit the book again after publication. Launch day is not the end of the record.
9 to 12 months before publication
Understand the publishing arrangement
Start with the agreement and the people, not the marketing plan.
- Identify whether the book is traditionally published, hybrid published, or self-published.
- Read the agreement for who handles copyright registration, metadata, review submissions, marketing, publicity, rights, and author copies.
- Identify the editor, production contact, publicist, marketer, sales contact, distributor, and rights contact.
- Ask when advance reading copies, also called ARCs or galleys, will be available.
- Ask when the title will enter the publisher's catalog and metadata feeds.
- Record the official publication date for each planned format.
"The publisher handles it" isn't a project plan. It's a starting assignment. You still need to know who at the publisher handles it, when, and what confirmation will exist afterward.
I expected one editor. I ended up working with a senior acquisitions editor, a managing editor on the trade side, an accounts manager for corporate sales, and a sales director for retail and wholesale channel partners. All of them were doing real work for the book. I just couldn't see most of it, and I wanted a list.
Create a Book Identity Sheet
This becomes the record everyone uses when describing the book. Include:
- the exact title, subtitle, contributors, publisher, and imprint
- every format, with its ISBN, publication date, price, page count or duration, and physical details
- the approved descriptions, biographies, cover, subject codes, and audience information
- distribution, publicity, Library of Congress, retailer, profile, review, award, and media links as they become available
Use this sheet when you check a listing or fill out a form. Don't retype the facts from memory.
An ISBN identifies a particular edition or format. It doesn't identify you, register copyright, or promise that every listing tied to it is accurate. The U.S. ISBN Agency confirms that a new edition is a different product and gets a different ISBN. See the official ISBN format and edition guidance (opens in a new tab).
One more thing while you're building the sheet. Pick the canonical way to write your title and stick to it. Mine has two ampersands and a hyphenated phrase, and I've watched it get rewritten a dozen different ways by well-meaning people. You'll spend less time correcting a title that's hard to get wrong.
Define the audience
Write down who should care about the book and why. "People who read books" doesn't count.
For nonfiction, think about the professions, associations, businesses, educators, libraries, conferences, podcasts, and media outlets that serve the subject. For fiction, identify genre communities, comparable authors, booksellers, reviewers, librarians, conventions, and reader groups.
This definition shapes subject codes, review targets, award categories, media angles, events, and bulk-purchase opportunities. It's the most reused paragraph you'll write.
6 to 9 months before publication
Verify identifiers and cataloging
Depending on the publishing path and eligibility, this is when to address ISBNs for all planned formats, copyright responsibility, the Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN), Cataloging in Publication (CIP), subject codes, and publisher and distributor records.
Don't treat LCCN and CIP as synonyms. An LCCN identifies a Library of Congress bibliographic record, and the publisher can request it before publication. CIP is prepublication cataloging data created for eligible books and printed in the book. The Library of Congress explains the distinction through its publisher services (opens in a new tab) and CIP program (opens in a new tab). The frustrating part for a first-time author isn't the acronyms. It's that nobody tells you who does what, or when. Ask.
Build the professional review plan
Many of the trade outlets librarians and booksellers rely on work months before publication. Typical targets include Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Library Journal, School Library Journal for youth titles, Kirkus Reviews, Foreword Reviews for eligible independent and university press books, Choice for academic books, AudioFile for audiobooks, and the professional publications in your subject.
The submission route depends on how the book is published. A traditional publisher or publicist generally makes trade submissions. Self-published authors may have a separate route, a paid option, or no direct route at all.
Don't wait until launch week to ask what was submitted. I did, and by then several prepublication windows had closed. I still don't know which outlets received my galley. That's not a complaint about Wiley. It's the reason this item is on the list.
Plan advance copies
Confirm when the digital galley and printed advance copies will be ready. Decide who sends them, who approves requests, and who pays for extra copies or shipping. Then record every copy that goes out.
Prepare a review-copy slip with the title, author, ISBN, price, publication date, publisher, distribution, description, and publicity contact.
4 to 6 months before publication
Complete the media materials
You need a high-resolution cover, author headshots with photographer credit, short and long biographies, the book description, a one-page book sheet, a media contact, sample interview questions, subject-matter talking points, endorsements approved for use, the official purchase or preorder link, and a downloadable media kit.
Make all of it easy to find. A journalist, podcast producer, librarian, or event organizer shouldn't have to ask you for the ISBN, the publication date, the cover, your bio, or how to reach you. I built one page on my own site with everything on it and have been pointing people to it ever since. It's become the model for the book pages on this site.
Build targeted outreach lists
Separate them by audience: trade reviewers, subject-matter publications, newspapers and local media, podcasts, bookstores, libraries, associations, conferences, educators, organizations that could buy in bulk, and the people or organizations mentioned in the book.
The pitch changes with the audience. A librarian wants to know why patrons need the book and whether it's easy to acquire. A podcast host wants a good conversation. A trade publication wants relevance to its readers. A corporate buyer wants to know what the book helps its people do.
2 to 4 months before publication
Audit the emerging retail records
Search the exact ISBN for every edition on the publisher page, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, Google Books, Apple Books, Kobo, audiobook retailers, and whatever else matters for your market.
Compare every listing against the Book Identity Sheet. Look for wrong subtitles, missing contributors, old covers, incorrect dates, duplicate editions, missing descriptions, bad categories, and author names that don't link to the right profile.
Record where each error originated. Fixing the publisher or distributor feed beats correcting the same mistake one retailer at a time.
Establish the author identity
Depending on eligibility, claim or verify Amazon Author Central, the Goodreads Author Program, the BookBub Author Profile, your Google search results, ISNI, library authority records, and VIAF.
These aren't interchangeable. Amazon, Goodreads, and BookBub are author-controlled profiles. ISNI identifies a public creator identity. Library authority records distinguish creators in library catalogs. VIAF links authority records contributed by participating organizations. You don't "claim" VIAF the way you claim an Amazon author page.
Build the awards calendar
For each possible award, record eligibility dates, eligible publishing paths, author or publisher restrictions, genre or subject category, geography or residency rules, entry fee, number and format of copies, who may submit, early and final deadlines, announcement dates, and what the recognition would actually help you do.
Don't enter every award that accepts payment. Fit matters more than volume. I go into this in the awards guide.
Publication month
Run a launch audit rather than assuming the records are right.
- Confirm every announced edition is actually available.
- Confirm prices and publication dates.
- Test purchase links on desktop and mobile.
- Inspect a finished copy.
- Check the barcode, cover, spine, copyright page, table of contents, index, and embedded links.
- Verify author-profile connections.
- Search the title, author, and ISBNs.
- Save published trade reviews and media coverage.
- Confirm library and ebook distribution routes.
- Ask readers for honest reviews without asking for a particular rating.
- Follow each retailer's rules for review requests and incentives.
Two launch lessons from my own book. First, get preorders, and if you can, don't sell the first copies directly. We sold hundreds of copies right away, but many went through the Buried in Work shop. That helped my numbers and it made us more per copy. It also meant those sales didn't count toward retailer rankings. We still ranked first in several Amazon categories that week, which I was thrilled about. Second, Amazon didn't send me a certificate or a notification when that happened. If you want a record of a ranking, take the screenshot yourself, with the date visible. The whole philosophy of this site is in that sentence.
Launch day is when readers start seeing the book. It's also when errors get much easier to find.
30 to 90 days after publication
Check the library record
Search WorldCat (opens in a new tab) by title, author, and ISBN. Record the OCLC number for each relevant record. Check whether formats and editions have been separated correctly.
WorldCat is a cooperative catalog built from records and holdings contributed by libraries. It isn't a complete real-time census of every library. OCLC explains that some libraries won't appear because they aren't participating members, don't expose their holdings, or cataloged a different edition. See OCLC's information for authors (opens in a new tab). I found 92 library systems holding No Loose Ends this way, most of which I'd never contacted. More on that in the library guides.
Follow up on corrections and submissions
Review everything still marked Waiting on Publisher, Submitted, Correction Requested, No Response, or Complete but Unverified.
Save confirmation links, review URLs, award results, correction responses, and library records. A completed task without a record is surprisingly easy to repeat or forget.
Update the public record
Add meaningful reviews, awards, interviews, and appearances to the official book page, your website, the media kit, the publisher page where possible, retail descriptions where permitted, and your outreach materials.
An accolade sitting quietly on the organizer's website doesn't do much for the book. When we won an award, I posted it, sent it to the Buried in Work mailing list, updated every profile, and emailed Wiley, because Wiley maintains the book's product listing and sends its metadata to retailers. I maintain my Author Central page, which is a different record and can't change a product listing. That last step is the one people forget.
Every year
Audit the core metadata. Check active retailer links. Review WorldCat records and holdings. Update author profiles and biographies. Add new editions, translations, and formats. Review rights and territory changes. Refresh the media kit. Check award eligibility for recently released formats. Export and keep the complete book record somewhere you control.
What if the book is already published?
Start now.
Some prepublication opportunities can't be recovered. That doesn't make the rest of the checklist useless. You can still audit metadata, connect author profiles, correct records, understand library distribution, pursue eligible awards, find subject-specific coverage, organize reviews and media, and build a clean record for the next edition or the next book.
The goal isn't a perfect score. The goal is to stop relying on memory and assumptions. I published, then built this checklist afterward. You're allowed to do it in that order too.
Frequently asked questions
Does a traditional publisher handle all of this?
No publisher handles every possible opportunity for every book. Traditional publishers commonly control ISBNs, metadata feeds, production, distribution, and many prepublication submissions. Learn what your publisher is handling and verify the outcome without duplicating the work.
When should an author start the publishing checklist?
Ideally 9 to 12 months before publication. The most time-sensitive work involves advance copies, trade reviews, cataloging, sales materials, and award calendars. If the book is already out, start with a metadata and distribution audit.
Is a book launch checklist enough?
No. A launch checklist usually covers publicity and sales around publication day. A publishing checklist also covers identifiers, catalog records, professional reviews, libraries, author identity, awards, corrections, and long-term maintenance.
Do I need to complete every task?
No. Some tasks apply only to particular genres, formats, countries, or publishing paths. Mark them Not Applicable rather than pretending they don't exist.
Keep the record in one place
Use the free Author Checklist, or create a free Author Profile and add your book, one payment, to keep the work in one place.
Browse the complete free checklist or see what a book adds to your free Author Profile.
Sources and further reading
Last fact-checked September 13, 2026. Submission rules, fees, and deadlines change. The official source controls.