Our Book Launch Campaigns Process
How East 2 West Collective Handles Book Launch Campaigns
East 2 West Collective runs a book launch campaign in a straight line: a discovery call, a strategic blueprint built around your book's central question, a targeted media list, pitching to the outlets whose audience actually sits with the topic, a forum for the conversation to live beyond one interview, and a wrap-up that turns launch week into an ongoing author platform — the same sequence that put Justine Bateman's Face: One Square Foot of Skin on the Today Show, the Tamron Hall Show, and sold out on Amazon.com twice in its first week.
We're a bi-coastal agency based in Los Angeles and New York, and book launch campaigns are one of the core disciplines we build our full-spectrum PR and marketing work around. What follows is the process itself, step by step, in our own words — not a template, but the shape every author campaign takes before we tailor it to the book in front of us.
1. First Contact & Discovery Call
Every campaign starts with a conversation, not a questionnaire. We want to know the book, the publication date, who the publisher is, and — most importantly — what question the book is actually trying to answer for its reader. For Justine Bateman's Face, that question was blunt and specific: why can't women feel free to age on their own terms? That single sentence became the spine of the entire campaign.
What you do: Reach out and tell us about the book and your release date. What you receive: A direct conversation with our team about what the book is really about, not just what it's about on the jacket copy.
2. Campaign Assessment
Once we understand the book, we assess the author's platform, the publisher's existing plans, the timeline to release, and the audience the book needs to reach. This is also where we identify whether the story needs broadcast, print, digital, or some combination — because a book about women and aging needs a different media list than a book of entertainment memoir or lifestyle expertise.
What you do: Share advance copies, author bio, and any existing publisher outreach so we're not duplicating effort. What you receive: An honest read on where the opportunity is strongest and where the story will land hardest.
3. The Strategic Blueprint
We don't run a copied plan from the last author we worked with. Every book gets its own blueprint — built around the central question the book is asking, the audience most likely to engage with it, and the moment in the news cycle the launch needs to hit. This is the stage where we map out the media list: national broadcast, the digital platforms whose readers actually stay with a topic, and the high-end magazines that set agenda rather than chase trends.
What you do: Review the blueprint and flag anything that doesn't fit the author's comfort level or the publisher's existing commitments. What you receive: A written strategy naming the outlets we're targeting and the pitch angle built to get past the inbox.
4. Scheduling & Timeline Alignment
Book launch PR runs on the publication date — everything works backward from it. We align outreach so broadcast and top-tier print land in the days immediately surrounding release (the Face campaign opened with a Today Show interview the Friday before the book came out, and a Tamron Hall Show segment the day after), while longer-lead digital and magazine placements get seeded earlier so they're ready to run at the right moment.
What you do: Confirm the release date and any locked media commitments from the publisher. What you receive: A campaign calendar built around that date, not around our convenience.
5. The Work: Media List, Pitch & Forum
This is where the blueprint becomes outreach. Three things happen in parallel:
- The media list — built to span national broadcast, women's-focused or category-specific digital platforms, and high-end magazines, so the book reaches people who sit with the topic instead of skimming past it.
- The pitch — seeded around the one central question the book is built on, not a generic synopsis blasted to a mass list.
- The forum — for some campaigns, that means identifying the right venue for a virtual event, giving the conversation a room to happen in beyond a single interview segment.
What you do: Be available for interviews, media training if needed, and any events we book. What you receive: Active pitching, placement coordination, and a team managing every media relationship so the author doesn't have to.
6. Launch Week & Momentum
Launch week is where the campaign either lands or doesn't, and it's the stage we build the entire blueprint toward. For Face, that meant a Today Show interview on April 1, 2021, kicking things off; a Tamron Hall Show segment the next day that widened the conversation with Paulina Porizkova; a spot on Town & Country's spring reading list; and, within the first week, Amazon.com selling out of the book twice. Time Magazine and 60 Minutes Australia reached out on their own, without a pitch ever going their way — which is the clearest sign a campaign has found its real audience.
What you do: Show up for the interviews and amplify the coverage as it lands. What you receive: Active media-day coordination and real-time response to inbound interest as it comes in.
7. Wrap-Up & the Ongoing Platform
A book launch campaign doesn't have to be a one-off press cycle. As we put it on our brand marketing and consultancy page, our author work is built to position the author's expertise and personal story so the launch becomes the start of an ongoing platform — not a few weeks of coverage that disappears the month after release.
What you do: Decide whether you want the relationship to continue past the launch window. What you receive: A campaign record of every placement secured, and a conversation about what sustained visibility looks like from here.
Key Takeaways
- Every book launch campaign starts with a discovery call about the book's release date and its central question, not a generic intake form.
- The blueprint is written for the book in front of us — media list, pitch angle, and event forum are all built from that one central question.
- Outreach is timed to the publication date, with broadcast and top-tier print concentrated around release.
- Our media list approach spans national broadcast, category-specific digital, and high-end print and magazines.
- Results can include unsolicited coverage from outlets that were never pitched directly, as happened with Time Magazine and 60 Minutes Australia on the Bateman campaign.
- A launch campaign can be the start of an ongoing author platform, not just a press cycle tied to release week.
- We work out of Los Angeles and New York, so author campaigns can draw on media relationships in both markets.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if my publication date changes?
We rebuild the timeline around the new date. Because our outreach is scheduled to concentrate around the release — broadcast and print timed close to it, digital seeded earlier — a date change means we reset the calendar rather than scrap the blueprint itself.
What happens if we don't have a clear media angle for the book yet?
That's part of the campaign assessment. Before we build the media list, we work with you to identify the one central question the book is actually asking — the way we did with Face's question about women and aging — because a clear angle is what makes a pitch land instead of getting skimmed.
Do you run virtual or in-person events as part of a book launch?
Where it fits the book, yes. Part of the strategy stage includes identifying the right forum for a conversation to continue beyond a single interview — a venue for the discussion the book has started.
What happens after launch week ends?
We treat the campaign as a potential platform, not a finish line. Per our brand marketing approach, we look at whether the author's story can keep building past the release window rather than ending when the press cycle does.
Who at East 2 West Collective will I be working with?
Our contacts are Elizabeth Much (emuch@e2wcollective.com) and Sydney Small (emuch@e2wcollective.com). You can also reach the team directly by phone.
Can I see how this worked for an actual book?
Yes — our case study on Justine Bateman's Face: One Square Foot of Skin walks through the full campaign, from the media list and pitch to the Today Show interview and the unsolicited coverage that followed.
Start Your Book Launch Campaign
If you've got a release date and a book with a real question behind it, we're based in Los Angeles and New York and ready to build the blueprint.
Call: 310-963-8050 Email: emuch@e2wcollective.com Los Angeles office: 1800 Century Park East #60, Los Angeles, CA 90067 New York office: 745 Fifth Avenue, Suite 500, New York, NY 10151 Hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM