Back before I started using pre-order, going live time for me was about an hour.

First book in a series took longer, but never more than 4 hours.

I used to time it for around midnight Hawaii time on the day I wanted it to release, and it would be available for breakfast time on the East Coast.

If you're releasing a month apart, I'd still do pre-orders on books 2 and 3.

I know what people say about pre-orders and ranks, but if you get KU reads on day 1, any loss of sales rank for the pre-orders is offset by the downloads.

Having the pre-orders for the next book there on release day locks in the sales when people like the book they just read. Otherwise, people can forget or be distracted from buying when the next book comes out.

 

I've advertised on Reddit now and then. You can set it to keywords or subreddits (such as horror as well as all the horror subreddits, etc.) or you can go with a wide range. Since you pay per click, some people set it to "all subreddits" and just see who clicks.

It was really effective until they raised their rates, then I stopped. I haven't tried it in a year, though. Maybe it's still a viable alternative. I'll take a peek at it again this week.

Good luck Tim!

Releasing Jan 26, 2021