Some launches go exactly to plan. This one didn't — and I'm telling you everything.

Heartbeat Song released on the 12th of April 2026, and in the lead-up to launch day, Amazon cancelled all of my preorders. Before I could even speak to a real person at KDP, I had to fight through a wall of AI bots — frustrating, time-consuming, and genuinely stressful when your launch window is closing in real time.

But here's the thing. My book was also live on Apple Books, Kobo, and Google Play — and those platforms delivered. Being wide didn't just make business sense in theory. It literally cushioned my launch.

In this episode I'm sharing the full story: what went wrong, what I didn't do, and exactly how I'm building the runway differently for Our Song later this year.

What you'll learn in this episode:

- Why preorders are about so much more than sales — and what losing them actually costs you

- Why selling wide across multiple platforms is non-negotiable

- The honest list of launch strategies I skipped — ARCs, street team, BookTok, Meta ads, email sequences

- How to build an ARC team that generates reviews before launch day

- Why your Shopify store (or direct sales channel) should lead your strategy, not follow it

- What a proper email launch countdown sequence looks like

- How to shift from creation mode to launch mode — before you finish the last chapter

Links mentioned:

Grab Songbird and Heartbeat Song from my website: https://serenadepublishing.myshopify.com/collections/songbird

The Author CEO: https://www.serenadepublishing.com/the-author-ceo