Most launch products ship one timeline. Tohm ships a 4/8/12-week runway that matches the time you actually have. Here’s what the most-recommended products actually cost and cover — and what none of them adjust for.
The table below is ten rows — free interactive checklists, free printable 30/60/90-day PDFs, community Notion and Trello templates, paid workbook planners, a $149/yr SaaS, a media-and-plan wizard, and a six-month cohort — scored on the same seven launch-task axes. A second table names the seven capabilities Tohm does not ship in full, and which product wins each. The closing card is the single differentiator.
Read this if:you’re already looking at one of these products and want a side-by-side read on format, price, runway length, what each one leaves you to do on your own, and where Tohm fits in honestly.
Ten products, same axes, same rows.
Free alternatives up top, paid planners in the middle, the genuine top-anchor price just before the bottom. Tohmis highlighted so the column you care about is easy to scan. Cell ratings are the product’s own claim as of this writing; where the brief gave no per-cell data, the rating stays Partial because “templates but not a sequenced date” is the honest reading.
| Tool | Format | Price | Runway | ARC outreach | Pre-order | Amazon ads | Social proof | Email capture | Post-launch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Free interactive checklist (e.g. Reedsy, Joanna Penn) | Free interactive checklist | Free | 12 weeks (fixed) | Partial | Partial | Not covered | Partial | Partial | Not covered |
Free email-gated 30/60/90-day checklist | Free email-gated PDF checklist | Free | 30/60/90 days (fixed) | Not covered | Partial | Not covered | Partial | Partial | Not covered |
Notion / Trello launch templates (community) | Free downloadable templates | Free | Variable (you fit it) | Not covered | Partial | Not covered | Not covered | Partial | Not covered |
The Essential Book Launch Planner (Audrey) | PDF workbook | $30–$60 | 8–12 weeks | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial |
The Book Launch Planner (Mandi Lynn) | PDF workbook + companion course | $40–$100 | 8 weeks | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial |
ProBookLaunch | AI asset generator + checklist (subscription) | Subscription (recurring) | Variable (AI-generated) | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial |
Author Launch Kit (Book Launchers) | SaaS dashboard + templates | $149/yr · 7-day trial · 30-day money-back | 12 weeks | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial |
Storiad | SaaS dashboard + media/reviewer DB + plan wizard + press kits + light CRM | ~$350/yr SaaS or ~$249 lifetime | Variable | Partial | Partial | Not covered | Partial | Partial | Not covered |
Book Launch in a Box | 6-month cohort programme (human coaching + community) | $1,000+ | 6 months (~24 weeks) | Partial | Partial | Not covered | Partial | Partial | Partial |
TohmYou are here | Interactive checklist + dated runbook | 4-week free; 8-week $39 one-time; 12-week $59 one-time | 4 / 8 / 12 weeks | Covered | Covered | Covered | Covered | Covered | Covered |
Cell meanings:
Seven capabilities we don’t ship, and who wins each.
A 7-0 scorecard would be unbelievable. The seven cells on the right are where we hand off to a tool that wins on its own lane — a media contacts database, ARC file-delivery infrastructure, keyword research, copy drafting, sales tracking, and human feedback on the plan itself. The runway-shaped, date-driven checklist is what we ship; the rest belongs to the products listed below.
Media / reviewer contacts database (~50,000 names, searchable)The only mainstream product with a database in this scale and shape. | Storiad |
ARC file delivery to reviewers (download links, watermarking, expiry)Specialised in file-hand-off for ARCs; Tohm keeps the outreach calendar and hands delivery off. | BookFunnel Booksprout StoryOrigin |
Review-request reminder automation (nags reviewers who haven’t posted by day X)Nudge sequences are a Booksprout specialty, not a Tohm workstream. | Booksprout |
Keyword / category research on AmazonThe category-defining tool for KDP keyword and AMS category research. | Publisher Rocket |
Copy generation for blurb, press release, one-sheetAll three ship copy templates and AI drafting; Tohm does the calendar, not the copy. | Author Launch Kit (Book Launchers) ProBookLaunch Storiad |
Sales / royalty tracking post-launchAuthor-facing dashboards built specifically around post-launch sales and royalties. | Book Report ScribeCount |
Human feedback on the launch plan itself (a person reviews it)A 6-month cohort with a live human reviewing your plan — Tohm ships the runbook, not the coach. | Book Launch in a Box |
Every other product ships one runway. Tohm ships three.
Read the table again: free checklists, paid planners, SaaS dashboards, and the six-month cohort all live on a single fixed timeline. The author finds the row that is closest to the months they have, then makes the launch fit. Tohmflips that. You pick the runway that matches your release date — the interactive checklist does the rest.
The one-time vs recurring arithmetic, and why this product is not generated.
A $149/yr subscription sounds lighter than a one-time $39 or $59 until you measure it across the books you actually intend to ship. Three books over four years at recurring tier alone is $447 in cumulative SaaS charges — just for Author Launch Kit, not counting the second tool you bolt on for media contacts and the third you bolt on for ARC delivery. Tohm ships as a single, dated interactive checklist: the 4-week runway is free, the 8-week tier is a $39 one-time, and the 12-week tier is a $59 one-time. No renewal, no tier escalation, no per-launch invoice.
The price difference is the part a $149/yr subscription does not advertise, and it is only half of why Tohmis not interchangeable. The roadmaps are extracted from the founder’s own hand-curated schedules — the order ARC distribution overlapped with pre-order go-live, the week AMS ads stood up against email capture ramp, the week the 48-hour follow-through actually ran. An AI asset generator can write you a launch list; Tohm ships the date-aware order it has to run in, surfaced as a date-driven interactive checklist with persistent checkboxes that track your progress across sessions in a saved plan.
Read the rows. Then pick a runway.
The 4-week runway is free if you want to feel the difference between a runway-shaped runbook and a template-shaped checklist before paying. The 8-week and 12-week tiers are one-time purchases with no subscription — you read them, you work them, the dates travel from the page into the in-app checklist.