I want to jump in here and post this Launch HN form [0]. Obviously do not submit it if you are not a YC startup, but the questions on there are very helpful in terms of thinking about how to post about your startup on HN and elsewhere.
There's also https://news.ycombinator.com/yli.html, which is the guide for YC startups who want to launch on Hacker News. The formal mechanism is YC-only but the principles apply more broadly.
I'm not in YC, but I want to launch my startup here as it's relevant to the audience. Can I go through a process like this to coordinate with you for a launch, or should we just follow the guidelines, make a submission and hope for the best?
You would have to do a “Show HN”, the YC launch (post to the front page) is only for YC startups. You can certainly try and go through the process to do a “Launch HN” - but it would start with applying to YC.
Apart from show vs launch I think following the guidelines and hoping for the best is the norm. Launch HN is nice to get a one-time boost but it doesn’t confer any long-term special treatment on your post afaict.
[0] https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1pRMkNiD-FKjYL-La5JWMwwrcWsp...