About JD Caron & Weekend Publisher

Weekend Publisher is a book marketing service built exclusively for science fiction and fantasy authors. It's run by me, JD Caron, from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Since joining Reedsy in December 2019, I've worked with more than 350 authors, managed over $225,000 in ad spend, and earned 105 five-star reviews on Reedsy with a 5.0 average rating.

Those are the numbers, and I'll stand behind every one of them. But numbers are only ever part of the story. Here's the rest.

The facts, up front

How I got here

Before book marketing, I spent nearly a decade as an Air Force traffic technician and a 911 dispatcher. High-stakes, high-volume, no room for wishful thinking. Pattern recognition and systems thinking weren't optional; they were the job. When you've spent years trusting the data on the screen over the story in your head, you don't switch that off. It turns out that's exactly the temperament book advertising rewards.

I grew up in Ontario and eventually landed in Halifax, on Canada's east coast, partly for the cooler weather (I'm a winter person, I'll admit that up front) and partly because there's something happening on the water here just about every weekend.

I started taking on authors through Reedsy in December 2019. Reedsy accepts roughly 3% of marketer applicants, and every review on my profile is from a verified, completed project; I can't edit them, and I can't buy them. Over six-plus years there, a pattern emerged: my best results, again and again, came from science fiction and fantasy. So I stopped being a generalist. Weekend Publisher now works only with SFF authors, because that's where I can promise depth instead of adequacy.

And honestly? I love this work. Reverse engineering a market, pulling apart categories, comps, and keywords until a book's path to readers is sitting right there in a spreadsheet, is my idea of a good afternoon. My clients hear it in every call. You will too.

What I believe about book marketing

Most of what I do comes down to a handful of convictions the data has beaten into me:

• Nobody buys a book. They buy the feeling the book gives them. Technically, yes, they're buying a book. But the ad that works is never "here are 400 pages"; it's the promise of that feeling your favorite series gave you at 2 a.m. Everything I build starts from the reader's side of the screen.
• You're buying a reader, not a sale. A $4.99 ebook sale that nets you $3.50 looks like a loss against a $5 ad click, until that reader goes on to buy books two through nine. The real math is cost per new reader versus lifetime value per new reader.
• Profitability usually arrives around book three. A single book almost never carries paid ads profitably. A series can. I tell authors this before they spend a dollar, because it's the difference between a strategy and a gamble.
• Facebook ads are the main engine; Amazon ads are support. That's what the spend data across 350+ authors shows for SFF fiction. I run both, but I'm honest about which one does the heavy lifting.
• I don't do influencer marketing. Because I've watched the numbers, and for SFF fiction they don't support it. When the data changes, my answer will change.

I'd rather tell you the truth than sell you a fantasy. That honesty is either going to appeal to you or it isn't.

What working with me is actually like

A few things my authors would tell you that a services page never would:

• Calls start with your life, not your dashboard. How the summer's going, how the third book is coming, how your dad's doing. Then we get to the numbers. Both halves matter; I'm going to be in your corner for years, not weeks, so I'd rather actually know you.
• You'll hear "does that make sense?" a lot. I explain everything as we go, screen shared, spreadsheet open, showing my work. My goal is that you understand your own numbers well enough to check mine.
• I tell you my confidence level, not just my answer. Sometimes it's "I've tested this across dozens of accounts, I'm sure." Sometimes it's "I'm about 85% on this." Sometimes it's "I have no idea, let's find out." You always know which one you're getting.
• Every call ends with action steps, and a follow-up email. And the ad accounts I manage get looked at every single day. Unglamorous, but it's where the results come from.
• I run every experiment I recommend. When my coaching group tests a new tactic, I test it right alongside them on accounts I manage. Small bets everywhere, results on the table two weeks later, including mine.
• When something isn't working, I say so, even when it costs me. I've told clients to pause campaigns and stop paying me because the data said their money was better spent elsewhere. That's lost me revenue more than once. It's also why people stay for years.

Results, with numbers attached

Anyone can claim results. Here's what mine actually look like:

• Pam sold 5,372 copies in her first year, about 21x the self-published average, and gathered 700+ reviews along the way.
• Mark Stanley reached $200/day in net profit within months of launching his campaigns.
• Andy came to me losing $60/month on his ads. We rebuilt his campaigns: $553/month in spend now returns $1,332 in revenue, $779/month in profit, 660 sales, with 2,592% page-read growth in four months.

These aren't the three luckiest outcomes from a thousand clients. They're representative of what happens when the right book meets a properly built system. And when a book isn't ready (wrong category, weak comps, thin series) I say that too, before you spend money finding it out the hard way.

How I work

There are two ways in:

• Group coaching ($1,997) is six months for authors who want to run their own ads with someone checking the instruments. Weekly Heartbeat Sessions, Office Hours, a full video library, and custom tracking software so decisions come from your numbers, not your nerves. Fair warning: the group has a habit of becoming the best part of people's week. Wins get celebrated, flat results get treated as data, and nobody gets left behind on a technical problem; if your ads break, we stay on the call until they're fixed.
• Done-for-you ads management (from $4,000): I build and run the campaigns; you write the next book.

Not sure which fits? Email me at [email protected] and tell me about your book. If I don't think I can help, I'll tell you that, and usually point you somewhere better.

Who I'm not for

If you have one standalone book and a $200 budget, I'm not your guy, and anyone who says they are is selling you something. If you want a marketer who'll tell you your launch went great regardless of what the dashboard says, we'll frustrate each other. I work best with SFF authors who have (or are building) a series and want the truth at every step.

When I'm not doing this

You'll find me on the water with my son, volunteering at the gate of the Halifax jazz festival (someone asked me once why anyone would do that, because it's fun to work with people, that's why), or reading. Ironically, given what I market, I prefer shorter novels; I have endless admiration for the readers who put away 150,000-word epic fantasy behemoths, because they're the reason my clients get paid.

Frequently asked questions

Want to see the thinking behind the service? Start with the Facebook ads campaign guide, the comparison of SFF book marketing services, or the novel length guide.