Book marketing services for self-published authors. You write. I'll run the campaign.
You've hired professionals all your life. Lawyers, accountants, contractors. My book marketing services work the same way: clear scope, a weekly written update, decisions with dates on them, and one person accountable for the numbers.
Most of my clients aren't doing this for the royalties. They have somewhere they want the book to go, and they want it run properly.
So that's the arrangement. I run the marketing for your books, all of it: the strategy, the Facebook and Amazon ads, the launches, the Amazon product page and A+ content, the review pipeline, the cover brief, and the measurement behind everything. Think of it as a fractional CMO for your author business, not an ads contractor. Not a course, not a dashboard you have to learn, not a junior somewhere resizing your cover. Me, running it, and telling you in writing every week what your money did.
Quick credentials, since you'd ask anyway: 350+ authors coached, $225,000+ in ad spend managed, Meta and Amazon Ads certified. This is all I do, and I'm inside dozens of author ad accounts at any given time, so when something starts working anywhere, it shows up in your campaigns the same week.
No KDP passwords. No twelve-month contract.
If it's not a fit, I'll say so on the call.
Who this is for
Short version: the book is a serious venture, and you'd rather fund it properly than learn ad platforms at seventy dollars a mistake.
- Your book is a second act or a serious new venture, not a side hobby
- The next book is genuinely underway: drafted, dated, or with an editor
- You've hired specialists your whole career and know what good service looks like
- There's an author you measure yourself against, even if you've never said it out loud
- You want a professional running this, with the updates to prove it
- You have one book and the second is a "someday" project
- You're shopping for the cheapest option
- You'd rather learn to run this yourself (that's The Readership Engine, and it's good)
The next-book qualifier isn't gatekeeping. Paid marketing compounds across books, so one book with nothing behind it usually can't repay professional management. If that's where you are, I'll say so on the call and tell you what I'd do instead.
What's included: the book marketing services I actually run
Ads are the engine, but they're maybe a third of the job. A fractional CMO owns the whole marketing function for your books, and that's the scope here:
- Strategy first. Which book to push, which to fix, what the budget should be and why, and what has to change before we spend a dollar. Written down, with a plan for the next 90 days, revisited every month.
- Facebook ads, end to end. Creative testing (typically 10 to 12 ad variations per book), audiences, and weekly budget decisions. This is the main engine for fiction, and it's where the newest tactics land first. I'm inside dozens of author ad accounts at any given time, so when something starts working anywhere, it shows up in your campaigns the same week.
- Amazon ads in their proper supporting role. Cheaper to understand, harder to profit from, useful for data. I run them where they earn their keep.
- Your Amazon product page, made as good as it can be. Blurb, categories, keywords, A+ content built and uploaded, pricing and Kindle Unlimited decisions, and the look-inside. Ads only work as well as the page they send people to, so this gets fixed before the spend goes up, and revisited as the data comes in.
- Launches, planned and coordinated. Release timing, pre-order strategy, stacked launches where the catalog allows, promo sites and newsletter placements booked around the date, and a release-day checklist so nothing depends on memory.
- The review pipeline. An ARC team that actually reads, review requests timed to the launch, and a back-matter system that keeps reviews arriving after week one. All inside Amazon's rules; nothing bought, nothing that puts your account at risk.
- Covers and positioning. When the cover, the title, or the series branding is what's holding the book back, I say so, write the brief, coordinate with the designer, and test the options with real ad traffic before you commit to a redesign.
- Attribution, wired correctly. Amazon Attribution links on every ad, so we know which creative sells books rather than guessing from clicks. This is the setup; you don't have to touch it.
- The numbers, monthly, in plain English. What a new reader costs you, what a reader is worth across your books, and whether the gap says scale or fix. Run through KdpDeck, the software I built for exactly this, including where you sit against the comparable authors in your genre, so you always know the gap and whether it's closing.
- Micro-influencer outreach, the lottery ticket. Alongside the ads, I pitch your book to smaller influencers who talk books in your genre. Most of it goes nowhere, and I'll tell you that up front. But when one takes off, it takes off huge: this play has put books in the top 100 of all of Amazon. We buy the ticket every month. We just don't budget the winnings.
- Ongoing optimization, not set-and-forget. Every week something gets tested, cut, or scaled. Every month the plan gets rewritten against the numbers. The tactics that work in this business change every few months, and keeping up with them is my job, not yours.
- The honest flag. When the problem isn't traffic, it's the cover, the blurb, or the series handoff, you'll hear it from me with a recommendation, not a bigger ad bill.
That's the whole service. There's no à la carte menu and no "premium tier" that unlocks the reporting; every client gets all of it. Ad spend is separate and stays in your own accounts. We set it to match the goal, and scale it only when the numbers say to. You can see every dollar.
On timing: first campaigns are typically live within two weeks of connecting accounts, and your first written update arrives the Friday after we start. You'll know inside 30 days whether the numbers are moving.
How working with me goes
The part most marketing services get wrong isn't the ads. It's the account management. Here's what you can hold me to:
What ran, what changed, what it cost, what's next. Short enough to read in two minutes, complete enough to forward.
Nothing sits in limbo. If something needs your call, you'll know what, why, and by when.
Anything outside the agreed scope gets a price before it starts. The invoice never surprises you.
And at 90 days, a scope review: we look at the numbers together and decide to continue, adjust, or stop. If it isn't working, you'll have heard it from me in a weekly update long before that meeting.
What it costs
Most book marketing services make you sit through a sales call to hear a number. I think that's backwards. If you're budgeting whether to do this properly, you need the number first:
For context: a competent in-house marketing hire runs $4,000 to $5,500 a month before you've taught them anything about books, and a general fractional CMO starts around $8,000. This is a fractional CMO who only does books, at $2,500 a month, because it's one person, one specialty, and no agency overhead.
| Launch build: fixed scope around a release, campaigns built and run through launch window | from $4,000 |
|---|---|
| Ongoing management: ads, launches, attribution, weekly updates, monthly numbers | $2,500/mo |
Which one fits depends on the catalog. One book out with the next in the pipeline usually starts as a launch build; once there's a run of books to manage, the monthly makes sense. The monthly is a four-month initial engagement, month to month after that, with the scope reviewed in writing at 90 days.
One thing worth knowing before you book: I take on a small number of new clients at a time, because every account gets me, not a junior. When the fall intake is full, the next start date is January.
If you want the wider market context first, I published what book marketing costs, including everyone else's prices.
Proof, not promises
Before this I spent a decade in Air Force logistics and 911 dispatch. Process under pressure is the actual skill, and it's why the weekly update never skips a week.
What a book marketing expert should show you is numbers, not adjectives. A stalled book taken from 19 readers in five months to 795 in the next 48 days. A debut that put 5,372 copies into readers' hands in its first year. Rank you can watch move, and a scoreboard you can trust. The full stories are on the results page and in the articles, with the method shown.
Questions I get
What do your book marketing services cost?
Published up front: a fixed-scope launch build starts at $4,000, and ongoing management is $2,500 a month with a four-month initial engagement, month to month after that. Scope gets reviewed in writing at 90 days. Ad spend is separate, stays in your own accounts, and gets set to match the goal.
What do your book marketing services include?
Everything a marketing director would own for your books: strategy and a written 90-day plan, Facebook ads end to end, Amazon ads, Amazon product page optimization including A+ content, launch planning and coordination, an ARC and review pipeline inside Amazon's rules, cover and positioning direction with designer coordination, Amazon Attribution on every ad, monthly cost-per-reader reporting, micro-influencer outreach, and ongoing weekly optimization. Ad spend is separate and stays in your own accounts.
Is this just ads management?
No. Ads are the engine, but they are roughly a third of the work. This is a fractional CMO arrangement: I own the whole marketing function for your books, which means the strategy, the Amazon product page and A+ content, the launches, the review pipeline, the cover and positioning calls, and the ongoing optimization, as well as the Facebook and Amazon campaigns. If all you want is someone to push buttons in Ads Manager, there are cheaper options and I will point you at them.
Can I pay someone to market my book?
Yes, and it works the same way as hiring any professional: clear scope, a price you see before you commit, and reporting that proves what your money did. That's what this service is. The honest caveat is that paying someone only makes sense when there's a series, or a next book genuinely underway, for the marketing to compound across. One standalone with nothing behind it usually can't repay professional management, and I'll say so on the call rather than take the retainer.
I have one book out. Is that enough?
One book out is fine if the next one is genuinely underway: drafted, dated, or with an editor. That's the qualifier. Paid marketing compounds across books, so one book with nothing behind it usually can't repay professional management, and I'll say so on the call rather than take the retainer.
Can you get my book to the top of its Amazon category?
Chances are good, for a stretch. A well-run launch with real budget behind it can usually put a book at or near the top of its category, and smaller categories are very reachable. Staying there is the real challenge. That gets decided by read-through and steady ads, not the launch push. And it depends heavily on the category: topping a niche subcategory and topping epic fantasy are different jobs with different budgets. On the call I'll tell you which yours is.
What do the weekly updates look like?
A short written update every week: what ran, what changed, what it cost, and what happens next. Once a month you get the numbers that matter, cost per new reader against value per new reader, in plain English. You will never have to chase me to find out what is going on.
Will you need my passwords?
No. You connect your Facebook ad account through a link and grant standard advertiser access on the Amazon side, the same access you would give any agency, and you can revoke both yourself at any time. I never touch your KDP password or your banking. Details: how I handle your data.
What kind of books do you take on?
Genre fiction with series potential is my home turf, science fiction and fantasy especially, with romance and thrillers translating fine. If your book sits outside that, ask anyway; I'll tell you straight whether I'm the right hire or point you at someone better suited.
What happens if it isn't working?
You'll hear it from me first, in the weekly update, not discover it in a report three months later. Every engagement has a 90-day scope review where we look at the numbers together and decide to continue, adjust, or stop. Anything outside the agreed scope gets priced in writing before it starts, so the invoice never surprises you. That's the guarantee: you're never locked into something that isn't working.
Start here
Twenty minutes. Tell me about the book, where you want it to go, and who's ahead of you. I'll tell you straight whether professional management makes sense yet, and exactly what it would cost to do this properly.
If it's not a fit, I'll say so on the call.
How I handle your data · About me · What book marketing costs
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Three lines is enough: the book, what's out and what's coming, and where you want it to go. I'll reply with a straight read on whether professional management makes sense yet, and scope and price in writing if it does.
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