Catalog performance intelligence for fiction presses, agencies & multi-pen studios
Most multi-title operators don't lack data. They lack a ranked decision queue. Weekend Publisher helps digital-first fiction presses, book-marketing agencies, and multi-pen portfolio studios see where the catalog is leaking — weak series read-through, promo dollars on the wrong titles, backlist that should be harvested or paused — and what to do in the next 90 days.
We work from your exports. No KDP passwords. No ads account takeover. No guru theatrics.
Who this is for
Digital-first fiction presses and hybrid imprints. Roughly 20+ titles a year (or 15+ active ASINs across multiple series). Marketing leads and publishers who own promo allocation and need a clearer portfolio view than spreadsheet tribal knowledge.
Multi-client book-marketing agencies and author-services firms. Three or more active author clients and roughly 20+ titles a year combined. You already deliver launches and content. What's missing is a client-ready performance brief: which titles deserve spend vs which have a product or series problem.
Multi-pen portfolio studios. Two or more brands run as a business. You need promo triage across pens — not another course on how to "run ads."
Who this is not for
- Single-title hobby projects or debut authors still validating a first book
- Anyone whose only request is "just take over our ad accounts"
- Orgs that already staff a full in-house catalog/data bench and only want cheap software seats
If you're an individual author looking for coaching or legacy ads help, start on the homepage author path — this page is built for multi-title operators.
The problem: dashboards show numbers. Operators still guess.
Tools like Book Report, Publisher Champ, and PublishWide are excellent at collecting sales, KU page reads, and (in some cases) ad spend. Manuscript-to-marketing platforms help teams ship blurbs, comps, and social kits at catalog scale. None of those answer the monthly operating question:
Given this catalog, this quarter, what are the five moves that matter — and which titles should we stop funding?
That gap shows up as:
- Catalog leak — ad spend scaled into series with weak Book 1 → Book 2 read-through (a product problem misread as a traffic problem)
- Invisible ad profitability — KDP royalties in one tab, Meta/Amazon spend in another, no clean net view
- Backlist fog — no shared triage labels (Push / Fix / Harvest / Pause) across the imprint
- Agency call friction — screenshot decks instead of a one-page performance narrative clients understand
Industry practice treats series read-through as a core economics KPI: paid Book 1 → Book 2 around 50 to 60% is a common community benchmark band, with sub-50% as a diagnose-before-you-scale signal (Kindlepreneur; Authors Game). Most teams can quote the formula. Fewer have a monthly process that forces decisions from it.
What we actually sell (not another dashboard)
| Layer | Examples | What Weekend Publisher is |
|---|---|---|
| Sales trackers | Book Report, Publisher Champ, ScribeCount | Not competing. Keep your tracker. |
| Royalties + ad spend join | PublishWide, Publisher Champ Plus | Useful data layer. We interpret portfolio decisions on top. |
| Pre-launch content kits | ManuscriptReport-class white-label kits | Different job. They ship marketing assets from manuscripts. We ship post-launch performance decisions from live exports. |
| Ads management | DFY Facebook / Amazon ops | Out of scope on this path. We do not run your campaigns. |
| Catalog intelligence | This practice | Ranked decisions, series economics, backlist triage, promo priority — human judgment, fixed-scope delivery. |
Under the hood we use the same class of portfolio instrumentation Denis built for multi-title work (sales + ad spend overlay, true cost per new reader, audience and creative efficiency views). You buy the analysis and the decision queue, not a SaaS seat.
The offer ladder
01Catalog Health Diagnostic
$750–$1,500 · partner $497–$750A fixed-scope, 10-business-day review of your live catalog economics: what's working, what's leaking, and the five highest-ROI moves for the next 90 days. Includes a 90-minute delivery workshop. Full Diagnostic scope, data requirements, and SOW →
02Monthly Catalog Scorecard
$1,500–$2,000/moAfter a Diagnostic finds real leaks: one scorecard, five decisions, one 45-minute review each month. You keep running ads and ops. A 90-day pilot, then month-to-month.
03Catalog Intelligence Retainer
$2,500–$3,500/mo typicalScorecard cadence plus quarterly series deep dives, launch-readiness flags, and priority async. Quoted after a successful pilot — not as a cold first ask.
04Agency White-Label Performance Packs
channel · on requestClient-ready performance briefs from live exports (not blurb/keyword kits). Single-title briefs and portfolio packs, optional agency seat. Details after you review a sample brief on the results page.
05Series Economics Deep Dive
$1,200–$2,500Full post-mortem on one series cluster: read-through waterfall, pricing ladder, KU vs wide implications, traffic vs product diagnosis. Standalone or included on the full retainer.
How data works (CSV-only by design)
You export KDP sales/KENP CSVs and optional Amazon/Meta ads reports.
Files land in a shared folder — or you screen-share while you click.
Portfolio snapshot, series economics, ad skim, backlist triage, 90-day plan.
90 minutes. Decisions with owners. Optional Scorecard pilot if leaks are real.
How engagement works (CSV-only). We never ask for KDP, Ads Manager, or banking passwords.
- Fit check — 20 minutes. Catalog scale, tools you already use, whether the pain is prioritization (fit) or pure ads ops (not a fit).
- Data pack — you export KDP sales/KENP CSVs and optional Amazon/Meta ads reports. Or screen-share while you click.
- Analysis — portfolio snapshot, series economics, ad efficiency skim, backlist triage, 90-day plan.
- Workshop — 90 minutes. Decisions with owners. Optional Scorecard pilot offered on that call if leaks are real.
That matches how serious operators should treat account security (Amazon KDP account security guidance: KDP will not ask for passwords over email; third parties should not either). Full note: Data handling.
Proof, not promises
Built-systems background (Air Force logistics + 911 dispatch) — process under pressure, not vibes. B2B case studies are being built through paid Diagnostics. Until named press/agency logos exist, review the sample scorecard and instrumented portfolio views so you can judge the format in five minutes.
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from Book Report or Publisher Champ?
Those tools collect and display data. The Diagnostic and Scorecard produce a prioritized decision list with expected impact and owners. If your monthly review already ends with five clear moves everyone executes, you do not need us.
Do you run Facebook or Amazon ads?
Not on this path. If campaign management is the only need, say so early — we will decline rather than pretend catalog intelligence is ads done-for-you.
Will you need our KDP password?
No. Exports or screen-share only. Mutual NDA available.
What genres do you understand?
The deepest pattern library is genre fiction with series economics (SFF core; romance, thriller, and other series-heavy digital lists transfer cleanly). Static brochure nonfiction is a weak fit.
Can agencies white-label the output?
Yes. Performance packs are designed for client calls. Content/marketing kits remain a separate category — we do not replace those.
Next step
If catalog prioritization is still a side job for marketing, start with a fixed-scope Diagnostic — not a vague monthly retainer.
How we handle data · About JD Caron · What book marketing costs
Get In Touch
Where is your
catalog leaking?
Tell me about your operation: press, agency, or multi-pen studio, roughly how many active titles or series, and the tools you already use. If the pain is prioritization, a fixed-scope Diagnostic is the fastest way to find out where the money is going. If it's pure ads ops, I'll tell you that's not a fit.
Typical reply within one business day.
Or email directly
[email protected]