I thought I’d take a step back and outline all the swings I’m taking and give you a brief outline of what each campaign is all about. I get it—if you’re not into publishing or don’t care a whit about book marketing, this is going to bore you half to death. Feel free to leave now; I won’t be offended (I will).

I’ve been tracking all my campaigns in a Monday.com board, the project management tool of choice over here at AdVenture Media.

This isn’t even half the board—and many of these top-level items have many additional sub-items. It’s a bit of a mess, and it’s only as good as my commitment to keeping it updated, but it helps to have one centralized source of truth for everything we’re working on.

So, how do you a market a book? I’m in advertising, I’ve built my career on marketing others’ products, so I should know. Here’s the truth: I have no damn idea. I think that’s my basic approach to every new client campaign (to some degree or another), and it’s served me well. Try everything. Then, try everything again, differently. Let’s get into it.

Amazon Sponsored Ads

The heavyweight champ of book marketing. The logic is simple: 90% of all book searches start on Amazon. Every ad is a cocktail of keyword bids, ad copy, and luck. If I can’t make this work, none of the other campaigns will matter. And right now, it’s not working.

But it’s not failing. It’s just that while a book is in pre-order phase, Amazon won’t deliver impressions, no matter how aggressively I bid. Here’s data from the past 7 days:

Not pretty.

I’ve decided to keep the campaigns live, even though it seems like throwing money down the drain, because I think having more data, more seniority to the campaigns, will help scale faster after February 4th (when the book is actually on sale).

I’m using both keyword and category targeting, with category targeting, at least for now, delivering 90% of the impressions.

Influencers

Yes, I’m hiring book influencers. No, I’m not proud of it. Yes, I’ll do it again. The idea is to get influential readers to post about the book on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

There are two categories of influencers we’re working with: Local influencers (local to me) and national (even global) book-specific influencers.

This past week we had two “local” influencers post giveaways. One influencer ran a giveaway for 20 hardcovers (enter the giveaway by tagging two friends). The other influencer ran a more sales-driven giveaway, running a raffle for $500 gift cards to Sephora and Target for anyone who preordered a copy of my book and sent the order confirmation in by email. This second giveaway drove a lot more sales than the first, so that’s something to keep in mind for the future.

We’re contracted with another 10-15 influencers over the next 6 weeks.

But here’s the concern with influencers: I don’t want influencers posting too early (the further we are from pub-date the less likely someone is going to preorder a book), but you also don’t want all the influencers posting at the very end of January and early February.

Why?

Because Amazon orders inventory from my publisher’s warehouse based on the preorder momentum they’re seeing.

Say Amazon sees 100 preorders by mid-January. They may order 500 copies. But if we then stack all the influencers right around the pub date, and those influencers are effective, Amazon can quickly go out of stock because they don’t have enough inventory to fulfill demand. That’s the worst-case scenario because whatever money paid to those influencers would be completely wasted. There’s no sense driving visitors to an Amazon page for an unavailable book.

However, if Amazon sees 1,000 preorders by mid-January, they may order 5,000 books, giving enough padding to stack additional influencers right around the pub date in early February. This is one of the reasons preorders are so important.

And no, my publisher cannot send Amazon more copies than Amazon requests; that's not how it works.

I’m generally bullish on influencers. No, the economics don’t work out on a per-unit basis (meaning, I don’t think any influencer will be profitable if we’re calculating cost and gross royalties), but in book marketing, you can’t look at any campaign that way.

Goodreads Giveaways and Advertising

I’m out on Goodreads. I’ve spent over $5,000 on giveaways, shipping costs, packaging materials and advertising—and I don’t think there’s been any real benefit. I’ve shipped over 200 books to giveaway winners and have received 3 reviews.

I went down a few Reddit wormholes about Goodreads recently, and it appears that many authors are having the same experience. That Goodreads is a ghost town and that authors are abandoning Goodreads for better platforms.

I wish I’d known sooner, but you live and you learn.

Here are my Goodreads stats:

13,230 “want-to-reads” which means 13,230 Goodreads members added the book to their “shelf”. The green line represents “want to read” activity by day, and the spikes correlate to the giveaways I ran. In order to enter a giveaway, the book is automatically added to the member’s shelf.

On pub-date, Goodreads will email everyone who has the book on their shelf that the book is available, but I don’t think it’s going to actually drive any sales.

On that note, their advertising products have been awful. You can run native and display ads—both of which are an awareness play. There are better ways to spend your money, as far as I’m concerned.

Local Print Media

Targeted, specific, and (hopefully) loyal. Local Jewish newspapers and community magazines are my attempt to reach niche, tight-knit groups. I’m hoping that the combination of cultural alignment and "hometown pride" gets the book into the right hands. Will it work? No idea. But I’ve seen what a well-placed ad in these papers can do for a school fundraiser.

We’ll probably spend $10-15K here. I wouldn’t ordinarily buy print advertising (especially for a book), but I think the local element (hometown author) will encourage more people to purchase a copy.

No print media has launched yet, so I can’t weigh in on its effectiveness (or lack thereof).

Fable Influencers and Book of the Month

Fable is like a private book club on steroids. Influencers pick books for their clubs, and their followers read along with them.

I signed a contract with Fable to have one of their best clubs use my book as their February book of the month club. Additionally, three influencers on their platform are going to promote the book on and off Fable.

This won’t launch until the end of January, but it’s in the works.

It took a ton of back and forth to get aligned, but I’m bullish on Fable. It’s similar to Goodreads, but if Goodreads is AOL, Fable is Google.

Bookinfluencers.com

A network of book influencers—both large and small. We’re partnering with ~30 influencers on their platform. Mostly smaller influencers, who will post to IG and TikTok in exchange for a free copy of the book.

Around half the influencers ask for small compensation ($10-$40).

Generally speaking, these are smaller influencers with small followings. I’m not bullish on this campaign, but the costs are low enough that it’s a swing worth taking.

Small Screen Talent

A talent agency that represents a broad range of influencers, including book-specific influencers. The issue with talent agencies is that they make it hard to talk to the influencer before signing a deal. I don’t like that. With every influencer (or agency) I’ve worked with, I outline that we need to have a conversation with the influencer before agreeing to a budget.

I’m not interested in an influencer posting a picture of the book with a link. That won’t work, and their audience will see that as an ad. We need influencers who will get creative, integrate the book promo into their authentic content, and so on.

We may use one or two influencers from Small Screen, but we haven’t agreed to anything yet.

Lookalike Actor Campaign

Here’s a wild one: We worked with a lookalike agency in the UK to record a video/skit with Harry Potter lookalike actors. The idea was to create something very funny that had viral potential. However, I just don’t see this working. I would need to fly to London to film, and the value proposition is just too vague.

Cute idea, but likely going to pass.

Giving Out Books to Local Kids

I’m handing out free books to local kids like a literary Santa Claus. Why? Because kids talk. If a kid loves the book, their friends—and their parents—will hear about it. It’s the slowest-moving but most authentic form of marketing there is.

I’ve given out maybe 30 copies to local kids. I can tell they’re talking about it to their friends.

I’ve also incentivized kids to get their friends to actually pre-order a copy.

You think I’m joking? I’m not. Every book handed out to a kid came with this glossy insert:

WhatsApp Group Giveaways

WhatsApp groups are modern-day town squares. I’m dropping in with giveaways to stir up excitement. These groups are hyper-local, hyper-active, and hyper-gossipy—perfect conditions for word-of-mouth marketing.

Newsletter on LinkedIn

Well, if you’re reading this, you know what this is. I’m not sure if it’s driving any pre-orders, but feel free to prove me wrong!

Podcast Appearances

Each podcast appearance is a chance to tell my story, pitch the book, and drive listeners to the pre-order page. The strategy is simple: get on as many as possible. The one podcast I’ve been on so far (Mislaibeled) was very effective in driving awareness. I’ve reached out to Bari Weiss, Scott Galloway, Russel Brand, and others—we’ll see what happens.

AdVenture Email Sequences

I’m using AdVenture’s email marketing machine to run multi-step email sequences promoting the book. These emails go to my existing network, previous clients, and even prospects who didn’t buy from me but never unsubscribed. These aren’t marketing emails—they’re direct email messages, so I can only send about 100 a day without getting flagged for spam. Every night, I load up the next few days’ worth of sequence emails. Hoping to get through 20,000 by pub date.

Handwritten Letters to Giveaway Winners

Handywritten is an awesome platform that allows you to send hand written mail in bulk. Check it out; it’s super cool. We use it at AdVenture Media, but I was also using it to send a handwritten note to every giveaway winner on Goodreads. I included a QR code to the pre order page and asked the winner for a review on Goodreads. It didn’t work.

I’m no longer spending any money on Handywritten, but maybe I’ll find some way to revive it in the future.

Getting the book into local schools

There are lots of local middle schools and day schools. I’ve been reaching out, donating books to their library, and hoping to spread the word amongst teachers and kids this way. I haven't made as much progress as I’d like here, but I’m going to focus more intentionally on this in January.

Local Bookstore

Getting into local bookstores sounds quaint, but it’s also strategic. Independent bookstores have loyal, repeat customers, and "local author" is a magic phrase that sells books. Blue Door Books, our local bookshop, agreed to stock my book. They sold out in two days. I gave them another 15 copies, and as of this writing, there are 3 copies left.

Shipping Books to Non-Local Kids

I have friends and family who live out of town. So I’ve been sending hardcover copies to any friend or family member with a kid aged 9-13. They bring the book to school, show their friends. A word of mouth play, but moving beyond the confines of my local community.

Book Sirens

This service connects authors with early reviewers. Early reviews are crucial for social proof. Just started with Book Sirens a few days ago. I like what I’m seeing.

LinkedIn Manual Outreach to 1st Connections

If we’re connected on LinkedIn, I’m messaging you. Directly. No filter. No shame. I have about 30,000 first connections, and there really is no limit to how many direct messages you can send daily. I’m keeping it at 600 to be safe. I’m not sharing the link to the book right away. The first message talks about the process of publishing and writing the book, and I end with asking my connection if it would be okay to send a link to the book.

When, and if, they reply with an affirmative, I send a link with a personalized thank you. I’m bullish on this campaign—there is no question that it’s driving 10-15 sales every day.

Book Bub

BookBub’s email list is the gold standard for book promotion. It’s expensive, but it works. You can run several types of campaigns with BookBub, including Featured Deals, New Release Alerts, and Preorder Notifications. Featured Deals are the big one—your book gets emailed to millions of highly engaged readers. New Release Alerts target followers of your author profile, while Preorder Notifications focus on books that are available for preorder. Each campaign serves a different purpose but all drive a ton of visibility. Haven’t started any paid promotions with BookBub yet. I’ll report back when I do.

StoryGraph

StoryGraph is Goodreads’s cooler, less commercial sibling. I’m trying to get early reviews and recommendations here to catch trendsetters.

Pubby

Pubby helps authors get reviews. It's a review-for-review ecosystem. Yes, it’s a grind, but reviews are life.

Charity Partnerships

I’m approaching NPOs with a simple proposition: promote the book to your network of donors, framing a pre-order as a way to drive value to the organization. I’ll contribute $18 to the organization for the first 100 orders or so. The donor drives value to their favorite charity, while walking away with a new book. I’m excited about this campaign and I’ll let you know how it develops.

AdVenture Academy Campaign

This is the most impactful and exciting campaign in the works. The AdVenture Academy is our library of on-demand educational courses. We teach all facets of paid media and digital strategy. Our courses sell for $199 at full price.

I’m offering anyone who pre-orders a copy of the book a $5 Amazon gift card plus free access to any standalone course they choose. Effectively getting a course for $11.95.

I think this campaign has legs. We have tens of thousands of subscribers who haven’t bought anything from us yet—this may be a great way to incentivize them and drive pre-orders at the same time.

Unlock Your Inner Storyteller Course

I have 350,000 students who’ve enrolled in my courses over the past ten years. My courses mainly teach digital advertising (Google Ads, Meta Ads, Landing Page Design), so it’s not obvious that these students would be interested in purchasing a book.

I decided to create the “Unlock your inner storyteller” course. In this course, I teach the basics of creative writing (conflict, the hero’s journey, story arc, etc.) and then show how those principles can be applied to business writing (emails, newsletters, case studies, etc.).

We filmed the entire course in 14 hours two Sundays ago. It came out great.

We’ll publish this course in the coming days on Udemy, Fiverr, and the AdVenture Academy, offering it for free. I’m hoping it’ll be a backdoor method of generating pre-orders, and, eventually, orders, being that I inconspicuously used my book as an example throughout the modules.

The course has 35 lectures and runs roughly 7 hours. It’s a lot of value for the price, and every student will receive interactive workbooks, assignments and a few crafty writing challenges. You can pre-enroll in the course here.

Traditional PR

I hired a traditional PR firm to get editorial coverage for the book. Nothing substantial to report yet, but I’m hoping they deliver. I’m not sure how bullish I am on traditional PR. Being that my whole strategy here is really direct-to-consumer, I’d probably have spent the money elsewhere in hindsight.

However, a book store in Iowa called Dog-Eared Books did order 20 signed copies for their bookstore and said they wanted to use Georgie Summers as their February book-of-the-month read.

The PR firm also booked me for a few signings and meet-and-greets at bookstores (including a stock signing at Barnes & Noble on 5th Avenue), so that’s cool.

Okay, that’s it for now.

Look, as you can plainly see, I don’t really know what I’m doing. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Any questions on any of the above? Anything I missed? Let me know in the comments—today, I’m actually eager to read them and respond.

Until next time.

Let the good times roll …

— Isaac