Marketing · from $1,200 per month, 3-month minimum · Onboarding 2 weeks, first 30-day launch 4 weeks out
Amazon ads, launch campaigns, PR, and reader-list nurture. We will not market a book that isn't ready.
Book marketing has more snake oil per square inch than almost any other adjacent industry. We do four things that move sales — Amazon ads, launch operations, reader-list nurture, and PR for the projects that warrant it — and we refuse to do the things that don't.
Marketing operations run by someone who has actually spent millions on Amazon Ads. Clara, our marketing lead, ran the ads programme at a major author-services company for four years before joining us, and refuses to take a client whose book isn’t ready. That single line is what makes the difference between a marketing budget that works and a budget that burns.
Three of them, written down so the answer is obvious before you ask. We will not buy or trade for reviews. We will not market an unedited manuscript. We will not promise “guaranteed bestseller” placements. Anyone who promises those three things is selling you risk; we are selling you a defensible launch.
Behind the scenes
Five shots from the studio — the kind of work that ends up on your project.
The work, in three tabs
Sponsored Product, Sponsored Brand, Lockscreen Ad campaigns built and optimized weekly. Real ACOS targets, real bid management, real daily review.
We audit the book listing, the cover, the pricing, the categories, the existing reviews, the metadata, and any prior ad spend. Sometimes the audit alone moves the needle before we run a single ad.
Ran author marketing at BookBaby for four years before joining the studio. Sold more than two million dollars in Amazon ad spend across three hundred indie authors. Refuses to take a marketing client without a finished, edited, cover-designed book.
Sample deliverables
How it works
Weeks 1–2
We audit the book listing, the cover, the pricing, the categories, the existing reviews, the metadata, and any prior ad spend. Sometimes the audit alone moves the needle before we run a single ad.
Weeks 2–3
Initial keyword research, ad copy, audience targeting, ASIN targeting. Built in your Amazon Ads account — you own the campaigns, we operate them.
Weeks 3–4
Lower daily budgets, learn what's converting before going hard. We do not torch your ad budget in week one.
Ongoing
Weekly bid tuning, monthly creative refresh, quarterly category audit. Reporting every Friday.
30 days around release
Coordinated paid + organic + reviewer + email push for the 14 days before and the 16 days after release.
Pricing
No 'contact us for pricing.' If a tier here looks close to your project, the final quote on the discovery call will be within 15% either way.
Pre-launch + launch month + the first 30 days after. One-time package for new releases.
Ongoing month-to-month marketing. Most-booked tier for authors with one to three published books.
For authors with three or more books in a series. Read-through optimization is the work.
The lead, in full
They join the discovery call. They sign off every deliverable. They are not a sales rep.
Head of Book Marketing, 10 yrs
Ran author marketing at BookBaby for four years before joining the studio. Sold more than two million dollars in Amazon ad spend across three hundred indie authors. Refuses to take a marketing client without a finished, edited, cover-designed book.
Case study
Studio
When we say no
We turn down work every week. Less stressful for everyone.
Book marketing — FAQ
No, and you should walk out of any conversation where someone says yes. The "#1 in a hyper-narrow sub-category for 47 minutes" hack is real but unethical — and Amazon has been quietly de-ranking those launches since late 2024. We aim for #1 in your real, defensible category, sustained for the launch month. That's an honest target.
No. Paid reviews violate Amazon's policy and risk an account termination that kills your KDP listings, your ad account, and any other books you have on the platform. The risk is asymmetric and not worth running. Legitimate review routes (NetGalley, ARC outreach, BookSirens) are what we use.
ACOS (Advertising Cost of Sale) is ad spend divided by ad-attributed revenue. The honest target depends on your royalty: at 70% royalty on KDP, an ACOS below 70% means each ad is profitable on the first sale. We typically run between 28% and 55% ACOS depending on the launch phase. We tell you the target on the kickoff call.
You need a pre-launch list of 200 to 800 real readers who will buy in the first week. That can be your email list, your existing readers, a Facebook group you run, or a borrowed audience (a podcast you've been on). We help you build one if you don't have it. Streets teams as such have been less effective since 2023; lists are still the workhorse.
Often, yes. About 60% of our marketing clients come in with a published book that underperformed at launch. The audit identifies what's fixable — usually category, keywords, cover, or first-look metadata. If the book is structurally not in a sellable category, we'll tell you so, and recommend whether the right move is to re-launch or to write the next book.
Three-month minimum. After that, 30-day notice. On cancellation we hand you the campaigns, the keyword library, the creative, and the ad-account setup — you can self-operate or hand it to another agency. We don't hold your campaigns hostage.
Press release distribution to PR Newswire or GlobeNewswire, yes, billed at cost plus a small fee. Cold-pitched TV outreach, yes for a specific list of producers in your category, no for a vague "top TV networks" promise. We do not promise placements we can't deliver, and we don't work with vendors who do.
For a 30-day launch on a $4.99 ebook: somewhere between $1,500 and $5,000 in ad spend, in addition to our fee. For sustain after launch, $300–$1,500 per month per book depending on whether you're feeding a series. We model the budget against the unit economics on the kickoff call — book royalty, target ACOS, sales velocity.
Pairs with
Most projects use two to four services. We bundle on the discovery call.
Ready when you are
A 30-minute discovery call with a senior editor — no sales script, no pressure. We'll tell you whether we're the right fit for your project, what it would cost, and how long it would take.