Our Author Marketing Services – €

An Author Marketing program designed to position you as a top author in your genre, build your author platform, and rocket your engagement and book sales.

Thanks for this opportunity to help grow your online presence, platform, and business as an author.

Our author marketing program is designed to help you navigate the complex process of setting up your online presence, marketing, and sales platforms as an author so you can spend more time being an author and less time worrying about promotion and marketing.

Deliverables

Essentials:

• An elite, custom author website optimized for search engines
• A gorgeous digitally painted cover artwork
• Cover book design layout
• Interior book design and layout
• Once-off SEO and content consultation, strategy and program (recorded)

Gravy:

• 1-hour weekly video call author marketing consulting (recorded)
• Keyword research per keyword. Includes: related terms and questions, LSI terms and SERP analysis. Needed: 1 per each blog article template
• SEO Blog Article Templates. All keyword research is compiled into a template designed to create keyword-optimized content
• Blog Article Writing (averaging 850 words). Based on the SEO templates we create, we’ll write blog posts on your behalf for your website designed to engage your mailing list and attract search traffic to your website
• Guest post writing (averaging 600 –800 words). Including guest post prospecting. This will develop traffic to your website from other higher traffic sources as well as help your site rank better on Google because of the links from the guest post website to yours
• Link building outreach (includes backlink prospecting) – min 30-50 emails per article plus 2 follow-ups each if no response. This helps build links back to your website from other higher traffic websites and helps your SEO and website traffic over time
• Book Video Trailer to use on social channels and website
• A gorgeous digitally painted map artwork
• Social and author platform setup
• Email marketing. Includes branded template, welcome email sequence, blog post mailing, book launch email campaigns

Custom-Made Author Website

A fantastic author website is a massive differentiator for your author brand.

It gives you a platform online from which to launch all your content and marketing efforts which is fully controlled by no-one but you.

Website Process

• You give us whatever content you have such as imagery, bio photos, book blurbs, cover art, reviews, etc.
• We create a PDF preview of the home page with unique branding elements, design and website structure as fits your author brand and content
• We discuss the proposed mockup and make notes of any desired changes. If necessary we redesign the layout (virtually never happens)
• We go ahead and use this mockup as a direction to create the rest of the website’s design and branding. In this manner, we create unique interior website pages. Our goal is to make the website a work of art in its own right.
• We optimize the website pages to be easily found for relevant searches
• We optimize the website to load fast
• We set up a blog with social share buttons on each new post you create
• We set up a newsletter opt-in so your fans and readers can join your author funnel and be notified of new book releases, blog posts and be encourages to buy and leave reviews if they haven’t yet

Website Timeline: 4 – 6 weeks

• The website will take 4 – 6 weeks given swift decision making and feedback on your part
• At a rush, with quick feedback and minimal change requests, a 3-week turnaround is possible, but can’t be guaranteed.

Website Pricing: €2865 (€955 × 3 payments)

• 1st payment of €955 due after completion of the mockup as a deposit for starting the website

• 2nd payment of €955 due one month later, or on completion should this occur earlier
• 3rd payment of €955 due on completion

Website Quality Assurance and Aftercare

• Before launching every aspect of the website is thoroughly and meticulously tested and corrected as needed
• Any non-optimum functioning found on the website within 30 days of launch will be corrected as fast as possible should any be found. Such correction will be at no extra charge
• Such correction applies only to already existing aspects of the website found not working properly, and not to adding and new aspects, features or functionality

Custom-Illustrated Cover Artwork

One of the single most important aspects of marketing your book will be an incredible cover.

Contrary to the idiom, people really do judge a book by its cover.

A great cover says “this is a book worth investing my time and money into”. It’s the easiest way of showing your audience at a glance you level of quality as an author.

(click to enlarge images)

Artwork Process

• You give us your cover ideas, blurb, examples of other book cover art styles you think could work with your book and title of course
• We suggest ideas based on trends and top-selling covers in your genre
• We choose a cover artist together based on these decisions. We provide several options depending on your budget
• The Artist creates black and white thumbnails with several concepts to get an idea of the general look and feel
• We select the best thumbnail together
• The artist keeps us updated on the colour work and sends screenshots for your socials if necessary
• We review the final artwork and do any final changes if needed

Artwork Timeline: 3 – 5 weeks

• The artwork will take 3 – 5 weeks given swift decision making and feedback on your part
• If a specific illustrator is desired, at times we will need to schedule you in ahead of time
• At a rush, with quick feedback and minimal change requests and illustrator availability, a 2 to 3 week turnaround is sometimes possible, but can’t be guaranteed.

Artwork Pricing: generally between €500 and €1360

• Cost varies depending on the artist

• Payable on completion before final artwork handover

Artwork Rights

• You retain full rights to use your artwork for any purpose within your author brand, e.g. book promotion, social media, website, etc.
• The artist and Rocket Expansion retain the right to tastefully display any artwork produced as portfolio pieces

Book Cover Design and Book Design and Formatting

It’s important that the graphic design of your book cover and pages are as professionally branded as the cover artwork.

Again, it’s a quality thing. How valuable is your book perceived as being? That’s how easy it’ll be to sell.

Cover and Book Design Pricing: €560

• We create a Title font and body font match that is suitable and branded for your style and genre
• Your book design will have a professionally designed look and feel that can compete with other top publications in your genre
• Final products will be produced in a variety of formats suitable for eBooks and Print

Book Design Timeline: 2 – 4 weeks

SEO, Blogging and Content Strategy and Monthly Implementation

Why flounder around in the dark alone? We can work with you one-on-one to create a content strategy that gets website visits, subscribers and super-fans and builds exponentially over time.

Once-off-content and SEO strategy – €275

(1-2hours video call time + 1-2 hours strategy documentation)

• Over a series of one or two calls, as needed, we brainstorm and outline a recommended strategy that will get you traffic from Google searches, help you build connections with key influencers and rapidly accelerate your marketing efforts by focussing them all in the same direction.
• The call is recorded so you can refer back to it at any time to ensure you stay on track
• After the call, we’ll compile the strategy into a structured written form to be referred to by yourself and our team if you’re going to enlist our help in implementing it. We’ll include any relevant links to useful material should it apply to our decided upon strategy.
• Bear in mind, a strategy is only as good as it’s acted on. That being said, actions tend to follow more easily with a set workable plan.
• Note, SEO and content marketing are a longer-term strategy that builds on itself the longer it’s practiced. To be truly effective it needs to go hand-in-hand with link-building (which I like to think of as digital PR)

Regular recorded marketing strategy and execution video consulting call – €93 per 1hr session

• When you need help maintaining laser focus to guide your author marketing efforts in the most fruitful direction
• If you’d prefer to take a more hands-on approach and want to learn more of the author marketing game yourself
• These sessions would be a natural extension of the initial once-off content and SEO strategy program. As such this program would need to be done first to make these calls most effective
• All sessions are recorded so you can refer back to them and don’t need to make notes

Keyword research – €53 per article

• Keyword research simply means identifying suitable search terms users type in Google to find out about something. This search term is called a keyword.
• Without keyword research, your blog articles will stand little to no chance of ranking highly for relevant searches on Google. You’ll essentially be creating content that will very likely only be read once by your mailing list and never again.
• With properly researched keyword opportunities you’re creating articles that stand a far better chance of getting long term traffic for relevant keywords from Google. Even if no-one reads them now, more and more will over time as you get discovered through search traffic. You’re also creating articles you know someone is actually interested in reading about, which will obviously increase engagement

SEO Blog Article Content Templates – €65 per template

(example of an SEO content template above)

• We take our keyword research, examine the other important related subjects and terms that tell Google this is a relevant article, and present you with a well-outlined template for your blog article as demonstrated above.
• Your blog posts are much quicker to write because you simply have to fill in the content under each heading
• We include high authority links to other posts online to include in the article. (this will help you with any needed research for the article as well
• Once done, you simply copy-paste the article into your WordPress blog post, add an image and your search optimized content is up and running

Link building outreach – (30 to 50 emails per article each with 2 follow-ups if no replies.) – €65 per article email outreach blast

An important aspect of SEO is getting links from other relevant websites to yours. This will provide instant referral traffic from those websites right away. Then as links build it’ll help your articles rank higher on Google and get free traffic from searches

A beautiful spin-off of this strategy is it often opens the door to interviews and collaboration opportunities as we network on your behalf within your genre and industry. This helps you leverage other’s existing audiences to learn more about you and become fans of yours as well.

• We prospect 30 to 50 suitable candidates who might want to link to your article.
• We send each a quick email outlining why their audience would be interested in your blog post.
• If possible we get you an interview or collaboration opportunity to leverage this existing audience to learn more about you.
• If possible we open the door to getting a guest blog written on their site as well.

Guest blogs – 600 to 800 words – €65 per article

• We write a guest post on your behalf and submit it to a related blog within your genre or industry that has well-targeted links pointing back to your website and articles.

• This is an important strategy to help you rank well in Google because the exact words contained in the link to your page is a strong signal to Google that these words are relevant to search terms for that page. With guest posting, you can fully control this “anchor” text in the link to your site.

Author Funnel

One of the oldest formal theories of marketing is the marketing funnel.

It’s a highly workable approach of taking a potential book buyer through a series of logical steps from “never heard of you” to “I’ve bought all your books and I’m recommending you to all my friends.”

A typical Author marketing funnel looks like this…

Ebook→ Newsletter Sign-Up→ Emails→ Sales→  Reviews→ Referrals

• We take your first few chapters and format them into an Ebook.
• This becomes the “magnet” to attract a website visitor to join your mailing list
• We then send the subscriber nudges to read the book
• We also follow up with interesting content including several other interesting snippets about your book which could include quotes or interesting details
• This series of 5 to 7 “welcome” emails are an automatically triggered sequence that anyone joining your mailing list gets
• You mail your blog articles to your list after that to keep them engaged
• You count down the days to new book releases and share milestones with your list
• You ask your list for book reviews if they’ve read a book
• You can ask your list anything if you’d like to know more directly from your growing fan base
• Your list grows over time, making new book launches all the more successful
• Your list becomes a powerful social proof to any traditional publisher of your popularity and makes signing you up for a big publishing deal that much easier. It also gives you bargaining power so you can negotiate for a decent advance

“First Chapters” Ebook Creation – €53

• If we’re simply taking an existing full novel Ebook, adjusting the cover to distinctly say “First chapters preview”, and adding links and nudges to buy within the book this will be the price.

Custom Ebook Creation – €195 (optional)

• You will need this in the case where your Ebook is not already formatted a full novel as above that we will be pulling the first chapters from.
• For example a completely different series of short stories that require their own formatting
• We’ll use a simple attractive cover artwork sourced from stock imagery and illustration
• The Ebook content will be formatted in a similar style to your novels

Email Welcome Sequence – 5 to 7 emails – €180

• Includes creating your email template to be used with your regular mailers
• Interested, non-spammy emails tailored to your brand that encourages engagement and nudges subscribers to try out your book and leave reviews etc.

Illustrated Adventure Map

What’s a good story without a map of the adventure?

A map can make your world feel that much more real. It solidifies the illusion that the lands in your mind really do have form. It also helps your readers understand the journey your characters undertake so they can more easily keep track of your plot.

Illustrated Map – between €315 and €1355

• Price is dependant on quality and detail
• You give us a hand-drawn version with the rough layout (can be as rough as you like) with all the geographic names clearly written
• We give you a refined rough of the map’s layout
• You approve our map proportions and we render the final map in a style of your choosing
• We upload the map to your website, where your fans can download it

Book Video Trailer (30 to 50 sec)

Video is quickly becoming one of the most consumed media online. A book trailer is a great way to use this trend to hook readers into starting on your book

Video Pricing – €230

• We use high quality rendered stock video, imagery, and animations suitable to your genre
• Includes music
• Does not include voice-over
• You give us the general elements of text you want to include and the type of style you’d like.
• We give you 3 examples of video styles we think are appropriate
• We produce your awesome book video trailer

Social Profiles setup

If you’re unsure about creating your social profiles yourself, or simply don’t have the time, we can do it for you.

Social Setup Pricing – €23 per profile

Authors have quite a few social platforms to take advantage of…

• You give us your about text, professional author bio portrait images, and book art if we don’t have it already
• We create any missing profiles you’d like. For example Bookbub, Reedsy, Goodreads, Facebook, Instagram, Amazon

Pricing Summary

Count-Down to Launch…