Building an Indie Bestseller into a Traditional Book Deal

Since 2015, we’ve had the pleasure of working with historical thriller author Samuel Marquis, and our partnership has spanned 12 books and counting. For his debut novel, we helped Marquis make a splash by coordinating a comprehensive book publicity campaign and ensuring his anticipated strong launch event sales landed him at #1 on the Denver Post bestseller list — a pivotal achievement for his first book.

First, we created a robust publicity foundation for his early releases. We secured positive reviews from industry publications Kirkus Reviews, Foreword Reviews Magazine, Midwest Book Review and many other reviewers. We submitted each book for multiple awards, where they consistently won top honors.

We also leaned into Marquis’ commitment to factual history in his thriller novels, which eventually segued into his later nonfiction work. We placed guest articles with Writer’s Digest, Military.com and other publications. Marquis become a regularly consultant on American history for media outlets, including the History Channel and The Historians podcast. And he turned speaking opportunities into engaging historical presentations at book conferences, bookstores, book clubs, alumni and rotary club events, and other opportunities.

As his books garnered critical praise and recognition, we designed a savvy digital marketing campaign to keep traffic flowing to his sales pages. We coordinated BookBub features and ran other strategic promotions for his ebooks and backlist titles, timing these deals around new releases. As a result, he consistently topped Amazon bestseller charts, and his positive reviews continued to skyrocket. This approach not only kept his growing audience engaged but also expanded it, building excitement for each new title.