Case Study Category: Media

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.

Since those early days, Marquis’s fanbase has grown exponentially. He says:

“Thanks to Books Forward, I now have over 20,000 book reviews on Amazon, Bookbub, Barnes and Nobles and Goodreads, with an average of 4.3/5…Great work by Books Forward.”

As a result of his literary success — particularly for his Blackbeard biography, which won a Kirkus Reviews Book of the Year Award and has been the top-selling book about Blackbeard on Amazon for over 5 years — in 2024 Marquis signed a traditional publishing deal with Diversion Books for his upcoming title, Captain Kidd: A Tale of Treasure and Betrayal. We are thrilled to continue partnering with him from indie success to this exciting new chapter!

Establishing a Brand via Creative Promotions

Poetry for children can be a niche market, and a few famous names dominate (we’re looking at you, Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss). But Brett Fleishman’s poems for young readers are so funny and charming, and we wanted to plan something special to help his work stand out. 

After requesting that he write a unique poem for “Take Your Child to a Bookstore” Day, we shared it with hundreds of indie bookstores, along with a custom poster. The independent bookseller associations nationwide shared it with thousands of people via their email lists and social media, and the story and poem were picked up by and featured in Shelf Awareness! 

We also put Brett in front of his target audience by connecting him with ReadBoston, an organization which arranges school visits for authors across the city, and coordinating speaking events for him with the Boston Children’s Museum and the Boston Children’s Festival. We even partnered him with the Lowell Spinners (a local minor league baseball team) so that Brett could collaborate with them on an official promotional poem about the team! 

Establishing Brett’s brand by connecting him directly with his most important audience–kids!–was our primary goal, but we didn’t stop there. We coordinated coverage for him with Kirkus, the Midwest Book Review, Book Riot and influential children’s book bloggers. 

Helping a Genre Publisher Find a Mainstream Audience

As one of the most respected Christian publishers in the industry, Tyndale’s authors have traditionally found success among Christian booksellers and readers (also called the Christian Booksellers Association or CBA market). The publisher knew their titles could also find a wider readership beyond the CBA market. When Tyndale approached us about creating a strategy to promote their titles to a more mainstream audience, we were happy to assist!

Christian and mainstream markets intersect the Southern U.S., (which was also where some of the Tyndale authors were based), so targeting booksellers and readers in that geographic region was a natural first step to not only maximize Tyndale authors’ genre influence, but extend to a broader, receptive audience. We positioned Tyndale’s authors for optimum visibility at the Southern Independent Booksellers Association Tradeshow (SIBA), where they were able to network with and promote to thousands of mainstream Southern booksellers and influencers who were not exclusively faith-based.

We also coordinated blog tours and secured coverage for Tyndale’s authors, including now New York Times bestseller Lisa Wingate, with online reviewers and influencers who cover a diverse variety of genres, which helped expose these wonderful books to mainstream readers across the worldwide. 

With some strategic geographic positioning and creative online exposure, we’re pleased to say that Tyndale’s titles did indeed find a host of new fans beyond their original genre market, growing the publisher’s and authors’ platforms!

Helping A Debut Author Build Her Brand

When Lori Rader-Day joined our Books Forward family in 2014, we knew she was one of a kind. Her debut mystery novel The Black Hour won starred reviews in Booklist, Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, and her writing has since been honored by the Edgar, Macavity, Thriller, Barry, and Mary Higgins Clark Awards. For the past five years, we have been honored to help her build her brand (including four subsequent releases!), and to come alongside her amazing efforts to ensure her books get the recognition they deserve.

During Lori’s first epic book tour around the Midwest, we helped confirm her status as a star on the rise by securing local media coverage around her events, building buzz at her various tour stops. Awards recognitions can also help grow a new author’s reputation in the industry, so we managed nominations for an Indie Next Pick, and celebrated with her when she won!

Now, we are continuing to help grow her author brand and expand her fanbase by targeting well-known literary events with established audiences. Lori’s made the long journey from first-time novelist to established author, and we are looking forward to seeing where her literary career takes her next!

Debuting a New Publishing Company

What started as a monthly reading series in Manhattan’s Upper East Side in 2014 had evolved into a fully-fledged publishing press by 2018, and we were thrilled to help them launch their creative debut list! Named in reference to the film Gangs of New York (and a tongue-in-cheek nod to a traumatic childhood experience by one of the reading series’ founders), Dead Rabbits Books specializes in emerging literary voices with a missional focus on “books that matter.” Their launch list deserved equally strong and unique publicity, which we were happy to deliver. 

We designed an innovative campaign for their lead premiere title, Emerald City by Brian Birnbaum, a novel which draws on the author’s real experience of being the hearing son of deaf parents, and which explores themes of deafness and parent-child relationships. We created and pitched a tailor-made media list of industry publications, particularly focusing on thematic media centered on issues pertaining to deafness and hearing impairment, as well as targeting local media for the press’ founders. Dead Rabbits’ books are modern, artistic, and fresh, and we knew they’d generate buzz online, so we also crafted a campaign strategy to target influential online book reviewers, influencers, and popular bookstagrammers. 

We’re pleased to say that thematic media such as Hearing Like Me and Limping Chicken (the “world’s most popular deaf blog” with over 6 million views) praised Emerald City for it’s nuanced and realistic approach to deaf issues and relationships, while literary industry publications like Winning Writers and Digital Pubbing lauded Dead Rabbits Books’ groundbreaking launch list and mission. 

We are incredibly passionate about supporting literary changemakers, and it was our privilege to help launch a press that is just as passionate about “books that matter” as we are!

Finding Big Advantages in Small Towns

Big cities like New York and L.A. get plenty of literary attention, but did you know that setting your book in a smaller city–especially one you have a real-life connection to–can have big advantages?

Mystery author Roger Johns went to college in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And since the town has always had a special place in his heart, he decided to set his Wallace Hartman mysteries there. This was a smart move, as the relative scarcity of books set in Baton Rouge helped Roger’s books stand out from the highly competitive mystery crowd. 

Books Forward highlighted Roger’s local connection and tenaciously pitched Baton Rouge media, which responded well to the series. We landed a full page spread in the local newspaper (which has a 100,000+ daily circulation), a feature in Southern Distinction magazine and made a splash on local radio. 

Roger’s local connection also caught the interest of indie booksellers, who were eager to promote a book set in their backyard–and his fun and gregarious nature did the rest! We knew he’d be perfect for events, and prioritized his book tour to give him a chance to shine. Roger happily hit the road and appeared at multiple bookstores, festival and conferences. The many personal connections he made with booksellers and readers ultimately paid off, securing him return-spots at events in the coming year.

Leaning into your local connections, no matter how “small,” can give your book a big boost!

Networking with Indie Booksellers for Long-Lasting Success

Author and renowned work addiction expert Dr. Bryan E. Robinson partnered with Books Forward for the launch of Daily Writing Resilience (January 2018). His book focused on mindfulness and meditation as tools to improve the writing process, and was a hit with both health media and writing/literary outlets. 

Shortly after our first campaign with Bryan ended, HarperCollins’ William Morrow imprint accepted his next book #CHILL for publication, and we had the privilege of working with him again on a second book launch for December 2018. With tenacious, personalized pitching, we were able to arrange a regular column for Bryan with Psychology Today, multiple interviews with Forbes and interviews with NBC. 

We also opened up a new area of success for Bryan outside of traditional media placements by helping him develop impactful relationships with his regional independent booksellers association. We arranged for Bryan to speak at the Southern Independent Bookseller Association’s summer tradeshow, and we strategically positioned him at our booth so he could network with passing booksellers. Bright and personable, we knew he would make an impression, and he did! 

When we began our Fall 2018 publicity campaign for #CHILL, we pitched his books for inclusion at SIBA’s Spring 2019 tradeshow, even though Bryan himself could not attend the event. Our proposal was accepted; booksellers and tradeshow organizers remembered him from his previous SIBA appearance. Better still, #CHILL was picked to be SIBA’s official January 2019 Book Club Selection, meaning thousands of booksellers all over the South were encouraged to read #CHILL (creating more incentive for them to stock and handsell the book in their stores)! Bryan was also featured multiple times in the SIBA email newsletter, which named his book an official New Year’s Reading Pick.

Here’s a great example of how building relationships with influential tastemakers can change an author’s life and boost a book.

Using “Out-of-the-Box” Creativity for Big Debut Win

It’s crucial for debut authors to make personal connections with their target audience to build buzz for that first release. Historical novelist Jeffrey Stayton wanted to make as many connections as possible; luckily he had an RV, a taste for adventure and willingness to hit the road! 

We knew a book tour would be the perfect way for Jeff to build a following for his gorgeous and gritty Civil War novel This Side of the River. An epic book deserves an epic tour! 

Books Forward designed a 20-stop book tour at venues and festivals across the country. The tour included Southern mega-fests like the Southern Independent Booksellers Association tradeshow and the venerable Southern Festival of Books, as well as plenty of independent bookstores. We also arranged for Jeff to speak at Civil War reenactment festivals and museums–the perfect place to connect with history buffs, who were warmly receptive to Jeff and his new novel.

As a former indie bookseller himself, Jeff knew the power of bookstores and also wanted to celebrate his fellow book community leaders. We set up a “Cheer for the Bookstore!” $250 Scholarship Contest, where indie bookstores nationwide could enter to win by telling us how they would benefit from the money. One of the highlights of the tour for Jeff was getting to stop in the winning stores and meet the booksellers in person! And we appreciated how Shelf Awareness celebrated Jeff’s goodwill.

Jeff also participated in unique promotions such as SIBA’s TRIO Project, which paired him with a musician and artist who each created an original song and piece of art based on his novel. The TRIO art installation was featured prominently at the tradeshow, before touring through the Southern states.

Hitting the Southern California Indie Bestseller List

When Kristen Kittscher launched her second middle-grade mystery, The Tiara on the Terrace, our team had terrific fun working on out-of-the-box promotions!

First, Books Forward organized a special mailing to booksellers and librarians nationwide. Our box included some usual goodies–a copy of the book and swag like bookmarks, stickers, etc.–but we wanted to go bigger. Kristen’s mystery relies on code-breaking tween sleuths, so we designed and produced an interactive scavenger hunt game, complete with a decoding activity to solve the final puzzle. Needless to say, it was a huge hit with libraries! 

Second, we coordinated her national book tour with over a dozen events at prestigious bookstores, including Warwicks, Chevaliers, RJ Julia and a massive NYC launch party at Mysterious Bookshop. We also organized school visits for Kristen, so she could connect with her favorite audience–her middle school readers! 

Last but not least, we organized great media coverage for her with School Library Journal’s Fuse #8, a Publisher’s Weekly Photo of the Day and a book trailer feature in Shelf Awareness. 

We’re pleased to say that The Tiara on the Terrace hit the SoCal Indie bestseller list. It was a royal win!

Building New Leads Helps Debut Find International Audience

Holocaust survivor Laureen Nussbaum’s riveting account of her family’s escape–thanks to the intervention of a brave, little-known German official named Hans Calmeyer–deserved as wide an audience as possible.

Despite the enduring cultural significance of this event, it can be challenging for a new title to get attention because of countless other titles dedicated to accounts of the Holocaust.

Resilience, persistence and adaptability are key in any good publicity plan, and we developed a fresh strategy for hooking the right outlets for Nussbaum’s book Shedding Our Stars.

We conducted ultra-specific research to find new leads, targeting journalists who were consistently writing about a). Holocaust survivors, b). Anne Frank (whom Nussbaum knew personally), c). stories of positive German involvement in the Holocaust and d). hyper-local human interest pieces in Seattle, Nussbaum’s city.

By sending very personalized pitches to these leads, we were able to secure feature stories, reviews and interviews in major international media such as The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (which fed to The Jerusalem Post and Jewish News Syndicate), The Jewish Voice, Jewish Journal, Aish Magazine, Arutz Sheva and The Dutch Review. ​We also arranged a prominent feature story for Nussbaum in The Seattle Times.

Some doors in publicity take a little finesse to open–the important thing is to adapt your approach and never stop trying! Thanks to the creative strategy and Nussbaum’s powerful story, the first print run of 1,500 copies sold out within the first couple months of publication, and the book entered its second printing! We are especially proud that the exposure met Nussbaum’s personal goal of spreading awareness of Calmeyer’s brave resistance to his Nazi compatriots, as she has received correspondence from readers enthusiastically asking more about him.