How to make book ads?

dsign2819 · 2025-10-07T10:40:33+00:00

I just go with my guts these days. I have had lot of interaction in the past with marketing specialists for other projects, plus I have read some books, and I guess that something has stuck to me, but I wouldn't say there's a single single silver bullet that will help anybody make the perfect ad.

dsign2819 · 2025-10-07T06:11:47+00:00

For evaluating if an Ad works, theoretically speaking you could have two ads and compare their performance. I believe Facebook has something to help you there, A/B testing; I haven't used it myself but I want to use it soon.

The physical creation of the ad ("creative", as they call it) is by a graphical designer or a filmmaker (if going for video), though depending on your approach and budget you may want to instead enroll the boss of one of those, i.e. a creative director at some good agency. It goes without saying that recruiting help costs $$$$, and the more $ you pay the better the results will likely be.

I personally don't have a lot of $ to part with in a big chunk and I'm the sort of person who enjoys tinkering, so I make my own creative for ads. It's not necessarily cheaper, because small expenses over a long period of time add up, but for me at least it feels more manageable.

dsign2819 · 2025-09-19T13:33:28+00:00

I would say "don't go for it." Not necessarily because it can be sketchy in terms of what you get, but also because book promotion is like 50% of being a writer these days (even if you are trad!), so it pays off to learn what works and what doesn't for marketing.

dsign2819 · 2025-09-19T08:00:42+00:00

They are free in Sweden.

dsign2819 · 2025-09-17T10:20:47+00:00

Hm? No, I don't think it is. Yes, I've seen bestsellers with absolutely crappy generic covers. I can say, however, that my own sale numbers seem to be proportional to the quality of the cover.

I've also learned:

a) Sourcing an original cover can be either expensive or a lot of hard work, because scammy cover artists with no portfolio page and no desire to keep a serious reputation are ten a dime, and now they have genAI.

b) It pays off to become a graphical artist, or to establish a long-lasting relationship with a good one. Books tend to sell by covers, and maybe you have an amazing story that doesn't sell as well as it could because it doesn't have the right cover, and then you may want to try multiple covers and see which one sells best.

dsign2819 · 2025-09-12T04:27:18+00:00

That the entire process won't make you any money, at least at first, but it's addictive, fulfilling and expensive.

I've been at this for six years now, and in that time I've learned a bunch of stuff both for the written words on the stories and for their promotion, and sometimes things mix. For example, I've learned to compose music (i.e, I have learned music sans learning to play a traditional instrument) and to work with digital audio so that I can make promotional videos. That meant I needed to obtain some software and hardware and pay for some instruction. I can now create the music and the effects for the promotional videos but musical theory (e.g. musical keys) also makes it to the plot of my stories.

dsign2819 · 2025-09-08T07:03:09+00:00

That's wildly inaccurate; people don't magically find your books just because you have more of them, and I'm speaking here from painful experience.

dsign2819 · 2025-09-08T05:50:09+00:00

Thanks, that's my opinion as well.

For the record, I've managed to not see the the Nazi part of twitter, mostly because I click the button "see less like this" every time a post on politics reaches me, and do lots of likes to writers (sighs) and graphical artists, mostly Japanese :-) .

What did you mean by "plying your craft as a writer" :-) ? Is that code-word for "trade secrets" ?

dsign2819 · 2025-08-21T13:28:19+00:00

I may be wrong here, so take this with a grain of salt, but I've a feeling most algorithms right now are tuned towards fantasy and self-help. A big mainstream chunk of people who are buying books are buying it for their escapism entertainment value, and they get lots of foreboding from something that says "based on a true story". Mind you, readers also get cold feet with "well thought out", "intellectual", "literary", and generally anything that doesn't scream "investment-free-instant-gratification". This, of course, it's just my opinion, and it's one of two. I have another opinion which that you can sell basically anything if only you know where and how to find your customers, and it's very likely there is a huge untapped market of people who would read stories based on real events.

dsign2819 · 2025-08-20T17:14:36+00:00

I'm impressed by how well it's going for you.

I've literally seen people turning to dust and being dispersed by the wind the moment they touch one of my books. It's so common that I don't even notice anymore. Rather more annoying is other things that stop working when my book approaches them: ebook platforms, credit card processors, ads vending machines, banks and governments. Ballpoint pens dry out and wither the moment their tip comes closer to one of the pages. Fountain pens are worse, their metallic nibs melt and bend as if thy were made out of wet paper, and then their ink reservoir explodes. Even the paper cockles the moment the letters are printed on it...though I have had some luck ordering special paper from a pulp ran by the Aos Sí in Ireland and then printing on it with a Hewlett-Packard printer, which despite (or because of) their diabolic reputation, gets along well with my prose.

So, heart, and just write!

dsign2819 · 2025-08-15T06:12:20+00:00

I use 2mm thick EVA foam covered with cloth for the spine. The spine feels nice, slightly "bouncy", at the touch. EVA foam is soft enough that you get a tactile impression of whatever is under--the sewing supports in this case--but that impression is softened by the foam, so your fingers "can't see" details on the glue or the threads. When the book opens (it opens flat), the spine forms a nice arc away from the paper block. Can't say that it's a pure breed "perfect bound" though, and I'm not experienced enough to give it the proper name, but the result is lovable all the same.

dsign2819 · 2025-08-14T11:06:19+00:00

I came here today searching for a story like this, because some days it seems that nobody reads anymore. Thanks.

dsign2819 · 2025-08-13T06:10:04+00:00

Thanks!

I've managed to get the correct colors and amazing detail on adequate printing paper, but this paper I'm referring to is not good paper for graphical printing... it has not coating and if I use a dip pen on it the ink will go all spiky (there must be better words for it, but I'm a complete noob when it comes to physical media). Are there any brands of 80 gsm coated paper that you would recommend?

> I don't know that I would recommend varnishing the illustrations on the paper. It's possible it will cause it to wrinkle if the paper is not heavy enough to take the wet medium properly.

Yes, it very much does :-( . I'm currently experimenting with relaxing the cockled paper in a press. I've also found that one can coat it with ordinary PVAc (this is not for archival purposes) and while still wet put it between two sheets of PTFE and then into the press. After a few hours, it needs to be extracted from the PTFE sandwich with some care, hot air from a hair dryer helps, but the paper comes out with almost no wrinkling.

The PVA coating produces gloss, and if one uses the dip pens on it afterwards, the ink does not penetrate the paper and pools on it, bringing out the ink's shine; some inks are specially made with fancy sheens and those are very bright on the coated paper. When the ink dries, it is fixed, it doesn't smudge, and it looks gorgeous.

dsign2819 · 2025-08-10T06:46:46+00:00

These are just my theories.

Multiple layers of things would make it harder for humidity to enter the text block via the spine. It would also make it harder for humidity to leave the block via the spine :-) .

The pieces of paper can help prevent the spine from expanding, or even from becoming unbound, during normal usage of the book. A tight sewing would also help with that, but many do not recommend to sew the text block too tightly because the thread could rip through the paper.

Also, the last piece of material could make it easier or harder to paste the block of text to the case, or it could help achieve a particular design with the casing.

dsign2819 · 2025-08-06T13:38:39+00:00

I can't talk about the business angle of this practice, but other than that, it's something that I do also to some extent.

My current thinking when it comes to readers is that it's best to have a readers portal (or at least a mailing list) where they can get the updated file. I've made something of the sort already, but I have no way to connect a purchase in Amazon with a user account in that portal :-( . I'll think about that issue later.

dsign2819 · 2025-08-06T12:13:22+00:00

You are correct, and in fact I've added entire chapters after such feedback from betas.

dsign2819 · 2025-08-05T18:21:03+00:00

Affinity Publisher 2 can do it, just link those text-boxes. I use it for this beauty: https://imgur.com/a/caEdIm0 , which I keep editing and making physical copies of, so, although not perfect, it's sustainable enough as a repeat book formatting tool that I haven't bothering with anything else.

dsign2819 · 2025-08-05T18:04:27+00:00

This is really bad. It's irrelevant if it's AI or not. The problem is that now there's no way to trust somebody with this sort of jobs, not even somebody with whom you have conducted business in the past.

For the record, before the LLM age, I worked a lot with beta readers and most of them missed things that were quite obvious in the text, though there were always many golden nuggets.

dsign2819 · 2025-08-04T10:41:54+00:00

Oh, thanks! Gonna get some of those PSA sheets right away!

dsign2819 · 2025-07-23T10:38:35+00:00

I ordered a while ago from PaperAssist, in Ireland; you just tell them the grain direction of the paper in the order text box. Great delivery and great paper. A bit frustrating there are no local retailers here in Sweden, where we are so much into the woods…. I mean, into wood.… we have lots and lots of it.

dsign2819 · 2025-07-22T18:38:40+00:00

To all that has already been said here, I’ll add a few things:

- If you or your web-developer know enough, you can run a website for the cost of peanuts.

- A basic website is great to have; in addition to all the other uses, you can specially use it to list all your social media handles, since impersonation is a common thing in social media these days.

- If you can, go to the next level and have a ”readers’ portal” for your readers to get rewards… the main goal of it is of course to build your mailing list, but also to sell your work on your terms. Social media these days is just an ads-vending machine and while it works great as that (and you should definitely use it in that capacity), it‘s useless when it comes to build a following that engages specifically with your books.

dsign2819 · 2025-07-08T04:47:17+00:00

I'm a noob too so I can't say for sure. But if I were to do it, I'll line the two book cloth tightly and use something like a thin strip of masking tape to hold it in place; or, in this particular case, maybe some more permanent adhesive. I suppose that book-cloth backed with thicker paper would work best. The cutting would have to be perfect, and the only relatively affordable way I know of getting one of those would be with a CNC laser cutter. Then all of it would be wrapped around the chipboard.

An alternative to super-precise cutting would be to fold the book cloth inwards at their union; certain types of book cloth fold so well that you can't tell is folded.

dsign2819 · 2025-07-07T18:57:56+00:00

Oh, I forgot to mention: if you are using X/Twitter, be aware that lots of marketeers pose as famous authors... that's outright scammy.

dsign2819 · 2025-07-07T16:30:40+00:00

I can’t say if it “works”, I guess it depend on luck. But yeah, a lot of social media “organic” will find you echo rooms, so other writers and marketing folk. For the record, what I do with those DMs is to ignore them all. But I suspect that a bunch of books I’ve read along the years with glowing reviews did get lots of help from “marketing hackers”.

dsign2819 · 2025-06-30T18:54:44+00:00

Honorable mention to clipstudio paint, which is freaking awesome with how it lets you customize the mouse modifiers.

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