**PROJECT: Crimson Leaf Marketing – "The Invisible Infrastructure" Campaign**
**ROLE:** Zara, Lead Creative Copywriter
**TARGET:** Authors (traditionally published & indie), small presses, literary entrepreneurs

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## INSTAGRAM (10 Posts)

**POST 1**
- **POST TYPE:** Hook
- **VISUAL NOTE:** Split-screen: messy manuscript on left, pristine bookstore display on right, with a crimson arrow connecting them
- **CAPTION:**  
Your book isn't hiding because it's bad. It's hiding because it's invisible. 🌑

Most authors spend 2 years writing and 2 days marketing. Then they wonder why the algorithm buried their launch.

The truth? Discovery is a system, not an accident.

We build the bridge between "finished manuscript" and "reader's hands." No guesswork. No vanity metrics. Just strategic visibility.

What's the biggest marketing mystery you're facing right now? 👇

#BookMarketing #IndieAuthors #Publishing Tips #AuthorPlatform #CrimsonLeafMarketing #WritingCommunity #BookLaunch

- **CTA:** Comment "BRIDGE" and we'll DM you our Metadata Checklist for Book Discovery

**POST 2**
- **POST TYPE:** Story
- **VISUAL NOTE:** Carousel of screenshots showing BookBub Featured Deal stats: 0 sales → 4,000 downloads → Amazon bestseller tag
- **CAPTION:**  
Marcus spent 18 months querying agents. Crickets.

Then he went indie. Crickets for 6 more months.

Week 3 with us: We repositioned his comp titles, rewrote his Amazon A+ Content, and targeted his Facebook ads to "readers of Tana French who finished a book in the last 14 days."

Result: 4,000 downloads in 72 hours. 300 organic reviews in 30 days.

The book didn't change. The metadata did. 📊✨

Swipe to see the before/after of his Amazon page →

#AuthorSuccessStory #BookMarketing #IndieAuthor #PublishingWins #MarketingStrategy

- **CTA:** Swipe to end of carousel and screenshot the 3-step visibility framework

**POST 3**
- **POST TYPE:** Behind-the-Scenes
- **VISUAL NOTE:** Overhead shot of our strategy table: printed-out book covers, color-coded sticky notes, coffee cups, open laptop showing Amazon keywords spreadsheet
- **CAPTION:**  
Thursday morning war room. ☕🎯

Those yellow sticky notes? That's us reverse-engineering the BST (Bestseller Tags) for a thriller launching next Tuesday.

The blue ones? Audience psychographics. Not "mystery readers." "Mystery readers who watch true crime documentaries but hate cozies."

Marketing a book isn't shouting into the void. It's matchmaking. Precise. Intentional. Obsessive.

P.S. That crimson notebook contains 47 title variations we A/B tested yesterday. 📕

#BehindTheScenes #MarketingLife #BookLaunch #StrategySession #Publishing

- **CTA:** Save this post for your next marketing meeting inspiration

**POST 4**
- **POST TYPE:** Quote
- **VISUAL NOTE:** Text overlay on textured paper background: "Marketing isn't manipulation. It's a handshake across the noise."
- **CAPTION:**  
We didn't write this. A client did. In her acknowledgments.

Authors often tell us they feel "icky" about marketing. Like they're bothering people.

But here's the reframe: You solved a problem. You created entertainment, escape, education, or catharsis. Hiding that solution is the real disservice.

Marketing is just signaling. 🎯

Your people are searching. Let them find you.

#AuthorMindset #MarketingQuotes #BookPromotion #CreativeBusiness #WritersLife

- **CTA:** Share this to your Stories and tag us for a reshare

**POST 5**
- **POST TYPE:** CTA
- **VISUAL NOTE:** Clean graphic: "The Launch Gap: Free 5-Day Email Course" with mockup of email on phone screen
- **CAPTION:**  
Most book launches fail in the first 72 hours.

Not because the book is bad. Because the pre-launch was silent. 🤐

We built a 5-day intensive covering:
→ The ARC strategy that generates 50+ organic reviews
→ Metadata that actually converts (keywords, categories, comp titles)
→ The "$0 ad spend" email sequence for launch week

It's free. It's actionable. It's yours.

Link in bio. 🚀

#BookLaunch #MarketingCourse #IndiePublishing #AuthorResources #FreeTraining

- **CTA:** Click link in bio to enroll in the free email course

**POST 6**
- **POST TYPE:** Review Amplification
- **VISUAL NOTE:** Screenshot of email testimonial blown up on crimson background with text highlighted: "You treated my book like it was already a bestseller"
- **CAPTION:**  
"I've worked with three marketing teams before. They treated my book like a product. Crimson Leaf treated it like a mission. You treated my book like it was already a bestseller, and somehow, readers started believing it too." — Elena K., Historical Fiction Author

We don't do volume campaigns. We do conversion campaigns.

Your book deserves strategy, not spam. 🍂

#ClientLove #Testimonial #BookMarketing #AuthorReview #PublishingServices

- **CTA:** Tap the email icon to share this testimonial to your author friends

**POST 7**
- **POST TYPE:** Hook
- **VISUAL NOTE:** Bold text graphic: "STOP boosting posts" with crimson X through the word "boosting"
- **CAPTION:**  
Stop boosting posts. Start building funnels. 🛑

If your "book marketing" consists of hitting "Boost Post" and hoping for the best, you're burning money.

Authors need:
→ Retargeting pixels (visit book page → see ad)
→ Lookalike audiences (email list → Facebook targeting)
→ Sequential messaging (excerpt → review → purchase)

Not vague awareness. Direct response.

The algorithm rewards precision, not desperation.

Agree? Drop a 🎯 if you're ready to get surgical.

#FacebookAds #BookMarketing #IndieAuthor #MarketingStrategy #ROI

- **CTA:** Comment "FUNNEL" for our free Author's Guide to Meta Ads PDF

**POST 8**
- **POST TYPE:** Story
- **VISUAL NOTE:** Timeline graphic: Day -90 to Day 30 showing key marketing milestones (ARC distribution, metadata optimization, newsletter sequencing)
- **CAPTION:**  
The 90-Day Book Launch Timeline most authors ignore 🗓️

Day -90: ARCs distributed to strategic reviewers (not just "anyone with a blog")
Day -60: Metadata locked and loaded (BISAC codes, keywords, comp titles)
Day -30: Email sequence primed (warm-up, value-add, launch)
Day 0: The algorithm already knows you exist

You can't launch on Tuesday and start marketing on Monday.

Swipe for the full pre-launch checklist → 📋

#BookLaunch #PublishingSchedule #MarketingTimeline #PreLaunchStrategy #Authors

- **CTA:** Screenshot the final slide and save to your "Launch Planning" folder

**POST 9**
- **POST TYPE:** Behind-the-Scenes
- **VISUAL NOTE:** Team member's hands holding open book with notes in margins, phone showing Goodreads analytics in background
- **CAPTION:**  
How we choose comp titles for our clients:

1. Not just "similar genre" — similar *emotional promise*
2. Books that debuted in the last 18 months (algorithms favor fresh comps)
3. Authors with 50k-200k followers (aspirational but achievable)

Today we're building a targeting profile for a literary thriller. Comps: "French meets Gailey but make it atmospheric like Tartt."

Specificity sells. 🎯📚

What's your dream comp title? Tell us below 👇

#CompTitles #BookMarketing #TargetAudience #PublishingStrategy #BookRecommendations

- **CTA:** Comment your top 3 comp titles and we'll tell you if they're helping or hurting your visibility

**POST 10**
- **POST TYPE:** Quote
- **VISUAL NOTE:** Author desk flat-lay: typewriter, red pen, coffee, open notebook with our quote calligraphed
- **CAPTION:**  
"Your book is a business asset. Treat the marketing like R&D, not an afterthought."

Someone needed to hear that today. 💼📖

You invested years in the product. Invest months in the distribution.

#AuthorBusiness #WritingLife #BookMarketing #CreativeEntrepreneur #PublishingIndustry

- **CTA:** Save this post and revisit before your next book launch

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## TIKTOK / REELS (5 Concepts)

**CONCEPT 1: The Metadata Meltdown**
- **HOOK (first 3 seconds):** "POV: You just realized your 'book marketing' problem is actually a metadata problem" [Text on screen while zooming into shocked face]
- **VIDEO CONCEPT:** Quick cuts showing: typing "mystery thriller" into Amazon search → millions of results → cut to wrong category browsing → cut to us frantically highlighting "BISAC codes" and "Amazon categories" on a whiteboard → reveal: specific niche subcategories with less competition
- **CTA:** "Follow for part 2 where we fix your keywords in 60 seconds"

**CONCEPT 2: The 3 Myths**
- **HOOK (first 3 seconds):** "3 things killing your book sales that have nothing to do with your writing" [Point at camera, three fingers up]
- **VIDEO CONCEPT:** Walking through office while text overlays pop up: 1) "Your cover looks DIY (readers can smell Canva)" 2) "Your blurb is a synopsis, not a hook" 3) "You have zero reviews on launch day" → cut to solutions for each with fast transitions
- **CTA:** "Link in bio for the free launch checklist—don't skip #3"

**CONCEPT 3: A Day in the Life (Speed Run)**
- **HOOK (first 3 seconds):** "Day in the life of a book marketer (we actually read the books first)" [Alarm clock sound, coffee pour]
- **VIDEO CONCEPT:** Time-lapse montage: 9am reading manuscript with notes, 11am designing Instagram grid mockups, 2pm Zoom with author discussing "dark academia aesthetic," 4pm analyzing BookBub CPM rates, 6pm shipping ARCs to BookTokers. Trending upbeat audio.
- **CTA:** "Comment 'ARC' if you want to know how we choose BookTok reviewers"

**CONCEPT 4: Trend Audio, Literary Twist**
- **HOOK (first 3 seconds):** [Using trending "I'm looking for a man in finance" audio but cutting to] Text overlay: "I'm looking for a reader in their 30s / Trusts Bookstagram recs / Finished Fourth Wing in 2 days / Has 500+ TBR books"
- **VIDEO CONCEPT:** Cut between: fancy book aesthetic shots, our targeting spreadsheet, authors reacting to sales notifications, final frame of perfectly targeted Facebook ad screenshot
- **CTA:** "Follow if you're that reader (or if you want to find them)"

**CONCEPT 5: The Before & After**
- **HOOK (first 3 seconds):** "This cover redesign paid for itself in 48 hours" [Split screen: old cover vs. new cover]
- **VIDEO CONCEPT:** Side-by-side scrolling: Old Amazon page (3 reviews, 50 sales rank) vs. New Amazon page (300 reviews, #1 in category banner). Voiceover explaining: "We changed three things: typography hierarchy, comp title positioning, and category selection." Show real metrics changing in real-time screen recording.
- **CTA:** "DM us 'COVER' for our Book Cover Audit template"

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## LINKEDIN (5 Posts)

**POST 1: The Publishing Paradigm Shift**
- **HEADLINE:** The publishing industry didn't change. The gatekeepers just moved from Manhattan offices to algorithmic feeds.
- **BODY:**  
Ten years ago, your book's fate rested on a pitch meeting in a Midtown high-rise. Today, it rests on metadata optimization and community cultivation.

Yet most authors are still marketing like it's 2014—treating social media as a billboard rather than a conversation.

At Crimson Leaf, we've tracked 200+ book launches. The data is clear: books that treat marketing as infrastructure (built pre-launch, optimized weekly, measured obsessively) outperform "hope-based" marketing by 400%.

The shift isn't just digital. It's behavioral. Readers discover through trust signals—peer recommendations, algorithmic curation, and micro-influencer validation—not catalog browsing.

Your book needs a marketing architecture, not a marketing moment.

What we're implementing now: Sequential retargeting campaigns that serve excerpt content to readers who visited the Amazon page but didn't purchase, then follow with social proof (reviews) 72 hours later. Conversions increase 3x when the message matches the behavior.

The infrastructure matters more than the launch party.
- **CTA:** Comment "INFRASTRUCTURE" to receive our White Paper: "The Post-Gatekeeper Publishing Economy"

**POST 2: Author Brand vs. Book Brand**
- **HEADLINE:** Your book is not your brand. Your worldview is.
- **BODY:**  
I spend half my week convincing authors to stop building book-specific websites.

If you're writing Book 1 of a psychological thriller series, yes, you need a page for that book. But if your entire digital presence disappears when that book is out of print, you've built a pop-up shop, not a business.

The authors thriving in this landscape—regardless of publishing path—have one thing in common: platform continuity. They discuss themes, not just titles. They build community around ideas, not ISBNs.

Case study: We repositioned a client's LinkedIn strategy from "buy my mystery novel" to "exploring the psychology of closed communities." Result? 400% increase in newsletter signups and sustainable sales across her entire backlist, not just the new release.

Think like a columnist, not a car salesman.
- **CTA:** Connect with me to discuss your long-term platform architecture

**POST 3: The Pre-Order Proposition**
- **HEADLINE:** Why pre-orders matter more than first-week sales (and why publishers won't tell you this).
- **BODY:**  
Pre-orders aren't vanity metrics. They're algorithmic primers.

When a reader pre-orders your book, Amazon registers intent. That intent trains the recommendation engine. By launch day, your book isn't "new" to the algorithm—it's "anticipated."

We've seen pre-order volume directly correlate with:
1. Amazon Also-Bought placement velocity
2. Launch day category ranking stickiness
3. Long-tail discovery (that 90-day post-launch window most authors ignore)

The strategy: Front-load your ARC distribution (Advanced Reader Copies) to hit 50+ reviews before the pre-order page goes live. Social proof + anticipation = category domination.

Yet most marketing budgets are spent chasing launch week, ignoring the 90-day runway that actually determines long-term visibility.

Your launch isn't Day 1. It's Day -60.
- **CTA:** Visit the link in my featured section to download our Pre-Order Campaign Playbook

**POST 4: The Metadata Reality**
- **HEADLINE:** Your book is buried because your BISAC codes are wrong. Full stop.
- **BODY:**  
I reviewed 50 Amazon listings this morning. 43 had incorrect BISAC codes.

That thriller novel categorized as "Fiction > General"? It's competing against Toni Morrison and Stephen King instead of Lisa Jewell and Ruth Ware. It's invisible to its actual audience.

Metadata isn't backstage logistics. It's front-stage discovery.

The three metadata pillars we audit for every client:
1. **BISAC Accuracy**: Do your categories match reader expectation, not just content description?
2. **Keyword Optimization**: Are you targeting "cozy mystery beach read" or just "mystery"?
3. **Comp Title Alignment**: Are your comparable titles algorithmically relevant (purchased together) or just genre-adjacent?

One metadata overhaul last quarter moved a client's book from #80,000 to #2,400 in paid Kindle Store. Same book. Same cover. Different discoverability.

The invisible infrastructure determines everything.
- **CTA:** Comment "AUDIT" if you want me to review your Amazon metadata in next week's LinkedIn Live

**POST 5: The ARC Strategy**
- **HEADLINE:** 50 reviews before launch day isn't luck. It's logistics.
- **BODY:**  
Organic discovery is dead. Algorithmic discovery is data-driven.

The authors dominating their categories aren't "lucky." They're systematic about Advance Reader Copy (ARC) distribution.

Our framework for guaranteed pre-launch review velocity:
- **Tier 1**: Professional reviewers (NetGalley, BookSirens) for credibility signals
- **Tier 2**: Micro-influencers (10k-50k followers) with high engagement rates over raw numbers
- **Tier 3**: Street team/launch list for volume (quantity signals trend to algorithms)

We stagger distribution: Tier 1 gets ARCs 90 days out (time for thoughtful reviews). Tier 2 gets them 45 days out (peakBookTok/Bookstagram timing). Tier 3 gets them 2 weeks out (launch week surge).

Result: Amazon's algorithm sees consistent review velocity, not launch-week spikes. The book gets "sticky" in categories.

Stop hoping for reviews. Engineer them.
- **CTA:** Join our newsletter (link in comments) for the full ARC Distribution Matrix template

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## TWITTER/X THREAD (1 Thread, 9 Tweets)

**Tweet 1:**
Everyone sees the bestseller list.
Nobody sees the infrastructure.

Here's the invisible machinery behind every book that "came out of nowhere" 🧵

**Tweet 2:**
Myth: Great books find their audience.

Reality: Great metadata finds the audience. The book just needs to fulfill the promise.

If your comp titles are wrong, you're invisible to Amazon's recommendation engine. Period.

**Tweet 3:**
The 90-day pre-launch window:

Day -90: ARCs hit strategic reviewers (not "anyone with a blog")
Day -60: BISAC codes locked, keywords optimized
Day -30: ARC reviews live, providing social proof for pre-orders
Day 0: Algorithm already knows you exist

**Tweet 4:**
Most authors blow their marketing budget on launch week.

Smart authors spend 70% of budget on pre-launch (building anticipation) and Days 30-90 (sustaining visibility).

Launch week is just ignition. The long tail is the business.

**Tweet 5:**
The "Also Bought" hack:

Amazon's recommendation engine is everything.

We run "category seeding" campaigns—targeting specific comp title readers to force the algorithm to associate your book with established bestsellers.

You're not buying ads. You're buying associations.

**Tweet 6:**
Reviews aren't social proof for readers.

They're signals for algorithms.

50 reviews by launch day = Amazon starts recommending you organically.

200 reviews by Day 30 = You achieve "stickiness" in categories.

This is engineered, not organic.

**Tweet 7:**
The cover redesign that changed everything:

Client came to us: 12 sales/month.
We redesigned cover, rewrote metadata, optimized categories.
Month 2: 1,200 sales.

The writing didn't change. The discoverability did.

**Tweet 8:**
Your book isn't competing with bad books.

It's competing with Netflix, TikTok, and infinite scroll.

Your marketing isn't against other authors. It's against the back button.

Every second of friction costs you a reader.

**Tweet 9:**
You can hope for discovery.
Or you can build the infrastructure.

We build infrastructure.

Follow @CrimsonLeafMktg for weekly breakdowns on book marketing that actually moves units.

DM us "BRIDGE" for our free Metadata Optimization Checklist.

Let's build. 🍂