Market

Wise Ink Media specializes in marketing support for authors, thought leaders, nonprofits, and values-driven businesses.

Our marketing services help clients brand themselves during career pivots where they’re launching a new venture or tapping into new markets. We’ll build a strategy that aligns with your goals, champions your experience, and propels your creative venture forward.

Availability and Pricing

Marketing Strategy

  • Meet with Wise Ink’s marketing experts to strategize a comprehensive marketing plan for your book or business. These energizing marketing sessions are a great fit for first-time authors, seasoned publishing veterans, speakers, nonprofit leaders, and consultants. Each marketing session includes a thorough review of existing marketing content, actionable feedback, personalized outreach strategies, and a one-hour meeting.

    Two marketing sessions are included in Wise Ink’s publishing consulting services for current authors.

  • Bring intentional branding to your social media presence! Wise Ink will provide a set of personalized graphics templates to bring professionalism and brand continuity to your digital platform. This service also includes bio copywriting, LinkTree set-up, and hashtag research for community building. Templates are created in Canva so they are easily updatable; training a virtual assistant for social media management is available on request. One round of revisions is included.

  • Wise Ink will co-create the copy for your crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to offset the cost of your creative project. Includes a one-hour consultation, editing of up to three drafts of your campaign text in a Word document (including rewards and the video script), and outreach templates and strategies.

    Video creation and campaign set-up on the crowdfunding platform of your choice are additional services available upon request. Wise Ink is not responsible for the success of the campaign.

    To see Wise Ink’s crowdfunded campaigns and learn more about crowdfunding, click here!

Ongoing Support

  • Optimizing your book’s Amazon listing is the most direct strategy for online discoverability and sales conversion. Wise Ink will bring expert marketing strategy to your Amazon listing with market research for your title’s genre, persuasive copywriting, and SEO for Amazon’s algorithm.

    Click here for more information.

  • A+ Content is one of Amazon's newest marketing tools, allowing you to add persuasive graphics to your Amazon listing. These act as mini advertisements—illustrating your book’s content and your expertise as an author—and show off your book’s interior content (especially for children’s books, business books, and coffee table books!).

    A Wise Ink designer will create up to five graphic assets that align with your book’s brand, mission, and readership.

    Click here for more information.

  • Wise Ink provides web design services tailored to speakers, professionals, and indie authors using Squarespace, a website design platform. Squarespace websites are sleek, beautiful, and easy to update yourself on an ongoing basis after the initial design is complete. Includes three design template options, one round of revisions, resources on website marketing strategy, and proofreading.

    Add-on options include strategic copywriting, SEO optimization, technical training, e-commerce set-up, and ongoing updates. Price does not include the purchase of a domain name or website hosting.

  • Wise Ink will review the website content on your existing website to incorporate the new products, services, and branding opportunities that come with publishing a book. This service pairs repurposed content and strategic copywriting for a streamlined website sitemap. Website design updates are available for SquareSpace websites.

  • Our videographer will edit up to three minutes of pre-recorded video footage, choose a background song that fits the tone of the video, and review up to thirty photos for integration in the video.

    Our clients use this service to make demo reels for speaking engagements, trailers for crowdfunding campaigns, and brand awareness videos for their website homepages.

    Add ons include either on-site or in-home filming with lighting provided or outdoors. Mileage is included within a 35-mile radius.

    *This service is available for clients in the Twin Cities metro area only.

  • A Minneapolis-based photographer will curate up to a 45-minute on-site or in-home photoshoot with lighting provided or outdoors. Mileage is included within a 35-mile radius. This is a full-service photoshoot, with editing full-resolution images and a copyright release form.

    There are two levels of this service available: 3-5 final images with one outfit, or 8-10 final images with two outfits.

    *This service is available for clients in the Twin Cities metro area only.

  • You don’t have to worry about how to create an ebook when you hire Wise Ink to convert your book. Includes the creation of an e-book EPUB format, metadata management, and upload into selected distribution channels (Amazon, Amazon KDP Select, Apple, and Barnes & Noble, & most leading e-book retailers). Books with complex layouts—like coffee table books and book interiors with callouts, multiple fonts, and graphics / photos—are subject to an additional design cost, which will be estimated before work begins.

  • Learning how to record an audiobook and edit it to industry standards can take months, which is why we make things simple. Partnering with a professional audiobook engineer simplifies the process and can help you make money on Audible and ACX.

    Wise Ink’s team will facilitate the production and upload of a high-quality audiobook format for your book. Authors can choose between hiring a professional voice actor or receiving live direction for an author-narrated book. In-home recording equipment or studio options are available at request. Includes professional recording, editing, proofreading, and mastering.

Online visibility

  • Wise Ink will create a digital press kit for use in media outreach, speaking engagement / event booking, and partnership requests. A press kit pairs persuasive copywriting with engaging visual branding and helps professionalize author websites and any email communication with bookstores, event managers, and press. Includes one thirty-minute interview, along with a well-designed cover page, sell sheet, sample Q&A, and media assets. Optional press release and speaking sheet are available upon request.

  • A publicist will create a tailor-made publicity campaign to build your platform, extend your reach, and find your audience. This traditional publicity campaign focuses on media outreach and pitching for reviews, interviews, and features. Personalized influencer outreach and podcast pitching is also available upon request. Wise Ink publicists have secured national coverage at media outlets including The Washington Post, Vogue, NPR, and the Wall Street Journal.

    Our packages start with a three-month minimum to allow your publicist time for research, pitching, and follow-up. This service targets earned media, so placements are not guaranteed.

  • You have a vision for a strong marketing strategy; we have the team to make it happen! Get an important marketing task off your to-do list or take the stress out of ongoing tasks like social media and newsletter management, advertising campaigns, blogging, and more.

    This package is a great fit for authors who want assistance with a specific deliverable or goal, such as newsletter set-up, market research, reselle / podcast outreach, website updates, or social / e-mail campaigns during a Kickstarter campaign or launch month.

funded campaigns

Click on the image to go to the campaign’s page

Children’s Books

Coffee Table Books

Memoirs

Self-Help/Instructional books

Learn More About Crowdfunding

Client Websites

What is Amazon Optimization?

is Amazon Important for Authors?

While Wise Ink is not team Bezos, Amazon is the largest marketplace for books. There are a large percentage of readers who exclusively search for and buy books through Amazon. Focusing only on direct sales closes off a significant section of your target audience, especially in terms of discoverability. (And especially if your target audience are busy business professionals or parents who likely prefer the ease of Amazon shopping.) Even if an author doesn’t want to sell books on Amazon, a presence there—at least with an ebook—can have a legitimizing effect.

Can I self-publish on Amazon?

Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) is both a distribution method AND a production method. Amazon Author Central is a platform that allows you to upload your book’s cover and interior files, write your book description, set your list price, and sell books online. Amazon KDP offers a print-on-demand service, which means that books are printed one at a time to fulfill orders. There is no warehouse stock, and the per-unit production cost is typically higher than offset printing (industrial print runs of 1,000+ copies). Amazon KDP is not the only print-on-demand service (IngramSpark is another popular option), each has their pros and cons. Print-on-demand is usually the best fit for paperback books with black-and-white interiors, as full-color projects are expensive to produce one at a time and aren’t as high quality as offset printed books. With any production method, the secret sauce is the quality of the book and marketing plan you have in place to promote it.

What Is an Amazon Bestseller?

Amazon has 16,000+ categories to classify books for readers. Typically, when people describe their books as “bestsellers,” they are referring to Amazon category bestsellers. Amazon has a bestseller list for the top 100 books in each category. This is refreshed hourly. Any time your book cracks the top 100 books in any given category—you will henceforth be an Amazon bestselling author! If you hit number one in one of your chosen categories, an orange banner will display on your Amazon listing saying #1 New Release in [Category] or #1 Best Seller in [Category]. Hitting the Amazon bestseller list is a great way to gain momentum and increase your discoverability.

Can I sell Ebooks on Amazon?

Authors typically don’t make back their publishing investment with ebooks in the same way they can with print books. However, many readers are format-loyal to ebooks, so ebooks don’t represent a “lost sale” of a print book—they often are an opportunity to reach new readers. There are also certain marketing opportunities that indie authors can access through ebook listings, including keyword-specific advertising, giveaways, A+ content, and direct access to buyer stats.

What is metadata?

Book metadata refers to all the information about a book that contributes to its online listing, including title, subtitle, description, endorsements, keywords, categories, list price, and more. All authors who want to have an online presence on major e-commerce platforms will need to write their metadata. “Optimizing metadata” means finding those words and phrases that your readers are likely to search and including them in your book’s listing, increasing the chances that your ideal reader will stumble across your book online without knowing you personally. For more information on metadata, check out this free Amazon Optimization MarketWise webinar.

Is Amazon Kindle Publishing Worth it?

There are many ways an author can work with Amazon to fit their needs. For new authors without a huge platform, Amazon can bring visibility and credibility to your work. Authors who wish to sell books on a commercial scale might find they are better served with a traditional print run that fulfills to Amazon through a distribution partner, which will allow you to get the best quality product at the lowest per-unit price while exploring other distribution avenues (like direct sales, bulk sales to organizations, and retailer distribution through gift shops and bookstores who typically do not stock print-on-demand titles). For books with a limited audience, print-on-demand through Amazon Kindle Direct publishing may be the best fit since it doesn’t require you to commit to a print run.