Mandy Lehti – Marketer

Ink Blood Sister Scribe

Fantasy debut novel by Emma Torzs. The campaign focused on digital communities, engaging with influencers early on with stunning early review copies (proofs) to get the fantasy community talking. Ahead of publication, ensuring metadata was correct, the Amazon A+ page was feeding through and updated regularly, Del Rey newsletter inclusion, and the NetGalley solus (newsletter) was timed correctly were also key areas of focus.
On publication, the campaign included TikTok and Instagram ads, alongside author signing events at relevant bookstores.

Kindle Deals Lead

Implemented and managed Cornerstone's Kindle Deals strategy, delivering an uplift of 186% in KDD and KMD sales YoY, and making it the bestselling adult division in Penguin for the 2 years I ran the activity.

Included monthly highlights of titles on sale in relevant newsletters (Del Rey, Happy Foodie, Dead Good as well as author-specific such as Lisa Jewell and James Patterson) to reach existing fans.

Run Rose Run PB

A full 360 campaign, targeting James Patterson fans and wider Dolly Parton/country music fans, activity ran across OOH - with 4 sheets and 12 sheets across London Underground and fifteen London bus T-sides, five of which had special LED treatment - TV, VOD, radio and digital advertising.

Working closely with the Sales and Design teams, we also offered Tesco a special edition of the book, including a competition for one lucky person to win a £200 shop at Tesco.

The campaign was planned and activity was staggered to give sales the longest tail possible, with activity running a few days before publication in February until early March.

Dolly herself did the voice over for the radio ads, bringing an extra element of sparkle and star power to the campaign.

Results: 5 weeks on the Sunday Times bestsellers list.

A Study in Drowning

As the author’s first foray into young adult books, I worked closely with PR to ensure the book would get influencer attention online. I curated an early copy box, including an exclusive copy of the book (cover design by me) with annotations by the author, exclusive branded ASID pen, author note and bespoke character playing cards. The boxes went out to ten BookTok influencers in May ahead of the publication in September, and was followed by a second burst of proof deliveries - these only sent if TikTokkers completed a ‘challenge’ from the Fairy King.
A year after publication, ‘A Study in Drowning’ has over 1.5m views on TikTok and the pre-order surge around the activity was so big, I was given more budget due to last minute reforecasts from Sales.
With over 10,000 pre-orders, the book debuted #2 on the Sunday Times bestsellers list.

Book of Night PB

As the SFF community is large on TikTok, the bulk of the campaign was directed at the platform, with a smaller amount of activity on Instagram to support. Working with two TikTok influencers to create content that looked and felt native to the platform and repurposing that content as in-feed ads on the platform to drive sales and awareness.

Running a pre-order campaign on social media for a week before publication, to drive engagement and awareness. On publication, the messaging switched to OUT NOW across Instagram to drive sales.

Working closely with the Sales team to organise the Waterstones Special edition, to generate buzz and excitement ahead of publication. We also put it forward for Amazon deals in the month after publication, following from previous insight that such price changes often result in increased sales not just for the eBook, but through a halo effect, on physical formats as well.

The book debuted into the Sunday Times bestsellers list.

Max Einstein Saves the Future

Working in partnership with STEM Learning, I set up an activity to engage children in KS2 and up with STEM subjects, as related back to the Max Einstein stories.
We ran a giveaway, where children from across the country were asked to design their own scientific inventions to help the world become a better, healthier place.
We received over 200 designs, and held a virtual ceremony to announce the winners, who received a full set of the Max Einstein books to read.

I also ran social media advertising on publication, and worked with Toppsta to gift one classroom with 11 copies of the book on publication.

The Noise

Proofs were created to send out to influencers and build a strong buzz ahead of publication. These proofs included a QR code which let people listen to the specially created ‘noise’ – a replica of the killer noise that is the central threat in the book. The sound was produced specifically for the campaign in partnership with BAFTA-nominated composer Ryan Davies.
Proofs were also sent out with noise-cancelling headphones from Sony, tying into the theme of the noise that kills, and providing ‘protection’ from that noise to our early readers.

This created a wonderfully self-contained proof package, with the arresting design, QR code and headphones providing a highly immersive package for influencers to engage with. Across both Instagram and TikTok, influencer activity reach more than 170,000 people, with an average engagement rate of 7.08% amongst the targeted growth audience for the campaign.

Proof giveaways ran on the official James Patterson newsletter (over 15,000 subscribers) as well as via Penguin’s Dead Good website (400k+ reach across all channels).

The Noise was available for request on NetGalley, garnering 144 reviews – the most any James Patterson title has received in the last year on the website – most of them 4 and 5 stars (average rating of 4.1). This was supported by a dedicated solus email to the Crime and Thriller list. It was also included in NetGalley’s Highlights newsletter of July.

The book spent 3 weeks on The Sunday Times bestsellers list.