Shaun Loftus - Marketer
Florence, Italy
Marketing Strategist, Developmental Editor and Writer's coach with a true love of Independent Authors.
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Overview
Book Marketing and Promotion
You’ve written your book. You have had it edited to within a hairsbreadth of perfection. Your manuscript has been read by a trusted group of beta-readers. Now it’s time to send your baby out into the world. What’s next?
You need a great cover. You need a winning description, lightly loaded with category appropriate keywords and meta-data to appeal to the all-encompassing algorithms that dominate digital space. You need to identify your readers and analyze the competition. Then, we need to nestle you in the correct genre and subgenre and find the right keywords to help your readers find you. It sounds like rocket science, but it isn’t. It’s computer science.
When everything is ready, we'll market you like mad. Using price promotions, content marketing, social media marketing, and PPC and PPM campaigns, we will help you climb the charts on Amazon, Kobo, and all the best places. We will make sure to use best practices to acquire those ever-necessary 4 and 5-star reviews. We will make sure your AMS ads are serving and achieving a positive ROI, set up your platform and mailing list, and give you the resources to take advantage of everything self-publishing has to offer.
It is my goal to provide independent authors the tools, information, and coaching they need to achieve independent publishing success. Let me know if I can help you.
Warmest Regards and Good Writing,
Shaun
You’ve written your book. You have had it edited to within a hairsbreadth of perfection. Your manuscript has been read by a trusted group of beta-readers. Now it’s time to send your baby out into the world. What’s next?
You need a great cover. You need a winning description, lightly loaded with category appropriate keywords and meta-data to appeal to the all-encompassing algorithms that dominate digital space. You need to identify your readers and analyze the competition. Then, we need to nestle you in the correct genre and subgenre and find the right keywords to help your readers find you. It sounds like rocket science, but it isn’t. It’s computer science.
When everything is ready, we'll market you like mad. Using price promotions, content marketing, social media marketing, and PPC and PPM campaigns, we will help you climb the charts on Amazon, Kobo, and all the best places. We will make sure to use best practices to acquire those ever-necessary 4 and 5-star reviews. We will make sure your AMS ads are serving and achieving a positive ROI, set up your platform and mailing list, and give you the resources to take advantage of everything self-publishing has to offer.
It is my goal to provide independent authors the tools, information, and coaching they need to achieve independent publishing success. Let me know if I can help you.
Warmest Regards and Good Writing,
Shaun
Services
Fiction
Historical Fiction
Inspirational
Literature
Plays & Screenplays
Non-Fiction
Law
Technology
Work experience
Marketing Strategist
Self-employed
January, 2012
–
Present
(almost 8 years)
Gratia Digital provides programming, site development and marketing strategy for online companies, retailers, individuals, and artists.
In addition to writing winning copy, my work has included site development, user interface development, SEO, SEM and media purchasing across platforms ranging from AdWords, Facebook, Twitter and PPC /PPM publishing platforms.
Artistic Director
FESTA Florence
November, 2007
–
Present
(almost 12 years)
FESTA Florence is an international theatre company located in Florence Italy.
As artistic director, I have directed more than 2 dozen shows, raised a generation of young actors, edited and developed scripts and been responsible for email marketing, print graphics, logistics and more.
Projects
Three Book Relaunch - The Truth About Truly, Finn Again, Letters from the Ledge
Another marketing job turned Production management job.
Task was to take these three titles and get them back on the map. Job included overseeing new cover development, new descriptions, meta-tag and category analysis, social media marketing, back-matter formatting, AMS campaigns, BookBub campaigns and newsletter campaigns.
I took these titles from the 1 Mth ranked in the Amazon store - and brought them to 2-3K. Currently, Finn Again has a Bestseller badge for its category, Truly reached #2, and Letters will launch next week.
Images below show the rise in ranking for this relaunch, as well as the new covers.
Four Book Relaunch - Spite Fences, Fallout, Kinship and Uncommon Faith
Author Trudy Krisher recovered her rights to four previously Trad published Young Adult books. What began as a simple marketing consultation became a production management job - including advising on new covers, formatting, platform and new website development (trudykrisher.com) , meta-tag, and competitive analysis - as well as an overall plan to turn 4 paperbacks into ebooks and new editions of previously published work. Currently, new editions are in ARC. Launch Date: 10/15/2019
Scars of my Guardian Angel
Scars of My Guardian Angel is a good seller in Christian Evangelical circles, but it's author want's it do do better. Like many indie authors, he did not have a marketing plan going in - but still managed to do most everything right.
Currently, we are redesigning the book cover, adding back-matter to remind readers to leave a review and to purchase the next-in-series, recalibrating all the AMS ads to counter the huge changes in Amazon's ad platform, launching new Facebook ads, and relaunching in preparation for Book 3 of the Portal Series.
Waking Up Cattywampus
Waking Up Cattywampus had a rough start in life. Originally published through a hybrid (vanity) publisher, it never received the attention it deserved.
We are currently in the process of reformatting the title, re-writing the descriptions, setting up a solid slow-drip targeted Facebook campaign, retro-fitting the author site, and will be re-launching Cattywampus this month!
Born to Be Different
Born to Be Different is a charming children's picture book, released in time for Christmas 2018.
For the launch of B2BD, we opted for a 5-day free release. During it's launch period, this books obtained 3 days at #1 in Children's Lit in the Kindle Store. More than 2,000 copies were 'sold' in the week leading up to Christmas, and in its post-sale period, B2BD is ranking in the top 50 of its main genre.
The launch plan included Facebook page and profile, a Facebook ad campaign, AMS, BookBub PPC and a narrow but effective promo targeting the most prominent promotional sites with strong lists aimed at younger readers.
The Rookie
The Rookie by Trina Riggle is a mystery title featuring an ex-sports star turned amateur sleuth. Trina hired me to determine whether or not this title was worth relaunching (it is), to determine in what ways a 2012 title would need to be updated, and to give her a marketing report to define her category and keyword selection, market viability, and closest competitors.
In addition to providing a marketing strategy for a relaunch, I was employed to give brief editorial coverage with an eye to period-specific anachronisms. The Rookie is a terrific book, and Trina is hoping to rewrite and relaunch early this year.
Cybertraps
Author Frederick Lane is a legal expert engaged in privacy issues related to digital technology. His book "Cybertraps for Expecting Moms and Dads" languished in the Amazon basement, garnering little attention. We were able to raise its profile through careful selection of keywords and more tightly finessed category selections.
As a published author and lecturer, Fred had little time to pay attention to his self-published title or his online profile. I provided services including - though not limited to - updating his Amazon profile, rewriting his blurbs and descriptions, setting up Facebook and Twitter profiles, and reviving an unhealthy email list. We test marketed Cybertraps for Expecting Moms & Dads across multiple platforms, assessing it for market viability (low) and creating a plan for 2019 which will involve expanding his readership by paying better attention to market demographics.
Fred is primarily interested in his long-term profile as an expert in his field than in single title success. Our next steps will include a refit of his website and better automated social media interaction across all platforms. He is currently updating Cybertraps for Educators, which will be our main project for spring 2019.
The Mystery of Julia Episcopa
The Mystery of Julia Episcopa will be one year old next month. Over this last year, it has sold more than 10,000 copies of the ebook, a thousand copies of the paperback and several hundred audiobooks.
We have been happily sitting in the top of our bestseller lists, including Italian Historical Fiction and Religious Historical Fiction. During our promotional periods, we are frequently the #1 Best Seller in our genre.
For this title and these authors, I assist with developmental editing, historical research, and tasks inclusive of layout and design. I oversee their social profiles, their Amazon pages, built their website platform and have curated a strong and active email list.
We are currently working on Book 2 - The Testament of the Scribe - due out in April 2019.
Acqua Morta
"Six people, trapped in a crime they didn’t commit, will have to rediscover the fundamental truth that what is done cannot be undone."
Acqua Morta is an Italian supernatural thriller, set in the Dolomite mountains of Northern Italy. I was the projects first developmental editor and saw it through it's Dec. 2018 launch.
The book hit the paid charts almost immediately, but to promote it worldwide, we opted for a 5 day free period before Christmas. During this promotional period, Acqua Morta hit the Italian best-seller lists for all genres in the Italian Kindle store (topping out at #36), as well as #1 in its main genre of 'supernatural thriller'. In addition, we hit #1 in Italian foreign language fiction in the US.
Currently, at full price, the ebook is in the top #20 in all related genres and in the top 5000 of Amazon.it overall.
Portfolio (22 selected works)
The Mystery of Julia Episcopa (The Vatican Chronicles Book 1)
John I. Rigoli, Diane Cummings
In ancient Rome, a woman flees for her life. Her enemies are those she once called ‘brother’. Hidden beneath her blue cloak are secrets men will kill for – forgeries that prove the newly self-appointed bishops are not followers of the way, but pretenders who have seized power and will stop at nothing to shape this new religion to their own ends. Now, Julia – a woman who had once walked with Ma... read more
Acqua Morta: Romanzo Thriller Soprannaturale
David Ballerini
Le ombre del passato hanno molto da raccontare e molto da nascondere, e nessuno è senza colpa - c’è sangue, tanto sangue, nell’acqua.Appollaiato tra le vette delle Dolomiti, l’Acqua Morta era stato un tempo un albergo lussuoso e uno stabilimento termale famoso in tutta Europa per le doti quasi miracolose delle sue acque. La fonte termale si era però improvvisamente e misteriosamente seccata su... read more
Born to Be Different!: For all the special little kids in the world!
John Ignatius Rigoli
Ollie didn’t know he was a big weirdo… not until the day other kids made fun of himOllie went home and he put away his costumes. He put away his capes. He closed the door on the special world he created and said goodbye to all the friends only he could see. Ollie was going to be “normal” - no different than all the other kids in the world. No one would ever laugh at him again!But Ollie had a p... read more
Dating, Love, Sex, Marriage - in the Digital Age!Are you expecting? Do you know someone who is? OR … do you someday HOPE to be? Whether you are eagerly awaiting your little bundle of joy or are still swiping left in search of the perfect mate, technology is now a critical -- and constant -- part of modern reproduction.Digital devices, apps, and the Internet offer obvious benefits: easy sharing... read more
Cybertraps for Educators
Frederick S. Lane
Cybertraps for Educators offers teachers and school administrators a frank and sobering look at the various legal risks they face from the use and misuse of electronic devices and social media. Covering a wide range of contemporary topices -- cyberloafing, cyberbaiting, loss of privacy, harassment, sexting, etc. -- this timely book explores the myriad challenges that technology poses for today... read more
The Rookie (A Hale Mary Mystery Book 1)
Trina Riggle
Hale Seton is no stranger to the locker room.With six overachieving athletic brothers and a few snowboarding medals of her own, Hale understands the concept of competition. That’s why when she sets her sights on the most brutal competition of all—professional athlete management—she has every intention of succeeding at it.But her aspirations suffer a setback when she finds her first client dead... read more
Waking Up Cattywampus: Memoir of a Transplanted Southerner
Steven Powers Chylinski
Do you know what it feels like to have someone you love—perhaps a parent, sibling, or spouse—try to tell you who you are and what to believe? If so, you are not alone. At times, those closest to us want to shape our beliefs and turn us into someone they want us to be. It’s likely that they even mean well and have our best interests at heart. Yet, that all-important question—“Who Am I?”--is one... read more
How Flynn the Loh'li Conquered His Fears
A.R. Morris
Flynn the Loh'li has a problem. He doesn't know how to encourage his little brother to overcome his fear of water, or how someone can overcome their fears at all. So, before he thinks he can help his brother, Flynn embarks on a mission to conquer his own fear of heights by climbing the tallest mountain in Lok'Ree Valley. But it's not the climb up that gives him trouble, it's the climb down!As ... read more
Mentally Ill Mothers
Cary Tennis
How does it feel to have a mom who is mentally ill?How does it feel to have a mom who in a psychotic break tries to kidnap your teenage sister? Who when released from the mental hospital throws away her medication? Who threatens and physically assaults her children? Who accuses her family of poisoning her? What is that like?Read this book and find out.What do you do with 30 garbage bags of emp... read more
Unaware by even the angels, God chose a relatively normal man, Chado Cole, to be a part of a mission that started over 6,000 years ago – a mission that holds the fate of humanity in the balance.As Chado makes his transition into the spiritual realm, his eyes are opened to the mysteries of God. Now he walks among angels, but is led by one; the mighty Warrior Angel, Uriel. This angel has watched... read more
Berlin, Germany 1932. In a time of political unrest and strife, one man finds the courage to fight back...Dr. Wilhelm "Q" Quedlin, chemical engineer and inventor, lives for his science. A woman is not in his plans—nor is it to be accused of industrial espionage.But things get worse from there.Watching Hitler's rise to power spurns his desire to avoid yet another war that will completely destro... read more
Spite Fences: 25th Anniversary Edition
Trudy Krisher
Thirteen-year-old Maggie Pugh has lived in Kinship, Georgia, all her life. In all that time almost nothing has changed.If you are poor, you live on the west side of town. If you are rich, you live on the hill in the north end and get to go boating at the country club in Troy. If you are white you use one bathroom at Byer’s Drugs and if you are colored you use another.All that starts to change ... read more
Kinship
Trudy Krisher
In Kinship, Georgia, a 15-year-old Pert is aching for something more than the tiny community she’s always known. Her circle of trailer park neighbors and her supportive mother and older brother aren’t enough for Pert; she is lonesome for the father she has never met. But when Pert’s Daddy suddenly returns to Kinship and sets her neighborhood spinning, Pert is forced to reassess her concepts of... read more
Uncommon Faith
Trudy Krisher
Change is coming to the mid-nineteenth-century town of Millbrook, Massachusetts, whether folks are ready for it or not. Old traditions and values are being questioned, especially by an outspoken young woman named Faith Common.She defies expectations that women be obedient and limit their education to domestic duties such as sewing. Faith is determined to find her own truth about her abilities ... read more
Fallout
Trudy Krisher
“I had been a bystander all my life,” says fourteen-year-old Genevieve, an aspiring poet. It’s 1954, and in her small, hurricane-ravaged North Carolina town, she feels at odds with current social conventions.Then Brenda Wompers, a new student from California whose favorite word is “antiestablishmentarian,” changes everything at school. Together with her parents, Brenda begins to speak out agai... read more
Every night he comes to the ledge. So far, he hasn’t jumped. Sarah watches him from her window, unable to look away. Will tonight will be the night that his body hurtles through space and crashes to the ground in a failed attempt to fly?Standing between heaven and hell, life and death, eighteen-year-old Brendan massages the ledge, arms outstretched, contemplating suicide. Cutting isn’t cutting... read more
Finn Again: Come of age - a tale of love & courage.
Lynda Meyers
When love drives you to war and war drives you to addiction, the journey home can be long and twisted. A half-Irish, half-English playboy, Finn McCarthy soon finds out there are some things that can't be bought, and some people who don't play by his rules.Raised in the pubs of and educated at Oxford, Finn never did know which half to favor. His Irish half loves women and booze, while his Engli... read more
The Truth About Truly
Lynda Meyers
She was the girl of his dreams.It was a chance meeting, but Finn knew her at a glance. The likeness was unmistakable. Even her smell was familiar.The problem was, Truly wasn’t looking for love.When Truly loved someone, it was a death sentence—and she wasn’t going to have that on her conscience. Not again. Love and death were partners in crime, and she couldn’t risk doing any more time.Finn was... read more
"Jeff Jacobson is the greatest contemporary American author you've never heard of, but it's time that changed."In this profoundly insightful collection, Jeff Jacobson presents a compelling portrait of marriage, parenthood, friendship, and faith. At turns hilarious and excruciating, Jacobson's stories illustrate our shared human experiences of love and loss and offer fresh insights into the twi... read more
War Girl Lotte: Life in the Third Reich (War Girls Book 2)
Marion Kummerow
In this extraordinary book, USA Today Bestselling author Marion Kummerow weaves a story of strength, heartbreak, and coming of age in the Third Reich.17-year-old Lotte is headstrong and stubborn, impulsive and outspoken, and an avowed enemy to injustice. In Nazi Germany, this can cost you your life.Sent to the countryside by her mother to escape the worst of the war, Lotte longs to return to B... read more
War Girl Ursula: A bittersweet novel of WWII (War Girls Book 1)
Marion Kummerow
From the bestselling author of 'Unrelenting' comes the heartbreaking first-in-series, War Girls: Ursula, a harrowing tale of courage and conscience, love and survival under the Third Reich.In Berlin, 1943, compassion is a crime.Newlywed Ursula Hermann is a simple woman, wanting nothing more than an end to the war and the return of her husband from the Russian front.But some things are not mean... read more
Reluctant Informer
Marion Kummerow
When the Gestapo extends an offer, there’s no way to refuse.Sabine always minded her own business, closing her eyes to the sinister events engulfing Germany. War is always ugly, and it's best to simply stay out of harm’s way.That changes the moment the Gestapo needs information from her. With her husband held captive, his very life depends on her willingness to cooperate in this evil enterpris... read more
Shaun has 7 reviews
Professionalism
Professionalism
Quality
Quality
Value
Value
Communication & Punctuality
Communication & Punctuality
Shaun is amazing! She is extremely knowledgeable and has the experience I needed to help me to understand the market. She evaluated my previous titles and designed a plan to re-market my current novels in a way that built an effective and impressive organic reach while setting me up for the launch of my new series. Two of my former books hit #1 in multiple categories and achieved those illusive...
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Lynda Meyers, October 2019
Shaun was a wealth of knowledge. I appreciated her flexibility and personability, and I look forward to what will hopefully be a long friendship!
Tracy Korn, October 2019
Reply from Shaun Loftus
Shaun is an ideal book production agent! She is knowledgeable, thorough, and an excellent communicator. Technology is not my strength, and she was very patient with me at explaining all technical details. Would recommend her highly!
trudy krisher, August 2019
Shaun Loftus is an extremely professional marketeer; actually the best we've worked with thus far! She is very organized, thorough, detail-oriented, and easy to communicate with. Shaun's knowledge and skills are at the top of the chart! She is down-to-earth and a joy to work with. We have worked with others in this field, that have a long way to go before reaching her level. As an author, I hi...
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Russell Martin, June 2019
Reply from Shaun Loftus
Shaun is an excellent communicator. She knows her field (marketing) thoroughly and effectively. I would use her sevices and expertiue in a heartbeat. Nice person, too.
Steven Powers Chylinski, May 2019
Reply from Shaun Loftus
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