Leila Siddiqui

Leila Siddiqui – Marketer

I am a digital strategist in the publishing industry. I can create a detailed marketing plan and social media graphics for you!

Overview

I am a career book marketer for nearly eight years first at Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, and DK. I've worked on genres varying from Literary Fiction to Science Fiction to Thrillers along with Nonfiction genres like Pop Science, History, Memoirs, and Biographies.

I have extensive experience in creating bespoke digital marketing campaigns for my authors and would love to lend my expertise to your marketing campaign. Given the opportunity, I can create a detailed and targeted marketing plan for you including blog outreach, targeted ARC and/or ebook outreach to influencers and bookstagrammers, and a metadata audit to ensure you are using the best keywords, genre categories and jacket copy. I can give advice on how best to optimize your social accounts for which I'd provide a detailed social media timeline and social media graphics. I can also advise you on how best to utilize your website and newsletter.

I'm proud of the books I've worked on and I can't wait to work on yours!





Services
Non-Fiction
Biographies & Memoirs Humanities & Social Sciences
Fiction
Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Mystery & Crime Science Fiction Thriller & Suspense Women's Fiction
Languages
English (US)
Certifications
  • Certified Digital Marketing Professional
  • AMA Professional Certified Marketer PCM in Digital Marketing

Work experience

DK, a division of Penguin Random House

May, 2022 — Present

Manage a digital marketing team focused on brand social strategy which includes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and some Tik Tok and YouTube

Newsletter strategy and execution working through holidays and calendar moments, and through varying subscriber lists.

Build out content to promote books across social platforms and websites and outreach to influencers across social media to build word of mouth.

Provide guidance on author social media usage and promotion

Simon & Schuster

Mar, 2020 — Apr, 2022 (about 2 years)

Creating marketing campaigns from scratch for fiction and non-fiction titles including targeted digital advertising, social media promotion and outreach, influencer outreach, and partnership outreach
Providing guidance to author's on website and social media appearances and best practices
Extensive social media experience including advertising, posting schedules, and optimizing posts and ads based on data and analytics
Experience testing and optimizing Facebook/Instagram, Amazon and Google advertising

Penguin Random House

Jul, 2015 — Jan, 2020 (over 4 years)

Creating marketing campaigns from scratch for fiction and non-fiction titles including targeted digital advertising, social media promotion and outreach, influencer outreach, and partnership outreach
Providing marketing feedback at acquisition
Extensive social media experience including guiding authors on how to optimize their accounts and creating comprehensive social media timelines for authors
Experience testing and optimizing Facebook and Google advertising

Macmillan Children's Group

Jan, 2015 — Apr, 2015 (3 months)

Researched outreach and potential partners for social media partnerships and promotions
Managed Goodreads account and giveaways
Provided administrative marketing services

Atria Books - Simon and Schuster

Aug, 2014 — Nov, 2014 (3 months)

Wrote galley letters for Independent Bookseller mailings
Managed Goodreads account and giveaways
Wrote reading group guide questions for bookclub picks
Provided administrative marketing services

Projects

Apparently There Were Complaints

For this TV celebrity memoir, we ran a Facebook advertising campaign targeting TV Land, Hollywood and celebrity targets, and an older demographic given the age of the author. We finished the campaign with 622.1K and a cost per link click of $0.15. The click through rate was 5.51%.

How God Works

For this nonfiction title, I ran an AMS campaign targeting against comparative titles like WHY BUDDHISM IS TRUE, Sam Harris’s WAKING UP, and search terms for mind/body books, psychology, and science. The ACoS was a remarkable 0.6%.

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev

For this genre bending novel, I tested taglines and creatives of the book via Facebook advertising to see what would appeal best to our audience and what messaging would resonate with them. The winning tagline was:

A debut novel that examines the intersections of race, gender, and popular culture with a provocative Rock and Roll legend who reverberates in these modern times.

We saw 420,691 impressions and 9,054 link clicks delivered at a cost per link click of $0.38.

Yellow Wife

For this hardcover release for an author we wanted to breakout in a big way, I created a detailed social media timeline to keep the author on track as she promoted on socials.

I tested taglines and creatives of the book via Facebook advertising to hone in on our best audience and messaging as we prepared for publication. The winning tagline was:

A breathtaking novel based on Mary Lumpkin, a real life 'yellow wife,' in an often overlooked narrative of our country’s history.

It demonstrated that the true story aspect of the novel appealed the most to our targeted book club audience. The cost per link click was $0.26 and click through rate was 3.27%.

We also ran an AMS campaign targeting comparative and genre titles with an ACoS of 18%.

I also ran several social media giveaways and did extensive bookstagrammer outreach to generate buzz.

Portfolio

Author of the iconic bestsellers This Is Your Brain on Music and The Organized Mind, Daniel Levitin turns his keen insights to what happens in our brains as we age, why we should think about health span, not life span, and, based on a rigorous analysis of neur... read more
Lucky

Stapley, M.

Delta-v

Daniel S.

The bestselling author of Daemon returns with a near-future technological thriller, in which a charismatic billionaire recruits a team of adventurers to launch the first deep space mining operation--a mission that could alter the trajectory of human civilizati... read more
The definitive, fascinating, all-reaching biography of Dr. Seuss Dr. Seuss is a classic American icon. Whimsical and wonderful, his work has defined our childhoods and the childhoods of our own children. The silly, simple rhymes are a bottomless well of magic,... read more
In the thrilling, suspenseful new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz, all of Ellie de Florent-Stinson’s secrets come to light in one eventful evening full of twists, turns, and surprises. Before she became a glamorous fashion de... read more
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA Science News favorite science book of 2019As you read these words, copies of you are being created. Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist and one of this world’s most celebrated writers on science, rewrites the history of 20th ... read more
On New Year’s Day 2013, two-time Pulitzer Prize–winner Gene Weingarten asked three strangers to, literally, pluck a day, month, and year from a hat. That day—chosen completely at random—turned out to be Sunday, December 28, 1986, by any conventional measure a ... read more

Leila has 11 reviews

Professionalism

Quality

Value

Responsiveness

L S.

L S.

Feb, 2023

Great work
John-Samuel M.

John-Samuel M.

Dec, 2022

Working with Leila was a wonderful experience. She was very professional and competent. She wonderfully analyzed the audience for my novel and produced a marketing strategy that has proved very useful. Communication was clear, as were expectations. I would highly recommend working with her!
Samira T.

Samira T.

Jun, 2022

I really liked working with Leila. I think she really got what it was I was trying to accomplish in the beginning. But as the time went on, and I hired a PR person as well, I didn't think we were on the same page toward the end. A deadline I was striving for was missed at the end, and although not a deal breaker (I'm an indie author after all and still just beginning) I had hoped there would ha...
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MV P.

MV P.

May, 2022

Great to work with for making ads, would recommend
Michael R.

Michael R.

May, 2022

Leila knows her stuff, and provides good guidance on how and when to use advertising media from Facebook to Reddit. She was timely in her work and always good-humored, which makes everything easier. She also gave me good advice on ad layout and design, and actually created the ads for Facebook. Leila was very hands-on and did the bulk of the work on the campaigns. Knowledgeable and hands-o...
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