How to market a backlist of books one at a time, on one budget
A backlist does not need four launches; it needs four standing routes. Book Review Machine is $97 once, and its 1,000 included credits cover about four books at five illustrated review pages each. Feed it one manuscript at a time, approve each book's reader, and every title ends up with its own set of story pages, posts, and ads, all living on ground you own.
The backlist math
A five-review campaign costs 225 credits: 35 per review page with its illustrations and ad, plus 10 for its social posts. Four books at that size fit inside the starter credits with about 100 left for touch-ups. Prefer to go deep on one title instead? The same 1,000 credits run two books at ten reviews, or one at twenty. Every path leaves the same touch-up pocket.
Why one book at a time works
- Each book gets its own reader profile, approved by you before writing starts. A thriller and a business book should not share one.
- Each campaign publishes before it promotes: pages first, verified live, then the posts and ads that point at them.
- The pages do not expire. While you run book two, book one's pages keep standing on your shelf.
One shelf for the whole backlist
The pages publish to a subdomain of your own domain, so every title's reviews can live together on one address readers can browse, or you can post to Stories About Books, the hosted shelf, and skip hosting. Either way each page carries exactly one outbound link: that book's store page.
Questions authors ask
How many books can I run on one purchase?
The $97 purchase includes 1,000 credits. A five-review campaign costs 225 credits, so the starter credits cover about four books at five reviews each, with roughly 100 credits left over for touch-ups. Larger campaigns per book mean fewer books before a top-up.
Do I have to market all my books at once?
No, and you probably should not. The machine works one book at a time: feed it a manuscript, approve its reader, ship its campaign, then move to the next title. The pages stay live and keep working while you move on.
Can all my books share one review site?
Yes. The pages publish to a subdomain you own, so every book's reviews can live on one shelf, or you can post to Stories About Books, the hosted shelf, and skip hosting entirely.
My books are in different genres. Does that break it?
No. Each book gets its own reader profile, which you approve before anything is written, and its illustrations are generated in that book's own art style. The machine treats every title as its own campaign.
Why this instead of relaunching each book by hand?
A relaunch is an event; a backlist needs a standing route. Review pages are durable web pages with one link each, plus the posts and ads that point at them. Build the route once per book and let it stand, instead of performing a launch every time.