01
Diagnose
Upload a Meta, TikTok, or generic advertising export. The Desk normalizes the report, checks evidence quality, and explains the result in plain language.
Author DeskAdvertising
Advertising for authors who do not want to become ad buyers.
Bring a report—or just describe the book, reader, destination, and budget. Author Desk explains what happened, builds one controlled next test, and remembers what the result taught you.
No account connectionNo cardNo silent spend
Advertising Truth
Example analysis
Affordable clicks. Weak purchase conversion. Do not scale yet.
Creative B is promising, but the sample is too small. Your current cost per sale is $4.82; Book 1 breaks even at $2.31. Keep the image. Test two sharper reader-language headlines.
Observed CPA
$4.82
Break-even
$2.31
Evidence
Early
Next controlled experiment
Same visual. Two new headlines. $35 ceiling per version. Kill only after the agreed sample or stop condition.
Three verbs, not another ad panel
Diagnose. Build Next Test. Learn.
The advertising dashboard remains the system of record. Author Desk makes the report understandable and turns the next move into a controlled test.
02
Build Next Test
Keep the control, change one meaningful variable, set the required sample, cap the budget, and prepare the copy, brief, tracking name, and review point.
03
Learn
Attach the later report to the Operation. Author Desk issues a Verdict and stores the lesson with boundaries so a failed direction is not repeated blindly.
The two-minute truth moment
Know where the money is leaking—and what not to change yet.
Every report collapses into a decision an author can actually use. The Desk separates click quality, destination conversion, creative fatigue, noisy winners, and economics before recommending a move.
CampaignAd setCreativeAudiencePlacementDeviceDay
Every Truth must answer
01
What happened
02
Whether the evidence is strong enough
03
Where money is leaking
04
What not to change yet
05
The next controlled experiment
06
Exact stop, review, and scale conditions
Book-aware economics
Clicks are not the business. Reader value is.
Retail revenue is not your royalty. A cheap click is not a profitable reader. Author Desk calculates governing values deterministically and labels every input by evidence source.
Actual list price, royalty rate, delivery cost, and format
Observed sales and attributable conversion evidence
Kindle Unlimited value where the report can support it
Paperback, ebook, audiobook, and direct-sale economics
Conservative, expected, and upside scenarios kept separate
Series value admitted only when Book 1 demand and read-through support it
Conversation-only setup
Describe the campaign like a normal person.
The Desk asks only for facts it cannot responsibly infer: destination, budget, dates, economics, success event, and final approval.
Start here
“Help me advertise Book 1 to readers who love emotionally intense found-family fantasy. Send them to my website, keep the test under $100, and tell me exactly when to review it.”
Amazon or another retailer
Your author website
A landing page
A reader magnet
A preorder
An event or direct offer
Reader-powered creative intelligence
Controlled creative families—not twenty random ads.
Use real reader language to form emotional promises, hooks, objections, character-led angles, and guardrails. Then change one material variable at a time so the result teaches you something.
Family 01
Same hook
different visual
Family 02
Same visual
different headline
Family 03
Same promise
different audience framing
Family 04
Approved direction
square, portrait, and story variants
Every direction can carry the copy, image brief, production brief, call to action, tracking name, format variants, and the evidence that supports the claim.
The experiment contract
Every recommendation becomes a measurable Operation.
A campaign is not complete when it launches. It is complete when the result has a fair comparison, a Verdict, and a lesson the next campaign can use.
Example Verdict
Headline B reduced cost per click by 31%, but purchase conversion did not improve. The emotional promise attracts attention but mismatches the listing. Preserve the visual; reject this hook for this book.
Inside every Operation
Hypothesis
Variable being tested
Control and variants
Required sample
Budget ceiling
Break-even target
Review date
Kill, continue, and scale conditions
Expected learning even if the test loses
Honest autonomy
The Desk manages the thinking with you. You approve the public action.
This is the safest and most useful product before connected-account approval: everything needed to make a good campaign decision, without pretending Author Desk can currently act inside your ad account.
Author Desk prepares
- Diagnosis and evidence confidence
- Book-aware break-even math
- Campaign structure and controlled variants
- Creative copy, briefs, and tracking names
- Budget ceiling, sample, and stop rules
- Review reminder, Verdict, and retained lesson
You retain authority
- Approve the creative and claims
- Complete final platform setup today
- Choose the destination and success event
- Own the platform account and ad spend
- Decide whether to kill, continue, or scale
- Change or revoke any prior decision
Advertising value by plan
Start with one real campaign. Upgrade when repetition becomes the work.
Free
Learn the loop at $0
- 1 Advertising Truth report per month
- 4 controlled creative drafts per month
- 1 active manual Operation
- Guided Launch Pack
- Durable Verdict and lesson history
Desk Unlimited
Run the portfolio at $9.99/month
- 20 Advertising Truth reports per month
- 20 controlled creative drafts per month
- 20 active manual Operations
- Durable Operations and Verdicts across the catalogue
- Deep Audit and 90-Day Plan work
Ad spend is paid separately by the author to the advertising platform. Connected account actions are not currently included in either plan.
Your next campaign should buy learning—not just clicks.
Start with a report you already have, or describe the campaign you want to build. Author Desk will make the next decision clear.
Analyze my first campaign freeNo account connection · No card · No platform panel to learn
Questions
Advertising without the fine-print surprise
Do I need to connect my advertising account?+
No. The current workflow starts with conversation and report uploads, so you can diagnose campaigns and build the next controlled test without connecting an ad account or waiting for platform approval.
Will Author Desk publish or change my ads?+
Not today. It can prepare the campaign, creative family, economics, tracking plan, budget ceiling, and decision rules with you. You perform the final setup in the advertising platform. Connected account actions will not be marketed as available until they are approved, deployed, and verified.
Is this only for Amazon ads or Amazon book pages?+
No. A campaign can send readers to a retailer, author website, landing page, reader magnet, preorder, event, or direct offer. The success event and economics are matched to the destination instead of assuming every click should become an immediate retailer sale.
What advertising reports can I upload?+
The current normalization layer accepts Meta, TikTok, and defensive generic CSV exports. It handles duplicate rows, locale-formatted numbers, summary rows, and mixed-currency warnings before calculating results.
Will it tell me to scale a winning ad?+
Only when the evidence and economics support that decision. A cheap click is not automatically a good reader, and an early apparent winner may still be noise. Author Desk shows the minimum evidence, break-even gap, and exact review or stop condition.
Can it use series read-through to justify a higher acquisition cost?+
Only when Book 1 demand and downstream read-through are observed strongly enough to support it. Imagined sequel value never rescues a losing Book 1 campaign.
What is included in the free tier?+
Free includes 1 Advertising Truth report, 4 controlled creative drafts, 1 active manual advertising Operation, and a guided Launch Pack each month.