The audience for Electric Speed is a mix of unpublished and published writers, as well as publishing professionals, marketers, editors, professors, and freelancers.
Sponsorship ads that perform well in this newsletter match those that you typically see in Poets & Writers, The Writer’s Chronicle (AWP), The Writer, and Writer’s Digest. In other words: services, products, tech, education, and resources for working writers.
While writing how-to books do wonderfully with my audience, you may get lackluster results when advertising:
- Novels and memoirs
- General nonfiction books
While writers are of course also book readers, my subscribers constitute a diverse group of readers—everything from Christian romance to SFF dystopias. If you’re trying to sell a novel or memoir, I encourage you to look for more targeted marketing opportunities (e.g., BookBub or Amazon ads might be a better investment). However, I do accept sponsorships for most categories of books.
Jane’s Advice for Sponsorships
- Use a tracking link so you can measure the effectiveness of your ad. If you don’t know what a tracking link is or how to create one, then use a free service like Bit.ly to create a shortened link. This way, you can see how many clicks your ad is getting.
- Your ad’s image will jump out first. Be strategic or creative: make your image enticing enough to draw attention and possibly slow people down so they read your full text of your ad.
- What’s your one call to action? Every placement should have a specific goal that’s measurable. For example, you might want people to join your email newsletter list, download a free guide, sign up for a course, or buy a book. Make the call to action very clear and focus on one thing you want people to do.
- The page where you’re sending people is critical to success. Whatever page people see after clicking your ad should directly relate to what’s described in the ad. This may seem to belabor the obvious, but double-check yourself: Once they click through, will people have to hunt for the product or service you’re advertising? Will it take them more than a few seconds to find what they’re looking for? Don’t make people work, or you’ll lose them.
- If appropriate, create a dedicated landing page for whatever you’re advertising. A landing page is a marketing-oriented page that’s focused on converting visitors into subscribers or buyers. Such pages are carefully written and designed to persuade the visitor to take the action you want. Here’s an example of a landing page for my online class on book marketing: https://janefriedman.com/effective-book-marketing-for-any-author/
- If you’re advertising a book, realize that your ad is only as effective as your book product optimization. Once people click through to your website to look at your book—or to its Amazon product page—they will make a decision based on a combination of factors: (1) your book cover, (2) the number of book reviews and the overall rating, (3) the book description, and (4) the price. If you haven’t already optimized your book to convert interested people into book buyers, then the ad will fail.
Every advertiser has different needs and goals, and we don’t presume to know your business, organization, or product better than you do. Thus, when we receive and approve your ad for placement, we will not suggest copywriting changes unless it’s too long or otherwise doesn’t follow the guidelines. In rare instances, if we see something obvious and straightforward that would likely make your ad more effective, we will suggest it—or you’re welcome to ask for feedback if you’re unsure.
Ad Specifications
Each issue of Electric Speed will feature a single, full-column-width ad, placed between Jane’s introductory note and the main body of the newsletter. (Browse full newsletters.) The ad will consist of a horizontal image with text underneath. Here’s an example:
Hyperlink specifications
- Please provide one URL, which we will embed twice: once into the image, and once into your body copy
Image specifications
- Horizontal format
- 2:1 ratio, minimum dimensions 1000px wide x 500px tall
- Nothing distasteful, offensive or copied without permission from another copyright holder
- We will embed your hyperlink and any necessary alt text into the image
Text specifications
- Your text consists of three elements: a headline, the body copy, and your hyperlink
- The body copy must stay within 360 characters (including spaces). Here’s an online tool that displays character count.
- In your body copy, please [place brackets] where you would like us to embed your hyperlink
- Text formatting is the same for all sponsors:
- Georgia font, black (except embedded link, which is green), on a light gray background
- 26 pt. bold headline, tagged H1
- 16 pt. body text