BookFrameThe Collective
About the Collective

A creative studio,
built for authors.

We sit between the manuscript and the reader — the strategists, filmmakers, designers, and writers who make sure the right people find the right book at the right moment.

Publishing has changed more in the last five years than in the previous fifty. The old marketing playbook doesn't reach modern readers. We built the Collective around what does: craft-first creative, senior strategy, and campaigns designed to compound.

Author working late with a city skyline behind her
Warmly lit study with a bookshelf and writing desk
Our story

A studio built the long way, on purpose.

The Collective started in 2019 as a bet that authors deserved the same creative craft ambitious brands take for granted. Not more marketing — better marketing. Fewer, better assets, made by senior people who cared.

Seven years later, the bet has proven itself in every category we've touched. Debut fiction that outsold its publisher's forecasts. Non-fiction titles that turned first-time authors into keynote speakers. Backlists that started earning again five years after their launch. Every one of them made by the same principle: the marketing has to be as considered as the writing.

We are still small on purpose. Senior strategists take on a limited number of engagements each quarter. The person selling you the work is the person doing it. That is not a scaling story — it is the model itself.

Mission

To give ambitious authors the marketing craft that ambitious brands take for granted.

Every campaign we run is measured against the standard set by the studios building the world's best consumer brands — not the standard set by publishing.

Vision

A world where great books are not lost to noise.

The internet has never had more content and readers have never had less attention. Our vision is a publishing world where the writing that matters actually finds the readers who need it.

Why we exist

Because the old playbook stopped working.

Publisher marketing budgets have not kept up with the way readers actually discover books. We built the Collective to close that gap for the authors serious enough to ask.

Our core values

Six principles that shape every campaign.

Every decision we make — from which authors we take on to which assets we ship — is measured against these six. They are not aspirational. They are operational.

Craft first

Every asset is one we would put our own name on. Templated marketing has no place in this studio — and never will.

Author-led

Your voice, your book, your career. We amplify. We never replace, never dilute, never speak over you.

Senior always

The person selling you the work is the person doing it. No junior handoffs, no anonymous back-office production.

Real numbers

Weekly, transparent reporting. No vanity metrics, no dashboards you cannot read, no month-end surprises.

Long game

We build careers, not launches. Every campaign is designed to compound across the next three books, not just the next release.

Craft over volume

Fewer, better assets. Deeper reader relationships. We turn down more work than we take on — deliberately.

Our creative philosophy

Marketing as an extension of the writing.

A book is finished the moment the author says so — but for a reader, the book begins with the first thing they ever see about it. A trailer, a listing, a headline, a friend's post. We treat those first surfaces the way novelists treat opening chapters: as the promise everything else has to keep.

That is why our design, film, and copy teams sit inside the same room as our strategists and media buyers. Craft is not a finishing layer we apply to a plan. It is the plan.

Hands writing at a sunlit desk with a manuscript and notebook
How we help authors

Four ways the Collective shows up.

Every engagement we take is a version of one of these four shapes. What changes is the mix.

Launch a debut

First book, first impression — the campaign that shapes an author's entire career trajectory.

Reactivate a backlist

A book you love that stopped selling. A relaunch designed around discovery, not nostalgia.

Build the brand

The voice, look, and story architecture that carries every book you publish next.

Run the full stack

Trailer, ads, listings, community, PR — one senior team, one coherent campaign.

Why clients choose us

Not the biggest agency. The one that shows up.

The Collective is deliberately small. That is the point. Senior specialists own accounts start to finish. The strategist you pitch is the strategist you work with. The filmmaker you love is the one editing your trailer at 11pm the night before launch.

Larger agencies scale by hiring juniors and adding layers. We scale by being selective — turning down more work than we take on so that every book we launch gets the attention that made the Collective worth choosing in the first place.

Senior on every account

No juniors, no hand-offs, no ghost teams.

Craft on every asset

We ship work we would put our own name on.

Numbers you can trust

Weekly transparent reporting, no vanity metrics.

Selective by design

A small quarterly slate keeps every campaign senior.

Stack of literary classics on a writer's desk with brass lamp
Our process

Six chapters. One relationship.

Every engagement follows the same arc — the one that took our best campaigns from good to unforgettable.

Chapter 01
Discover

We start with your book, your voice, and the readers you want to reach. Deep-dive conversations, competitive research, and a hard look at what's already working.

Chapter 02
Blueprint

A tailored 90-day campaign map tied to your launch window, your reader targets, and the retail platforms your genre actually rewards.

Chapter 03
Create

Trailers, covers, copy, sites, ads — every asset made in-house by senior craftspeople who have shipped hundreds of them before.

Chapter 04
Launch

Coordinated execution across ads, PR, community, and retail. War-room cadence during launch week; senior eyes on every number.

Chapter 05
Grow

Weekly optimization from strategists who watch the numbers so you do not have to. Transparent reporting, honest recommendations, no month-end surprises.

Chapter 06
Compound

From one book to a career. Brand, backlist, and audience compounding across everything you publish next.

Leadership

The senior team behind every campaign.

A leadership group with careers spanning trade publishing, agency creative, bestselling authorship, and performance marketing.

Claire Tims, Chief Executive Officer
Claire Tims
Chief Executive Officer

Two decades in trade publishing and brand strategy — Claire leads the studio's vision and every senior client relationship.

Glenn Cox, Chief Creative Officer
Glenn Cox
Chief Creative Officer

Former agency creative director turning book concepts into cinematic launches, brand systems, and category-defining trailers.

Cheryl Bolen, Head of Author Strategy
Cheryl Bolen
Head of Author Strategy

Bestselling novelist turned strategist — Cheryl runs blueprints for debut and career authors across every genre.

Tiara Mixson, Head of Growth
Tiara Mixson
Head of Growth

Performance marketing lead across Amazon, Meta, and TikTok — Tiara owns paid media and retail conversion for the roster.

The Collective

Meet the team.

Sixteen senior specialists across strategy, editorial, design, film, ads, publicity, community, and audio.

Alessia Contii, Senior Marketing Strategist
Alessia Contii
Senior Marketing Strategist
Marketing

Leads integrated launch strategy for literary fiction and memoir — twelve years across trade publishing and DTC brands.

Daniel Chris, Amazon Ads Lead
Daniel Chris
Amazon Ads Lead
Growth

Runs Amazon Ads and KDP optimization for the roster — ex-Amazon Advertising, obsessed with sponsored-product economics.

Lawrence Harold, Meta & TikTok Ads Lead
Lawrence Harold
Meta & TikTok Ads Lead
Growth

Performance creative and paid social for authors — scaled book campaigns to eight-figure impressions.

Joseph E., Web Developer/Designer
Joseph E.
Web Developer/Designer
Design

Designs and builds author websites, landing pages, and digital experiences — the front-end craft behind every conversion.

Joel Clinton, Motion Designer
Joel Clinton
Motion Designer
Cinematic

Type-in-motion specialist — builds the title sequences, kinetic quotes, and end cards that make trailers memorable.

Nicole Cooper, Developmental Editor
Nicole Cooper
Developmental Editor
Editorial

Structural editor for fiction and narrative non-fiction — nine bestselling debuts shepherded from first draft to final pages.

Valerie Vargas, Copy Editor & Proofreader
Valerie Vargas
Copy Editor & Proofreader
Editorial

Precision copy editor across trade fiction, memoir, and business — the last serious pair of eyes before print.

James Whitefield, Cover Art Director
James Whitefield
Cover Art Director
Design

Cover-first designer with a background in jackets for major houses — commissions and directs illustrators worldwide.

Brynna Holis, Interior Book Designer
Brynna Holis
Interior Book Designer
Design

Typography-obsessed interior designer — sets pages that readers feel before they can articulate why.

Kimberly Reynolds, Publicity Director
Kimberly Reynolds
Publicity Director
Publicity

Runs national and trade publicity — long-standing relationships across print, broadcast, and top-tier podcasts.

Marcus D. Caldwell, Podcast Booking Lead
Marcus D. Caldwell
Podcast Booking Lead
Publicity

Books authors onto the shows that actually move copies — long-form interview strategy from pitch to prep.

Claire Bennett, Community Manager
Claire Bennett
Community Manager
Community

Builds and stewards reader communities on Substack, Discord, and Instagram — the connective tissue between launches.

Brittany Collins, Goodreads & Reviews Lead
Brittany Collins
Goodreads & Reviews Lead
Community

Owns the reviews economy — Goodreads, NetGalley, ARC programs, and the reader-side of every launch.

Ashley Morgan, Audiobook Producer
Ashley Morgan
Audiobook Producer
Audio

Casts narrators, directs sessions, and delivers audiobooks readers actually finish and recommend.

Emery Collins, Website & Web Designer
Emery Collins
Website & Web Designer
Design

Author-site specialist — designs and ships the sites that turn traffic into signups and readers into buyers.

Audrey Frankland, Brand Strategist
Audrey Frankland
Brand Strategist
Marketing

Voice, story architecture, and brand systems for career authors — the through-line across every book on the shelf.

Company milestones

Seven years of quiet obsession.

2019
Founded in a brownstone

We started with three trailers, one belief, and a spare room in a Brooklyn brownstone. The bet was simple: authors deserved the same craft that ambitious brands take for granted.

2020
First cinematic launch

A debut memoir we shepherded became the first project to prove the model — the book found its audience because the marketing was as considered as the writing.

2021
First bestseller

A literary debut we launched hit the extended list. Not because of one channel, but because everything the reader touched was made with intent.

2023
The Collective takes shape

Grew into a distributed studio of specialists — filmmakers, strategists, designers, writers — across three continents, all senior, all vetted.

2024
Fifty countries

Our campaigns started reaching readers in fifty countries. Publishing had become global; our craft followed.

2026
500 authors

We've now worked with over 500 authors on every publishing path — Big Five, indie press, hybrid, self-published — and the craft principles haven't changed once.

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Authors
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Bestseller placements
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Trailer views delivered
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Author satisfaction

"For the first time I felt like I had a proper studio in my corner. Every asset felt cinematic. Every decision felt considered. Every week felt like progress."

— Placeholder client attribution
Frequently asked

Questions authors ask about us.

Have a question we haven't answered? Reach out — a senior strategist replies inside one business day.

Who founded the Collective and why?+
The Collective was founded by a group of book-industry veterans and creative directors who kept meeting the same problem from opposite sides: publishers under-marketing beautifully written books, and independent authors trying to build careers with a toolkit that assumed they didn't need one. We built the studio around a single premise: every serious book deserves serious craft behind it.
Are you an agency or a marketing team?+
Both, deliberately. Agencies rent you creative. In-house teams give you continuity. We give you both — a senior team of specialists who know your book like an in-house team, and the range of creative disciplines that only an agency can offer.
What kinds of authors do you work with?+
Debut novelists, career authors relaunching backlists, non-fiction thought leaders, memoirists, poets, and audiobook-first storytellers. What our clients share is not their genre, publishing path, or budget — it is a belief that a book is worth marketing seriously.
Do you take on every author who asks?+
No. We take on a small number of engagements each quarter so that senior strategists can stay senior. If we're not the right fit, we'll tell you inside the first call and, when we can, refer you to someone who is.
How is the Collective structured?+
A senior lead strategist owns your account from first call to final report. Specialist teams — film, design, ads, community, PR — plug in as your campaign needs them, all coordinated through one point of contact.
Where is the team based?+
Our studio hub is in Brooklyn, with senior strategists, filmmakers, designers, and community leads across the US, UK, and EU. We work asynchronously by design so time zones never slow a launch down.

Let's map the campaign your book deserves.

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