I have a confession to make: As much as I love writing fiction, I have an almost directly proportional hatred of marketing said writing. I simply have no idea what to do. Or say. Or post . . . You get the picture. So when I learned that ManuscriptReport seeks to make authors’ marketing life a little easier, I was really keen to try it out. In today's ManuscriptReport review, I'll share my honest thoughts about this marketing service, and whether it's a worthwhile investment for authors.

What is ManuscriptReport?

ManuscriptReport is essentially your one-stop shop for marketing your book. You submit a PDF file of your manuscript, and using advanced AI, they create a range of marketing materials for you to promote your book. 

These materials include a Full Marketing Report, Blog Series Package, Social Media Package, Book Bible, and Book Marketing for Publishers.

I desperately need help with all these things (except the Book Marketing for Publishers), so I was keen to test them all out and see whether they could really give me a leg up when it comes to marketing my fantasy novel.

Full Marketing Report

When ManuscriptReport says you’ll get your report quickly, they mean it. Even though my fantasy novel is currently over 90,000 words long, before I knew it, I had my reports in hand (or on screen) and ready to go. 

The first I looked at was my Marketing Report. It’s 40 pages long, covering topics like my novel’s summary, synopsis, genre, themes, tropes, target audience, SEO keywords, sales copy, and press release.

What I appreciated the most, though, as someone who is not sales-savvy, was that each section came with a short explanation of what it was about, why it mattered, and how to use it. 

As you can see from this demo example from The Picture of Dorian Grey, ManuscriptReport not only explains the summary's purpose but also how to write one, how to use it, and what you should look for after sending it out into the world. Only then does it give you its summary of your book.

I felt that this was really important. While you could use ManuscriptReport's summary of your book as it is, it's also encouraging you to tailor it and make it your own. You can even just use it as a template or example before drafting your own from scratch. It gives you great advice to figure out what works and what doesn't.

Most importantly, I felt the information was accurate. The report captured my novel well, and its suggestions were clear, engaging, and professional.

And, as I've mentioned above, I can make whatever changes I want or need before using it. I can either use it as it is or edit it as I see fit, so that it not only matches my vision but my voice as well. 

Essentially, like other AI programs, such as ProWritingAid’s Manuscript Report (check out our full review here), it’s an incredible starting point for writers to take what works, adjust it as necessary, and feel a lot more confident about marketing their book.

Social Media Content Report

I checked out the Social Media Content Report next, because as bad as I am at marketing, I’m even worse at social media.

This report came in at 26 pages long, and was filled with lots of post ideas, including Character POV lines, Emotional Hooks, Teasers, One-Liner Premises and more. 

It also comes with loads of pictures you can add to your posts, although I found this was a mixed bag in terms of what I could realistically use. Some were great, and captured the essence of my story, but others wouldn't quite work. For example, the characters wore modern clothing or the picture didn’t quite match the scene described in my book. 

The posts themselves were fairly accurate, though. So, again, I think they'd be great starting points for your posts, whether you take them as they are or use them for brainstorming.

Book Bible

The Book Bible came in at 34 pages, and outlined my characters, locations, events, concepts, objects, timeline, and genre-specific elements in detail.

For example, my main characters each got a one-page summary explaining their description, physical description, role and relationships.

I was again impressed with the report’s accuracy, as well as how versatile it could be. This would be a great reference for when I'm marketing and promoting my book, or I could just use it to help keep everything consistent while I’m writing and editing.

Blog Series

I’ve used my personal blog to interview other authors and write reviews, but for whatever reason (the most likely being my lack of marketing skills), I haven’t given much thought to how I can use it to promote my own book.

In this report, which came in at 31 pages, ManuscriptReport not only outlined eight posts I could write to promote my novel (complete with title, focus, and key takeaways), it also came up with a draft example of each.

Now, I probably won’t use the drafts myself. I think AI can be a wonderful tool, but I don’t want it to do my writing for me.

But even if you don’t use them, they’re still great examples of what potential blog posts could cover, how to format them, and how to handle things like spoilers. 

Final Thoughts

As with any program that uses AI, you will need to check and adjust whatever you use in these reports to make sure that they reflect both your book and you as an author accurately (which ManuscriptReport itself encourages!). 

But all in all, they’re a fantastic starting point for authors who want to market their book but aren’t sure where to start (or even what to do at all, like a certain writer of this article). 

It’s very affordable, too. The reports start at $25, with the full Marketing Report for $49.99, so it’s budget friendly for authors. 

I found these reports really insightful and helpful, particularly the Marketing Report, and would definitely recommend it to other authors who want a bit of marketing help without breaking the budget.

Please be advised that some of the links in this article are affiliate links. 

What are your biggest challenges when it comes to marketing your book? Let us know in the comments!