The Marketer Behind Rise & Shine
I believe good marketing should help good work find its people.
Hi, I’m Cecilia.
I help independent authors, self-publishers and small presses build marketing systems that actually make sense for their books, their audiences and their sanity.
Cecilia • Nova Scotia, Canada • Supervised by Gouda
Background
I spent years working in marketing before I started Rise & Shine.
Over that time, I saw how easily marketing becomes unnecessarily complicated. Big agencies love complexity because complexity is easy to bill for. Tech companies love complexity because it keeps you inside their ecosystems.
Meanwhile, the actual work of marketing gets lost in dashboards, jargon and endless lists of things you “should” be doing.
I started Rise & Shine because I wanted to work differently.
There’s something different about putting good marketing behind something a real person made and is trying to put into the world.
That’s the kind of work I actually care about.
And that’s ultimately what Rise & Shine became about.
Why Books?
Books have always had a place in my life.
Some of the first novels I remember reading were Black Beauty and The Lord of the Rings. I grew up with a mom who loved to read, too.
Some of my favourite memories are incredibly simple ones: Sundays spent cleaning the house, then settling in for the evening with classical music playing, candles lit and both of us reading our books.
Reading has never felt like something I should make time for. It’s one of the things that gives me my time back.
These days, I’m a sucker for fantasy—give me a little fall atmosphere and something witchy and I’m probably interested. I collect Stephen King novels, and yes, a beautiful sprayed edge can absolutely influence my purchasing decisions. I’m only human.
But there’s also an interesting problem at the intersection of books and marketing.
Books are art. They’re also products that have to exist in a marketplace dominated by enormous retailers, publishers, platforms and advertising systems.
And somewhere between those two realities is an independent author asking:
“How do I actually get people to find this thing I made?”
That’s where Rise & Shine comes in.
Strategy Before Tactics
Independent shouldn’t mean you’re on your own.
There’s a particular kind of marketing advice I can’t stand:
“If you don’t have a big enough budget, I can’t help you.”
Then there’s the advice at the other extreme: just post on TikTok. Follow the trends. Make more content. Post every day. Hope something goes viral.
Somewhere between those two extremes, independent authors are supposed to build sustainable careers.
I think we can do better than that.
Not every author can—or should—spend thousands of dollars every month on marketing. That doesn’t mean professional marketing thinking should be inaccessible to them.
Sometimes you need a strategist. Sometimes you need someone to build something for you. Sometimes you need a good tool and enough education to do it yourself.
And sometimes the most useful marketing advice I can give you is:
“Don’t spend your time or money on that yet.”
I also genuinely like the numbers.
This is probably where you and I differ.
You might open an analytics report and think, absolutely not.
I look at it and immediately want to know what it’s trying to tell me.
I love taking scattered information and turning it into something actionable. I want to know what we’re trying to accomplish, what we’re currently doing, what’s actually happening—and what we should change because of it.
Data isn’t useful just because someone can put it into a colourful report.
It’s useful when it helps you make a better decision.
One of the most meaningful things a client has ever told me wasn’t that their traffic had increased or their numbers looked great.
It was:
“I have hope again.”
We had taken something that felt confusing and overwhelming and turned it into a clear direction. He understood what we were focusing on, what we were working toward and, most importantly, why.
That’s what I want someone to leave Rise & Shine with.
- Not 40 new things to worry about.
- Not the feeling that they need to become a professional marketer.
Clarity about where they are, what matters now, what comes next—and what they can stop worrying about.
The System Behind the Strategy
I don’t look at author marketing as a pile of tactics.
Rise & Shine looks at your marketing through five connected pillars.
Author Platform
Your digital home base and the journey readers take through it.
Discoverability
How readers find you and your books.
Audience Building
How you turn reader interest into relationships you can continue building.
Book Marketing
How you intentionally promote your books, catalogue and releases.
Measurement & Strategy
How you understand what’s happening and decide what deserves your attention next.
These five pillars shape the way I build tools, review marketing and work with authors.
When something isn’t working, my first question isn’t:
“Which tactic should we add?”
It’s:
“Where is the system breaking down?”
That’s usually a much more useful place to start.
A Little Less Strategy
I’m still a creative person, too.
I live in Nova Scotia, Canada, and when I’m not staring at analytics or thinking about websites, I’m usually doing something decidedly less strategic.
I read a lot of fantasy, collect Stephen King books and continue to sacrifice increasingly unreasonable amounts of shelf space to both.
I draw and paint, and I love crafts and DIY projects. There is a non-zero chance I will convince myself I can make something instead of buying it.
I play video games because sometimes the correct strategic decision is, in fact, playing video games.
And I drink a probably unreasonable amount of coffee. I make no promises to optimize this metric.
Senior Management
Supervised by Gouda
Supervising all of the above is Gouda, my ginger cat and Rise & Shine’s Senior Management. His exact responsibilities remain unclear, but his oversight is extensive.
What You Can Expect From Me
I’ll tell you what I think—and I’ll tell you why.
I don’t want you to have to blindly trust that something is “best practice.” If I’m recommending something, I’ll explain why I think it matters and how it connects to what you’re actually trying to accomplish.
I’ll also be realistic with you.
I won’t promise bestseller status, viral content or guaranteed sales. There are too many variables in publishing and marketing for responsible strategy to work that way.
I’ll respect your time and your money. More marketing is not automatically better marketing, and I’m perfectly comfortable telling you when I don’t think something deserves either yet.
And whenever possible, I’ll give you the knowledge and tools to understand your own marketing instead of making you dependent on me to understand it for you.
Because you’re an author first.
Your marketing should support the work. It shouldn’t swallow it.
Ready to Build Your System?
Marketing that respects your work, your time, and your readers.
Whether you need high-level strategy, a complete website overhaul, or practical tools to manage your own marketing, let’s start with a conversation.