The Wednesday Windup Vol. 12: The publisher for my first novel just sent 25,000 hardcovers to print—and I'm scared as hell.

Welcome back to the Wednesday Windup!

There’s a certain power in the idea of beginning again—a quiet force, unannounced, that steps in regardless of how long we’ve been circling the same habits or shelving our best ideas. 

Beginning again doesn’t ask how many times we’ve tried or how often we’ve put things off. It doesn’t care about the backlog of excuses or the list of reasons that kept us in the cycle. It’s simply an invitation—a chance to move forward with nothing more than the willingness to start.

After over a decade of chalworking on my creative writing, I’m rolling out something HUGE—something that’s been waiting, building, in the works for years. 

Georgie Summers and the Scribes of Scatterplot

It’s a middle-grade adventure/fantasy for kids aged 9-13—think Harry Potter meets Percy Jackson. It’s the most highly anticipated debut of 2025!

Just kidding.

In my new article series on LinkedIn, The Scatterplot Chronicles, I will share my journey of creative writing. Check it out here. 

It’s about how I met and became friends with Neil Blair, literary agent to J.K. Rowling and chairman of Pottermore. It’s about the crazy, circuitous way I landed an award-winning literary agent after failing to land any agent (award-winning or otherwise) for two years. It’s about how one very special Random House editor (who actually bid for the Harry Potter US rights in 1998 but lost to Scholastic) convinced me to rewrite most of the manuscript in the eleventh hour.

Maybe it’s also about loneliness and persistence and the magic of idiotic optimism and how we underestimate what we can accomplish over the long course of ten years.

The new LinkedIn article series is about my belief in and commitment to the process. Want to learn how to write? You can. Ever thought of publishing a book? You can. Think your professional career and personal relationships might benefit from becoming a better communicator? They absolutely will.

I’m going to be transparent.

I’m going to show you exactly what I’m spending on influencers, what I’m spending on Amazon sponsored ads, and what it cost me to get to this point—editorial, design, the whole nine.

If I’m not honest about all of that—the successes and the failures—then this entire series of posts will be a waste of both our time.

So I have no choice but to lean in and tell the truth, as uncomfortable as that might make me. How I landed my agent is a story that’ll make your stomach churn … trust me.

Ten years of ‘almosts’ and ‘maybes,’ ten years of ideas penciled in the margins, late nights planning, and now... I'm sharing it with the world. It's scary and I want to invite you along for the ride. 

Because beginning again is about looking at the mess, the doubt, and the resistance, and deciding they’re part of the process. 

So here’s to the courage to begin, the grit to keep going, and the audacity to believe that it’s never too late to do something crazy—even if it’s been 10 years in the making.

Here’s to beginning again, as many times as it takes.

And because you opened up this email expecting the Wednesday Windup. I still have that for you!

In this week’s Wednesday Windup, we're gonna talk about the time I pitched Betty Boop as president, how to get access to 40% OFF the AdVenture Academy RIGHT NOW, and the importance of creating projections and goals for November/Black Friday (+ how to actually create projections). 

“The beginning is always today.” 

— Mary Wollstonecraft

My Hit Single

A story from inside the agency... 

I’m sitting on a Zoom with fifteen of Max Fleischer’s descendants, thinking to myself, how the hell did I get here? Max Fleischer created Betty Boop and Popeye, and in the 1930s he was as famous as Walt Disney.

Gary Karrass used to joke that I’d have been much happier as a musician than an advertiser. That I could tour with my band, “The Clickless,” singing my hit single, “I’ve Got The Udemy Blues.”

But I’m no lyricist, and never has that been made clearer than through our adventures with Comics Kingdom.

We closed the Hearst business in February 2020, after a strange meeting at the storied Hearst building in NYC. Hearst hired us to work on ComicsKingdom, Hearst’s first and oldest business unit. Hearst owned the rights to Popeye and Betty Boop (among a plethora of other famous cartoons). Back in the 40s, Max Fleischer, Fleischer Studios, and King Features (Hearst), merged together.

When we got the account, ComicsKingdom was a popular but dwindling online subscription to the entire archive of Hearst-owned comics, including Zits, Olive Oyl, Flash Gordon, Blondie, and of course, Betty Boop and Popeye.

This was a seriously tough account. We began with redesigning the user experience and economics of their subscription model, but we needed more. We needed something that would bring Popeye and Betty Boop back into the cultural and political dialogue. Both Betty and Popeye were most famous when they were politically and culturally relevant.

Fleischer Studios and King Features had Betty Boop run for president in 1932. Popeye ran for president in 1956. Our big idea was to revive those campaigns. America was gearing up for the 2020 election, so the timing was perfect.

We pitched ComicsKingdom the following concept: Popeye is not happy with all the new fame and attention Betty drummed up for herself in the week since her launching her campaign, and Popeye will launch his own rival presidential bid ... running on the Spinach Ticket.

I sent an email to the ComicsKingdom director, C.J., who was our main point of contact at Hearst, teasing the campaign.

“We love this idea!” C.J. responded. “Would love to discuss your thinking!”

We had a meeting with KingFeatures the following week and presented a four-stage campaign. The Hearst team immediately asked for more. I responded (without much thought, as I usually do), with a long email outlining Betty’s and Popeye’s respective political platforms. It was a strange time at AdVenture—a bunch of us were pretty into Andrew Yang, so we decided Betty would incorporate Yang’s UBI concept into her platform.

At some point, Betty was going to sing.

Some of you are rich, some of you are poor, you know!

If you send me to Washington, I’ll just divide the dough!

Two hundred dollars for each of you, every single week.

And all your children’s futures will no longer look bleak!

ComicsKingdom asked us what our merchandising strategy was. We sent them a plan to tie both campaigns into a line of merchandise that included hoodies, mugs, pins, blankets, and bumper stickers.

Hearst set up a meeting with “Betty’s Family” (Max Fleischer’s descendants), and asked me to join. They also asked that I cut Popeye from the campaign. Sure, I replied, sending them an updated presentation. I said Betty would have wanted it that way. They loved that.

So that’s how I wound up on a Zoom with the entire Fleischer estate, thinking to myself, how the hell did I get here?

The Fleischer grandchildren killed the campaign. They were afraid to do anything political with Betty Boop, even though Betty was always a political character. It was a huge letdown, for both AdVenture and ComicsKingdom.

But a few months later, Dori from Hearst emails me out of the blue.

Isaac, I just got the greenlight for a $50K budget to put towards building buzz/demand around our new animated Netflix Series – The Cuphead Show.  We are facing several challenges and need your expertise and insight to help build a strategy that delivers the best possible end result given our budget and time frame.

$50k for media, production, and agency fees—for a multimillion-dollar Netflix launch. 

We were in.

The idea was to create a jingle, get a bunch of YouTube influencers, and generate awareness amongst kids prior to the show’s launch.

“Mommy, mommy, do you do you let?

Mommy, mommy,  I wanna watch CUPHEAD!”

It’s hard for me to write those words here to you all—and I’m not easily ashamed.

Hearst didn’t need the Fleischer’s help to kill this campaign, they did it all by themselves. I still have that Cuphead presentation deck, but I won’t share it publicly. Slide into my DMs if you’re interested.

The Cuphead Show campaign sort of fizzled out, but it finally launched on Netflix a few months back, and it became one of the top 10 shows in the US (for about a week).

Maybe Gary’s right. I could have been happy with The Clickless.

We've kicked off our early Black Friday sale with a massive 40% off—yes, everything is on sale, and this is as good as it gets!

For advertisers, Black Friday starts way before the rest of the world catches on (and yes, we've all been losing sleep over it for months).

So here’s your chance to get a head start with our top Black Friday strategies, plus hundreds of hours of advertising insights to make your campaigns more efficient and profitable. 

Our Black Friday guide is bundled in—sign up to access our best sale ever!

This gave me a chuckle... feels like the early AdVenture days all over again.

How to create Black Friday Projections

Black Friday projections are non-negotiable.

They’re the game plan, the guardrails, and the sanity check all rolled into one.

You’ll have goals that aren’t just “sell stuff” but actual targets to hit, ad spend that’s mapped out rather than thrown around, and a strategy you can trust to keep you on course.

Without projections? You’re winging it.

 With them? You’re armed and ready to make every dollar pull its weight.

Let’s break down the process of creating Black Friday projections step by step. This is all about setting realistic, actionable goals that guide your strategy.

1. Start with Last Year’s Data (if you have it) – If you ran Black Friday campaigns last year, pull up that data. Look at total revenue, traffic, conversion rates, average order value (AOV), and ad spend. This will give you a baseline for what worked and where you can improve. Outline the daily, weekly, and monthly data. 
2. Identify Key Metrics – Focus on the following core metrics for projections:
   • Traffic: How many visitors do you expect? Use last year’s numbers and consider any growth you’ve seen this year.
   • Conversion Rate (CR): What percentage of visitors turned into buyers last year? If you’ve optimized your site, you might aim for a slight increase.
   • Average Order Value (AOV): What’s your typical order value? Plan for any expected upsells or product bundles that could increase this. Or what the sale discount is this year. 
3. Adjust Based on This Year’s Performance – Look at how your business has been performing recently. If your conversion rates, traffic, or AOV have improved over the year, use these as a guide. Black Friday won’t look like a typical day at all, but your year-to-date performance can offer insights.
4. Set Specific Goals – Here’s a basic formula:
   • Projected Revenue = Expected Traffic x Conversion Rate x Average Order Value
   • For example, if you expect 10,000 visitors, a 3% conversion rate, and a $50 AOV, your projected revenue would be: 10,000 x 0.03 x $50 = $15,000.
5. Plan Your Ad Budget Around These Goals – Once you have your revenue target, decide on an ad budget that feels manageable but aggressive enough to drive that traffic. Estimate your cost per click (CPC) or cost per thousand impressions (CPM) based on your recent ad performance.
6. Build in Flexibility – Keep track of these numbers during your campaign. If you’re falling short on traffic or conversion rates, you can adjust ad spend or shift strategies.

Remember, projections aren’t set in stone—they’re a guide. They let you keep your eye on the goal without getting blindsided by surprises. Start simple, keep your metrics clear, and use your data to drive your strategy.

Let’s wrap this Wednesday Windup up since we covered A LOT. Black Friday is front and center on every advertiser's mind. Make sure you have all your i's dotted and t's crossed. We really have a whole toolkit and guide you need to be successful this Black Friday. Go explore the academy. I think you'll find a ton of helpful resources. 

I would appreciate it if you could sign up to follow my creative writing journey on LinkedIn. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll be inspired to embark on your own journey. I’ve faced enormous setbacks, financial losses, periods of depression, and darkness, but I’m here to tell the tale.

Reflecting on all the ups and downs of the past ten years, I can barely wrap my head around it all. The doors that I thought were wide open that shut in my face, the doors that opened a crack when all seemed lost—it’s a kaleidoscope of hardly-intelligible nodes and pathways, all leading in different directions, all the variables that somewhere, crazily, landed me where I am today, for better or for worse.

Isaac Rudansky
Founder, AdVenture Academy
[email protected]

But first, I need your help … sincerely:

1. If you’re up for a wild ride through the joys and chaos of creative writing, subscribe to The Scatterplot Chronicles, my LinkedIn series where I spill the beans on my writing and publishing adventures and check out the first article here.
2. Seriously, please hit the subscribe button (it’s different from following me) to receive the Scatterplot Chronicles straight to your inbox.
3. Check out my book here. If you’re generous enough to order a copy (it makes a great gift), DM me your order confirmation on LinkedIn, and you’ll be entered into a raffle for a brand new pair of Apple AirPods MAX … drawing next week!