Quiet Keystrokes and Midnight Ramblings

I've been failing as an author. Okay, my husband would say I'm being melodramatic, and he's right. At the time of this writing, my biopunk novel,  Adaline , has been downloaded 8,500 times in just over 20 weeks. That's not failing. BUT, I have been struggling with my advertising spend. In late 2018, I figured out how to buy space on people's mailing lists and websites, which is how I got most of those 8,500 downloads. But I've had the worst luck in creating profitable ads on Amazon and Facebook. After working my butt off to do so/so with Facebook ads, (and seeking help from the book Help! My Facebook Ads Suck by Michael Cooper ), I decided to tackle AMS ad services. For months, I was running a couple of ads here, a couple of ads there, and not getting any kind of positive results. My best ad was running at a -70% return. Not good. I turned to the advice of my fellow authors on Reddit, Facebook and Kboards, and kept seeing Brian D. Meeks...

One of the greatest things about writing about small businesses, doing reviews for products and services and doing human interest pieces in general is the unique way that these bits of writing are promoted from both ends of the spectrum. Most writers do some type of self-promotion, whether it's posting links to articles on Facebook and Twitter or lobbying for their articles to show up on the front pages of magazines and e-news bulletins, but there is rarely any other promotion that really goes on unless someone else with a big reader base finds interest in it and pushes it out to their group. With reviews, human interest and "promotional" pieces though, you get double the promoting power.  Small businesses and individuals are excited to see their name in print, and it is rare that you will run across a business owner or local celebrity who isn't proud to share their piece with their distribution network.  The "Look at Me!" promotional tactic is good for ...