There's a number in Facebook Ads Manager that most authors watch obsessively.

Cost per click.

You'll see it posted in Facebook groups and forums. "Down to $0.12!" "Under 10 cents!" "Cracked it!"

And I get it.

It's a clean, simple number that goes up or down, and up feels bad and down feels good, and after a few weeks of running ads it becomes the number you check first when you open Ads Manager.

Here's the problem though. CPC is a vanity metric.

August 8th, 2026   •   4 minute read   •   Issue #166

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"How do you analyze your Facebook Ads data, and how do you know when to scale, refresh the creative, or turn an ad off?"

That question landed in my inbox this week. It's a good one, and it comes up constantly for authors running Facebook Ads to sell books on Amazon. The honest answer starts with this:

Facebook cannot tell you if your ads are working.

August 1st, 2026   •   5 minute read   •   Issue #165

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Your last launch didn't move the needle, so you're already halfway into the next one.

I get it. When royalties stall, the loudest voice in your head is write faster. It feels productive. It feels like the thing an author is supposed to do. And it's a lever entirely in your control, which is a rare feeling in this business.

It's also the advice you'll hear around author circles: publish more, publish faster, the market rewards volume. So it must be right, surely.

July 25th, 2026   •   5 minute read   •   Issue #164

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