Most authors running ads can’t say for sure whether they’re working.

It isn’t for want of looking. Checking the ads dashboard, checking the royalties dashboard, multiple times per day. The trouble is that nobody ever told us what “working” was supposed to look like, so every number could be good news or bad news, depending on the day.

Without a finish line, two things tend to happen.

Some authors stop too soon. A week of spend, a handful of sales, and the verdict comes in: “ads don’t work for my books.”

Others push on too fast. The ads are losing money, but surely a bigger budget will sort it out, so the daily spend goes up and the losses grow with it.

Both come from the same gap, and I think the fix is simpler than most of us expect.

October 24th, 2026   •   4 minute read   •   Issue #177

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I have some version of this conversation most weeks.

An author shares their ads with me, and they’re spending about $10 a day, which is a perfectly good place to be. Then I look at where it’s going.

A few dollars on Facebook Ads for book one, a few on Amazon Ads for the new release, a little on BookBub Ads for the boxed set, and whatever’s left goes to the book from three years ago that deserves a second chance.

Four books, three platforms, ten dollars.

And I get it, I really do. It feels responsible. Every book gets a bit of help, the risk is spread out, and nothing gets left behind.

But a month later, they’re looking at four sets of numbers, and none of them are big enough to tell them anything.

So the first thing I usually suggest is backing fewer books. Not more. Fewer.

October 17th, 2026   •   5 minute read   •   Issue #176

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A few years ago, there was a study done where researchers asked a group of people who worry a great deal to write down their worries every day for ten days.

A few weeks later, they asked them to look back and mark which of those worries had actually come true.

91% hadn't.

I think most of us recognize the shape of it. The things we lie awake over rarely turn out the exact way we feared, and a surprising amount of the time they don't happen at all.

I think about this study a lot, because of a worry I hear from authors almost every week. You probably know the voice:

"Put $100 into ads. Sell nothing. Feel stupid. Never try again."

October 10th, 2026   •   4 minute read   •   Issue #175

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