It is true that a lot of people are making tons of money on indie authors who are investing a lot of resources into advertising their self-published books. If you want to promote your book, there are many author-promotion promoters willing to oblige by listing, tweeting, posting your book on their email feeds, Twitter pages, Facebook groups.

What actually works? I decided to steer clear of the emailers, tweeters and posters, basically because as a reader, I don’t look at those emails, tweets and posts for suggestions for reading material (not that I have much time to read). I do occasionally check Amazon, usually by keyword searches.

So I decided to try Amazon’s own Marketing Services for my two self-published books.

When I first started out on this new adventure, there was only one option available with two different approaches, and that was product display ads. The first approach (by interest) is to choose which categories you want your pay per click book ads to show up in. Then you set your maximum pay per click price (the most you are willing to pay if someone clicks on your ad). Your ads are entered into a virtual auction, competing against other ads for a spot (or impression) on a book listing that is similar to yours. The categories are rather broad. I went with the category approach and regretted it. No one clicked on my Light of Dark ads, despite thousands of impressions. The ads were appearing on books that had no relevance to my book. My Amish Research Guide did much better but cost a fortune with few people actually purchasing the book, again, due to lack of relevance.

So the next time around, I went with the second (by product) method. This turned out to be the way to go for me, anyway. It takes a little longer to set up, but I was able to target books that were much like mine through keyword searches and choosing specific books on which to bid for ad placement. The end result was better sales, though I still ended up spending a lot of money relative to the royalties the advertising generated. At last count, my Light of Dark had appeared nearly 74,000 times at a cost of $68 for $10 in sales (royalties to me a little over $3). Awful, terrible return, you say. But that’s still 74,000 potential customer views of the ad (at a cost of $.0009 per impression), with people hopefully digesting it, and some possibly returning later to buy the book. It is a proven fact that many people need to see something a few times before they act. So as advertising goes, if you want to hone in on the readers who are most likely to be interested in your book, this is not a bad way to go.

Amazon now offers a new marketing option – sponsored products. I have my Light of Dark enrolled in this. It is based on keywords, but you do not choose specific books. It has cost me next to nothing, but my book hasn’t had many impressions. So I keep increasing my pay per click bid. The good part is that it hasn’t cost me much!

Another approach I have tried is Goodreads advertising. My Light of Dark has had a few impressions and clicks, but it is impossible to tell how many of these resulted in actual sales. It is more difficult to target your ads to readers who are most likely to be interested in your book.

What is my conclusion? If you want to keep your royalties, don’t advertise your book. But if you want to get your book out there, in front of people, hopefully build up a following, then I would recommend Amazon’s Marketing Services for your Amazon-listed book. Especially the product-based approach, to really zero in on the audience that is most likely to be interested in and purchase your book.