A Contrarian Take on Book Marketing?

I dropped in on another webinar yesterday. (What's with the sudden proliferation of webinars? Do they have a season? "Webinar Day falls between Labor Day and Halloween.")

I like the sessions that feature four or five different presentations to choose from, because there's no way in hell I would sit through every one. I don't need to learn how to "craft a story" or how to make my own covers (don't do it!) or why professional editing is so important (can't afford it).

The session I chose yesterday was all about marketing. While I've basically given up on marketing Running From Herself, it didn't hurt to maybe find out something new. The presenter had a six-letter acronym for the components of marketing, and while some may be feasible for people who aren't me, such as finding podcasts to appear on (!), or the dreaded newsletter, he talked a bit about ads. His theory is that if you have a new release, you should not purchase Amazon or Facebook ads. (He equivocated a bit on FB ads, but in general, he nixed both of them.) His reasoning had something to do with Amazon's algorithms, wherein if your book hardly has any sales or reviews, Amazon's not gonna know where to place your ad, due to a lack of data. (Now I find out!)

So, maybe my Amazon ad's putrid performance had nothing to do with a lack of interest or a bad blurb, but instead, as far as Amazon was concerned, my novel is an orphan. This is irritating, though, because if I'm paying for a service, I don't expect a company to throw up its hands and shrug. "I guess I...don't know what to do with your product." How about this: display my ad! Needless to say, unless I somehow manage to collect a hundred reviews, I won't be buying another Amazon ad.

The presenter instead mentioned small-to-midsize promo sites, where the number of reviews and/or sales don't matter as much. I'm torn. I tried a whole bunch of promo sites when Running From Herself was first published, and I got next to no return on my investment. Granted, the novel had a terrible cover and now it has a great cover, so that might account for no one wanting to take a chance on it. And granted, these sites charge very little (for a one-day newsletter placement), so trying again wouldn't be a huge risk. Still, I wonder. Even at the low, low price of, for example, $25.00, I'd still need to net nine sales to recoup my money. The most any of these sites ever got me was three (and that was only one site). 99.9% of them resulted in zero sales.

I've not had good luck with...anything. Take, for instance, the ARC site, Pen Pinery. Once I updated my cover, I received ten requests. Not one of those has resulted in a review. I suspect that every one of those ten people stopped reading the book at some point. That site cost me nothing except my pride.

I might be willing to give a few of these promo sites another go once I revise my blurb, but the reasonable side of me asks, why? To set myself up for yet another disappointment? I'm probably better off just letting the book die and thinking I didn't market it right, instead of the truth, which is that no one is interested in it.

This is all kind of moot, but the presenter's alternate take was at least refreshing.