Is $68.00 To Sell One Book Good?

While I still have one day remaining on my boosted Facebook post, I am familiar with the law of diminishing returns. The number of impressions does not equal the number of unique users who've viewed the post, especially if, like me, an ad buyer targets certain demographics. So, the same person could well have seen my post five to ten times. If she's not buying the first time, she's for sure not buying on the tenth. (That begs the question, why didn't I just pay for one day, instead of three? Idiot.)

So, I only sold one copy, and I even lowered my novel's price before advertising. Yes, I made $2.09, but it cost me $68.00 to do so. An indie publisher needs to understand going in that she's going to lose money, and thus be willing to risk it. Having (now) tried every marketing path, I didn't expect to earn back my $68.00. Of course, there's always a glimmer of hope, but it's a faint one.

And I don't even know for sure if my boosted post drove that one sale. There is the woman on X who said she was going to buy my book, but people say a lot of things. 

On the plus side, I've had 854 pages read via Kindle Unlimited in the last two days, which can't be a coincidence.

Everyone who's anyone would tell me that it takes the algorithm three to seven days to find its footing, so quit being a big crybaby, but I do remember running a Facebook ad (not a boosted post) for seven days and getting only two or three purchases out of the deal. The bottom line is, how much am I willing to deplete my bank account?

I marvel at those authors who see gigantic numbers on their sales reports and treat them as normal everyday business. Damn, I chose the wrong genre to write in! 

This post is simply a "report back"; an "all is not well" signal. But would you expect anything different from me? Of course you wouldn't.