There are days when publishing feels pretty good.

Today is not one of those days.

I’ve been experimenting with advertising for Sovereign Knight on both Amazon and BookBub. I knew going into this that advertising a first novel from an unknown author would involve some trial and error.

I may have underestimated the “error” part.

My latest Amazon campaign has now been shown more than 1,200 times.

Clicks?

Zero.

Not one.

The good news is that Amazon charges me when someone clicks, so all those impressions have cost me essentially nothing.

The bad news is that more than 1,200 people have apparently looked in the general direction of my advertisement and collectively decided:

“Nope.”

That will humble you pretty quickly.

BookBub has been strange in a completely different way. My early advertising actually performed better internationally than it did in the United States. Canada gave me the strongest response. The United Kingdom produced some clicks.

The United States?

Almost nothing.

Which makes this even stranger because every copy of Sovereign Knight sold so far has been in the United States.

So people here are buying the books.

The advertisements just don’t appear to be the reason why.

I’m currently at eleven books sold, and I still can’t tell you with any confidence how most of those buyers found me. Some are probably family and friends. Some may have found the book naturally on Amazon. Someone may have seen something I posted on Facebook. Maybe somebody told somebody else.

I simply don’t know yet.

And that uncertainty may be one of the most frustrating parts of being a new independent author.

I’m also learning that advertising a book isn’t as simple as paying Amazon or BookBub and waiting for readers to arrive.

You choose an audience.

You choose a bid.

You create an advertisement.

You wait.

You look at the numbers.

Then sometimes the numbers tell you that what you created simply isn’t working.

That does not necessarily mean the book is bad.

It means the advertisement is bad.

Or the audience is wrong.

Or the placement is wrong.

Or some combination of all three.

That distinction matters.

I could keep increasing what I’m willing to pay for every click and force the advertisement in front of more people. But paying more money to show an advertisement that nobody wants to click does not strike me as an especially brilliant business strategy.

So tomorrow I’m changing both campaigns.

Not another five-cent adjustment.

Not another few days of waiting and hoping.

Something different.

Maybe it works.

Maybe I get another zero.

Apparently, that is part of this strange process of becoming an independent author.

You write the book.

You edit the book.

You format the book.

You fix the cover.

You discover the spines don’t match.

You advertise the book.

More than 1,200 people ignore the advertisement.

Then you get up the next morning and try again.

I still believe in Sovereign Knight.

Now I just have to figure out how to get it in front of the people who are going to believe in it too.