#PublishingReinvented 252 The Joy of Eternal Ad Testing: Because You Wrote a Book to Become a Full-Time Marketing Analyst
Oh, so you thought writing a book was the hard part?
That crafting a plot, developing characters, weaving themes, and surviving your fifth existential crisis before breakfast was the mountain to climb? Adorable. Because now, dear author, the real fun begins—welcome to the eternal hamster wheel of ad testing.
Let’s begin with the title. You love your title, right? You’ve whispered it lovingly to yourself like a magic spell. Too bad! Because it might not “convert.” You need to test at least three other versions—something more SEO-optimized, more genre-aligned, more emotionally manipulative. Because nothing screams "literary genius" like split-testing "Blood Moon Rising" vs "The Vampire’s Secret Baby."
Next? The subtitle. Oh, you thought subtitles were just for nonfiction? Think again. Every book now needs one—just in case your gripping noir thriller isn’t quite clear enough without “A Heart-Stopping Tale of Grit, Guts, and Redemption” tacked on. Test five of those too.
On to the cover! You spent months working with an artist to create that perfect symbolic design. Burn it. Or at least A/B test it against a stock photo of a sad woman looking out a rainy window, and a shirtless guy with more abs than character development. The algorithm decides who lives and dies.
Now, the blurb. Or actually, no—the pitch variations. You need to test five different angles based on theme. Is your book about hope? Betrayal? Found family? Forbidden love? Environmental collapse via vengeful hedgehogs? Excellent. Write a pitch for each, and test them in triplicate, because data is God and your gut instinct is a heretic.
And then… variations of each pitch. Add emojis. Remove emojis. Make one sarcastic. Make one earnest. Try shouting in all caps. Try whispering in lowercase. You will never know peace again.
By now, you’ve become a shell of your former writer self, shivering under a pile of spreadsheets, muttering clickthrough rates in your sleep. But hey—maybe that ad variation with the crying toddler next to your dystopian novel finally converted.
Congratulations! You’ve reached level 5 of Marketing Nirvana. Only 27 more ad sets to go before the algorithm maybe blesses you.
Because writing the book was just the beginning. Welcome to the real Hunger Games.
KDP Rocket & Free Course Deal
Dave Chesson of Kindlepreneur created a complete video course not only teaching about keywords and categories, but shows over his shoulder how to best do it.
In this course (which usually costs $50), you'll learn:
● The step-by-step process to finding profitable categories and keywords
● Tips to become more discoverable on Amazon
● How to best use keywords and categories
To see all the details, click here. [BooksGoSocial will receive an affiliate fee for all orders. You will not pay more though our link. You will help us keep our coffee budget topped up, thank you.]
This offer closes Sunday 6th April!
#PublishingReinvented is the Substack you’ve been looking for.
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