I guess the Memorial Day Sale worked. I raised the price of Framed: A Villain’s Perspective on Social Media to $2.99, I hit 10 reviews on Amazon, and I’ve spent a few weeks now atop the Kindle bestseller list for Social Aspects of the Internet.

For some reason, the “algorithm” on Amazon went crazy last week, and ads for my book were shown to over 300,000 people. Primarily because of the whims of this algorithm, I sold 65 books, which is a new record.

I say “whims” because product exposure on Amazon does not scale with budgeted spend, unlike pretty much every other advertising platform. During periods of rigorous experimentation, my campaigns were staged such that I could have spent over $400/day on Amazon ads. However, on Amazon, there’s a secret “gating” system (not unlike the “viral exposure” system that social networks use). This means that ads won’t be shown if Amazon doesn’t think the conversions (clicks, which they get paid for) will be statistically significant (relevant to the audience, meaning Amazon earns less).

Yes, the sales cost me more than I earned, but the click-through rate for every campaign exceeded 0.10% (this is good). On my best days the spend-to-sales rate was like $2:$1, which, although it meant losing money, is considered excellent for niche non-fiction books.

An advertising expert once advised me that I would run out of money before I could see this strategy to profitability, especially if I lacked back catalogue of other books to sell. My thought is that, down the road, with more reviews, an audiobook, and a price closer to $6.99, I can ride one of these algorithmic jolts to profitability. At the very least, dozens of new readers will get access to my book at a relatively small “acquisition” cost, and, tbh, I’m not close to running out of money.

Podcast #1: BizBlend

I sat down with Sana from the BizBlend podcast to discuss Framed—growing up with the internet, progressing through villainy, and ending up as a fringe commentator. Dedicated listeners will notice the “ethics” question coming up a lot, and it’s worth mentioning that my feelings on these matters aren’t fixed. Tune in to hear what I had to say.

Podcast #2: Digital Coffee: Marketing Brew

After my head almost exploded from being asked whether I preferred tea or coffee, I recovered and had a really enjoyable chat with Brett Deister. He is quick-witted and adaptable, and he gave me a platform to provide a very different perspective compared to some of his recent guests. Also, Brett’s fast-cut editing works really well and him doing all his own production meant a super fast turnaround.

Podcast #3: BruCast

Bruno Frasca from Germany had me on his popular BruCast podcast, where I was the featured guest on the 84th episode. This was an unscripted chat where we covered my journey and what my thoughts are on marketing and AI.

The Audiobook

If you’ve listened to some of these podcasts, you will probably admit to having some affinity for the sound of my voice. As previously reported, I’m working on the audio book for Framed. It’s really hard. I don’t know if I have a single chapter properly recorded yet. But, I’m learning about audio engineering and narration while finding minor mistakes in my book. I’ll label the audiobook-adjacent release of Framed v1.1.0. An August release might be optimistic.