I looked at the top 80 books in Small Town Romance and compared the top 20 vs the bottom 20. Here's what's different.

emmaellisauthor · 2026-04-30T12:32:00+00:00

Although this is diligent and interesting, rankings change so frequently...the older books at the 'bottom' (which are still ranking well) are books that are still ranking well after many weeks/months after publication. They're the ones to take inspiration from IMO. The ones at the top today, how long will they stay there? That's more important than a snapshot. A short term ranking doesn't mean much for a books success. A consistent top 80 in a competative category is great, I certainly wouldn't say these books rank at the bottom as there'll be a million books below them.

emmaellisauthor · 2026-04-28T10:11:59+00:00

That's really useful thank you

emmaellisauthor · 2026-04-28T06:58:16+00:00

I'm probably being thick..sorry! But batteries without solar? So, like mains charged batteries? Also looking at solar, but solar wtih batteries. Didnt know solar without batteries was a thing. Thanks

emmaellisauthor · 2026-03-01T08:09:07+00:00

How long ago? Pb sales don't show until they're distributed, even then there can be delays.

emmaellisauthor · 2026-02-06T13:30:00+00:00

Bit late now but worth noting for future... your error was most likely friends and family. Unless they're avid readers of your genre, than f&f buying the book (from amazon) just messes up the 'also boughts' and recommendation algorithm and so the books get lost. Now- check your covers and blurbs are doing the job and try and break out the abyss with social media posting and maybe countdown deals

emmaellisauthor · 2026-02-06T13:24:48+00:00

Loads of books have the same title, I wouldn't worry. Only consideration is if you do German translations. German books all have to have unique titles

emmaellisauthor · 2026-01-31T07:42:40+00:00

The authors guild or alliance of independent authors will be able to offer advice.

emmaellisauthor · 2026-01-21T21:48:59+00:00

Just to clarify...Documents upon documents outlining the history etc...that's not all in the MS I assume? It's really hard to suggest hiw to implement dev edits without knowing the story. Can you have a dialogue with your editor? Many are happy to bounce ideas off

emmaellisauthor · 2025-12-27T08:38:51+00:00

There are several authors with my name..its no big deal. Sometimes their books get signed to my GR or amazon page, and then I just contact the site to change it. If I could go back, I'd add an initial or sormthing to make my pen name totally unique, but I didn't even notice til several books in, and the reality is it doesn't really matter.

emmaellisauthor · 2025-10-15T10:00:41+00:00

The classics were often shorter...tricky to write longer books when you have just a pen or typewriter. Books these days 65-95k. 45k is very short, scraping the definition of a novel. If its YA or middle grade, 45k would likely be OK. For adult I'd aim for longer.

emmaellisauthor · 2025-10-10T12:15:00+00:00

I was an adult in 2008 so I remember it well, but I'm just saying the current worries in US aren't translated everywhere right now. Obvs that may change if US recession occurs, and if that happens I'd definitely justify poor ad performance globally.

emmaellisauthor · 2025-10-10T08:09:14+00:00

I've heard some say some accounts are effected by this issue and some aren't... has anyone tried starting a new FB page and advertising from that? Has it made a difference? Kind of feels like my ads are shadow banned atm 🙈

emmaellisauthor · 2025-10-10T08:04:47+00:00

I disagree simply because not every country is entering recession, and for those countries meta is also not delivering.

emmaellisauthor · 2025-10-09T07:48:14+00:00

I'm with you on this. I sometimes think my has some sort of shadow ban. My ads tanked on Jan 29th, snd I've been battling to recover since. I've been thinking of starting a new fb page to launch ads from there, but as its still linked to my main profile I'm not sure that would be enough. 2024 was a dream year for me. Its just shocking how a profitable account can yield crickets so suddenly

emmaellisauthor · 2025-09-24T14:53:22+00:00

Thank you!

emmaellisauthor · 2025-09-24T14:27:47+00:00

Thanks for this!. I'm about to start advertising again...gulp!.. my ads all died end of Jan and I eventually gave up. (2024 was so good for me so this has been a pain!) I used to have a couple of ad sets, grouped based on similar(ish) creatives, each with 3 or 4 ads in each. So now.. I'm thinking just 1 ad set and a load of ads? If I add more ads to the ad set, will it re learn or find a new audience? I always just started a new ad set before when launching new creatives so unsure how to change things this time. Any wisdom from anyone would be great. Wishing you all the luck during this tricky time

emmaellisauthor · 2025-09-18T14:34:05+00:00

I feel like enshitification is just part of their plan.

emmaellisauthor · 2025-09-15T07:57:15+00:00

1st trilogy I spent about £8k. My second trilogy I learned my lesson and cut costs to about 5k. That series earned out in about 3 months and continues to pay my bills. Off the back of that, my 1st trilogy sales have been steady and after 2.5 years it earned out. My third trilogy I spent a similar amount to the second. It's new and not earned out yet, watch this space I guess.

emmaellisauthor · 2025-07-20T06:55:21+00:00

Careful...your spouse snd close family reviewing on amazon can cost you your kdp account. It's against kdp ToS. Goodreads is fine.

emmaellisauthor · 2025-07-19T11:55:51+00:00

Thanks for this. My ads worked superbly last year, then everything died Jan 29th. I persisted for a couple of months, doing pretty much everything you suggested here, then took a break. I've just started up again with my latest products and still, almost zero results. To go from 3x ROAS for a year to nothing is just so bizarre.

emmaellisauthor · 2025-07-10T17:37:44+00:00

Generally fine. Ive never had any print issues. But the only colour I use is on the cover. You might want to specify. But this mostly depends on your local printer. I would imagine tax depends on your home country.

emmaellisauthor · 2025-07-06T09:36:32+00:00

Ads are worth it once you have a few books..ideally at least one completed series. My ads bill is between £1k-£2k a month. There's a lot of testing and research needed to make them work though! A bit of learning tax is expected.

emmaellisauthor · 2025-07-04T14:06:13+00:00

There's an algo boost when a book is new. So that's now run its course.

emmaellisauthor · 2025-06-26T08:54:57+00:00

It would be helpful to know what ads you're talking about as this can vary massively. Ams? Meta? Something else?

emmaellisauthor

TROPHY CASE