Book Marketing with Melissa Storm

09/15/2026

I just appeared on the Write Podcast to talk about ads, marketing, selling direct, and my origin story. I'm pretty sure I share things in this interview I haven't told anyone yet, including a reveal for the topic of my next course. I hope you'll check it out!

You built the store. Maybe it's beautiful. Maybe it cost more than ...

08/10/2026

I don't know how much you're making as an author. I guarantee politicians have deeper pockets.

Political money is flooding the auction and it isn't leaving until November 3. Every new campaign I've started in the last several days is spending way above what those accounts normally do.

And to further compound this problem, Meta's new placement default puts your ads on all content that meets their monetization policy, which includes political posts and conflict coverage. So you're paying more to sit right beside the thing driving the price.

I first wrote this up as an eight day problem, because I'm in Alaska and I was reading my own ballot. My team caught it. Watch your own calendar, not mine.

Build campaigns and leave them in draft. And point some budget at the UK, Canada and Australia, where nobody's running for anything.

What are your numbers doing? And how does election season change your book marketing strategy?

08/09/2026

Are you running Advantage+ placements right now, or did you restrict to Facebook newsfeed only?

Both are wrong this week, because the fun just never stops ;)

Meta rolled out new placements over the first weekend of August. Facebook in-stream reels is on by default now and it's the one eating everybody's budget. Those are the ads that block the video you're trying to watch, so most of your clicks are people trying to make it go away.

On Advantage+, you're in it and you never opted in.

If you've restricted to newsfeed, you've dodged this problem, but you're leaving Instagram reels on the table, and that's where your video ads should be living.

The wiring under the hood is changing constantly, and Meta's making it more and more apparent that they're going to strip a lot of the Ad Set level controls and move them up to Advertising Settings.

Go manual for now. Facebook feed and Instagram reels, and uncheck the spend box underneath so Meta can't wander back into what you just excluded.

I've got the full walkthrough on the rest of the placement debacle here, and I'll keep you posted as things continue to shift.

Send a message to learn more

08/08/2026

I won't be posting daily forever, but figured I should run rather than crawl with my new Substack. Today we're going deep on targeting via your images and copy rather than the interests box.

If it helps, please subscribe and spread the word. I get so much yummy dopamine from seeing this thing grow!

08/07/2026

New Substack that includes a 7-minute video you won't want to miss. Hope it saves you some ad money!

08/06/2026

My first substack article is live. Hope to see you as a subscriber!

08/03/2026

Setting up my Substack. Where do you guys need the most knowledge when it comes to author ads and book marketing? I'm eager to start sharing my thoughts and how-tos!

08/01/2026

If you believe your book doesn't deserve attention, your marketing will whisper that very thing to the readers you're hoping to reach.

You'll hedge. You'll apologize. You'll post and immediately want to delete it.

Readers feel that energy. Hesitation reads as low confidence, and low confidence reads as low value.

You wrote something real. Own it like you mean it.

Marketing from a place of shame never works. Marketing from belief does.

07/31/2026

Nobody buys a romance novel for the plot summary.

They buy the flutter. The escape. The feeling of being seen in someone else's love story.

Your marketing has to lead with emotion, not information.

What does your reader feel on the last page? Start there.

Sell the feeling first. The book is just how they get it.