Today I’m talking with Brian D Meeks about Mastering Amazon Ads. We have a really interesting chat about some of the biggest things people get wrong with Amazon ads as well as how to integrate ads into a wider marketing plan – plus, how running a Facebook group can be a mixed blessing when it comes to book sales and energy management. I'm away on a walking trip so there's no extended introduction this week – expect a mega-show next week 🙂 Today’s show is sponsored by all the listeners who support the show through Patreon. Thank you SO much for your ongoing support. It means so much to me that you enjoy the show enough to contribute! If you’d like to become a Patreon supporter, you can support the show for as little as $2 per month and receive the extra Q&A show monthly. Click here to find out more. Brian D. Meeks writes detective novels, thrillers, and science-fiction under his own name and that of one of his characters, Arthur Byrne. He has co-written several books in the Prosperous Writer's series with Honoree Corder and his latest nonfiction book is Mastering Amazon Ads: An Author's Guide. You can listen above or on iTunes or Stitcher or watch the video here, read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and full transcript below. Show Notes * Blogging as a way to find your author voice * The most common mistakes authors make with Amazon Ads * Tips for successful Amazon Ads * The surprising number of ads Brian runs * Are Facebook groups effective for marketing a book? You can find Brian Meeks at ExtremelyAverage.com. Transcript of Interview with Brian Meeks Joanna: Hi everyone. I'm Joanna Penn from TheCreativePenn.com. And today, I'm here with Brian D. Meeks. Hi, Brian? Brian: Hello. How are you today? Joanna: I'm great. Great to have you on the show. Just a little introduction. Brian writes detective novels, thrillers, and science fiction under his own name, and also that of one of his characters, Arthur Byrne. He has co-written several books in a prosperous writer series with Honoree Corder. He's also been on the show. His latest nonfiction book is Mastering Amazon Ads, An Author's Guide, which I know everybody wants to hear about. Brian, tell us a bit more about how you got into being a full-time author and what you did before and how that shapes your focus now. Brian: Well, my story is I think a little different than most in that on January 2nd, 2010, I hated writing. I thought writing was something you only did when you were being punished by your eighth grade English teacher. She was a terrible woman. And so January 2nd, 2010 rolls around there was a football game that I wanted to watch. It didn't kick off till later in the day. And so I was just surfing around the web. I came across blogger.com. And the day before, I'd had some foibles in learning woodworking. It was a new hobby of mine, I was teaching myself. And so it had been kind of funny,