How Fiction Authors Should Actually Determine Their Book Ad Audience (Part 1)
Whether just getting started with paid ads or already running campaigns that seem to disappear into the void, there is one thing author coach Rebecca Hamilton sees trip up fiction authors at every level: they don't actually know who their book's audience is.
Not because they haven't thought about it. But because most of the advice out there sends them looking in the wrong places.
This is Part 1 of a two-part series on book ad targeting for fiction authors. Rebecca breaks down the foundation here: who your audience actually is, why it's probably not who you think, and the three barriers most authors hit before they ever run a single ad. Part 2 covers why the specific targeting advice most authors have already heard is doing more harm than good.
Why Determining Your Book's Ad Audience Comes Before Everything Else
It doesn't matter whether you're running Facebook ads, Amazon ads, or BookBub promotions. Knowing who you're talking to comes first.
Rebecca Hamilto
...Why Trashing Popular Books Hurts Your Author Career (and What Successful Authors Do Instead)
When Rebecca Hamilton first entered the publishing world, she noticed a pattern that has repeated itself every time a massively successful series appears. Whether it was Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey, or any other title that broke through the noise, authors were often the first to publicly criticize the very books millions of readers adored. The complaints usually sounded something like:
-
“The writing is bland.”
-
“The characters aren’t complex enough.”
-
“This relationship is unhealthy.”
-
“My book is objectively better, so why isn’t mine selling?”
But here’s the uncomfortable truth many authors overlook:
Readers, not authors, decide what becomes a bestseller.
And when millions of readers embrace a book, dismissing it doesn’t just keep authors from understanding why it succeeded, it also distances them from the very audience they want to reach.
This is a mistake we repeatedly inside the Six Figure Author Coach community, and it’s one of the biggest reasons ta...
How This Community Can Transform Your Author Career
A lot of authors first discover us through our free Facebook group for authors, and every so often, a new member pops in and asks what this community actually is, how it works, or what they should expect from being here. That question sparked this article.
If you’ve ever wondered who we are, what we do, or why this community has helped more authors hit six figures writing fiction than any other program, this will give you the full picture.
Who We Are
I’m Rebecca Hamilton, an author coach and two-time New York Times bestselling author. I built this community because I know what it’s like to start from nothing. Not “nothing” in the metaphorical sense, I mean it very literally.
I began my adult life homeless. Then I spent over a decade living at the poverty level. So when I finally discovered how to turn writing into a real, sustainable career…I made it my mission to help other authors do the same.
Today, I’ve:
-
Had books optioned for film
-
Helped over 500 authors become NYT,
...
Stop Following Bad Book Marketing Advice: What Actually Works for Authors in 2025
The reason most authors struggle isn’t because they’re lazy, unmotivated, or not talented enough. It’s because someone lied to them. Usually, a lot of someones.
If you’ve ever Googled “how to sell more books” or “book marketing advice,” you’ve probably noticed something strange: everyone’s saying the exact same thing.
They tell you to post on social media, give your book away for free, join promo groups, and send more newsletters. They say those are the things you should do, when, in reality, many of them are the things you shouldn’t.
Because here’s the truth no one wants to admit:
Much of the advice authors find online is painfully wrong (or so outdated it’s practically useless).
Why “Free” Advice Keeps Authors Stuck
We hear it all the time: “All the advice is already out there for free. You can find everything you need on Google.” If that were true, every author would already be successful.
The problem isn’t that free advice doesn’t exist, it’s that most of it was created to he...
