I Spent $44,000 Launching My Book. Three of Those Dollars Worked.

What actually sells books in 2026, what doesn’t, and the expensive lessons I learned so you don’t have to.

Today I got the conversion report from the $10,000 TikTok influencer campaign I ran for the launch of UNSINGLE. Guess how many books it sold?

Three book sales.

Not three thousand. Three. That’s $3,333 per book, which makes each copy roughly the price of a used 2006 Honda Civic, except the Civic would have been more useful.

I’m sharing the full breakdown of what I spent, what converted, and what I’d do differently, because I spent a big chunk of my advance trying to give my second book momentum, and most of that money evaporated. If you’re launching a book, learn from my receipts instead of generating your own.

What Not to Do

1. The $10,000 TikTok influencer campaign

The pitch is seductive: creators with engaged audiences talk about your book, the algorithm does the rest. Here’s the thing. The content was good. This was the best video from my campaign, and I mean it when I say it’s genuinely well made: watch it here.

It just doesn’t convert. Views are not sales. People watch a 40-second video about your book the same way they watch a video about a raccoon eating grapes: entertained, moved even, and then they keep scrolling.

2. The $10,000 consulting / speaking gig agency

I paid another agency $10,000 to book speaking engagements in exchange for bulk book buys. They booked zero. Not “fewer than promised.” Zero. When I asked for a refund, they said they put in effort and that I was never guaranteed results. Um, what? After a lot of haggling, they finally refunded a portion of my fee.

3. The $24,000 PR retainer

I hired a PR agency for four months. A big win was they landed me an hour segment on Tamron Hall, which was big! I got a massive spike on Amazon the day it aired and it probably netted about 200 book sales. The Tamron Hall also social team posted a few collaboration posts on their IG page, which got hundreds of thousands of views collectively (example of one here). While I can’t measure how many of those translated to sales, it was great reach and credibility.

Something to note: earned media is what builds your brand, credibility, and authority over the long term. It's best seen as an overall investment that compounds for your personal brand. If you have no reputation, then PR and credible partnerships could be a TO DO as it builds trust. Even if you do ads and get the clicks, but then someone doesn’t trust you when they look you up, then you don’t convert.

4. PR packages for influencers

I spent money on cute merch for mailers to a bunch of influencers. About 20% of the influencers who received a package shared a story, and guess what, that doesn’t move the needle. Instagram is not what it once was. Someone sharing a pic of your book on their IG story might get some brand awareness, but unless they’re gushing about your book and they’re famous, it won’t do anything substantial.

The Two Lessons About Hiring Agencies

Lesson 1: Talk to prior clients before you sign. Not the testimonials on their website. Actual clients, on the phone, asked directly: did this work, would you hire them again. I skipped this step and went off vibes and promises. Vibes and promises cost me $20,000.

Lesson 2: Be suspicious of agencies that only accept wire transfers and want ad spend paid upfront. A wire is money you will never see again no matter what happens. If you pay with a credit card (I use Amex Platinum), you at least have the ability to dispute the charge if the agency doesn’t deliver.

What Actually Worked

Podcasts (not all, but some)

I personally secured 30 podcast interviews for launch, and thank goodness I did, because that is ultimately what moved books. I was selective about which podcasts I approached, and I judged how big their audience actually was. You can’t see podcast metrics easily (a few show download numbers on Spotify, but most hide that). The way to piece together whether a podcast is worth doing: look at the podcast reviews and the host’s IG following. But more importantly, do they actually promote their podcast on their page? I did a podcast with a host who had 1 million followers, and the podcast’s Instagram had 10K. They did not promote the episode beyond one story on the podcast page.

The podcasts that moved the needle for me: Girls Gotta Eat, Dear Shandy, The Wellness Process, We Met At Acme, Seggs Talk Radio.

And it’s not just the pods. It’s the video clips they post afterwards and the collab posts.

Events

Events where the ticket price includes a book. Do them virtual or in person. Fair warning: getting people to come to events is hard in cities where you don’t have a community or footprint. I did 5 events: NYC (120 tickets sold), SF (80), Vancouver (45), LA (45) and a bookclub panel. Each one had a cohost or moderator with a following.

The additional benefit is that you get photos, people share on social, and you create buzz around your book. Plus you get to meet readers face to face, and that brings you back to the entire reason you wrote a book in the first place. That purpose can get lost when you’re chasing numbers and bestseller lists.

Amazon

Here’s a hack for you. Amazon counts 3 books bought separately as 3 sales toward your sales ranking. But 30 books ordered in one transaction counts as a single sale. So if you have friends supporting you, ask them to order smaller quantities at different times, rather than one bulk order.

ARC reviews through Hidden Gems

Reviews matter enormously on Amazon, and there’s a legitimate way to get them. Hidden Gems runs an ARC program where readers sign up to receive advance copies and commit to writing a review. About 80% actually follow through. The reviews are honest, so they can be positive or negative, which is exactly why Amazon doesn’t nuke them.

Two things worth knowing: you can also submit books that are already published (it works alongside NetGalley), and they’re currently booked out until March 2027. Get in the queue anyway. It’s relatively cheap (like under $150).

Goodreads giveaway

Run a Goodreads giveaway. The standard package is $119 (plus the cost of books and shipping if you’re giving away print copies; Kindle giveaways have no extra cost). Skip the premium tier.

Here’s why it’s worth it: every single person who enters gets your book automatically added to their Want to Read shelf, and their friends see that. Also when someone looks at your book page it doesn’t look like the lone book nobody cares about.

Thousands of people can enter a giveaway for 100 copies, which means thousands of actual readers, people who chose to raise their hand for your book, now have it sitting on their shelf and get nudged by Goodreads to review it later. For $119, it’s one of the cheapest ways to get real readers aware of your book.

What I’d Do With the Money Instead

If I could rewind, I would take the $44,000 I spent on influencers, the speaking agency, and PR, and put nearly all of it into Amazon ads. Amazon ads reach people who are already on Amazon looking for a book to buy. I’d probably test out a Meta campaign as well.

The uncomfortable truth about book launches in 2026 is that the expensive, glamorous stuff can get you some brand awareness, but you need A TON to break through in today’s media landscape. If you’ve got a few hundred thousand to spend, it will probably work. But if you’re spending months of rent money to promote your book (anywhere from 1K-20K) you just realistically will not hit enough momentum for it to make a big dent.

You can, however, buy your way on to the USA Today bestsellers list for about 65K but (I spill the in this post).

Was this helpful? Here’s how you can help me.

Spending so much money and seeing my sales fall flat on its face was heartbreaking. That’s why I’m sharing my lessons so that at least, my pain can be for something. If you want to help me, here’s how. Buy my book on Amazon and write a review. Or write a review on Goodreads.

Thank you and good luck!