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This is what I've observed from my recent experiences. I started self-publishing back in the 90s when desk top publishing was coming into its own. Back then, I'd type up my manuscript on a Canon word processor then save it on a floppy disk. I'd run off a copy of it on my ink jet printer and send it off in its camera-ready format to a high-speed printing company. After galleys were received, and editing completed, I'd submit the final version and what ever number of soft cover perfect bound books I had ordered would be shipped to me. Like my fellow aspirants, I'd then show up at book fairs and out door markets and set up my litttle display amidst a slew of other aspiring self-published authors vying for the attention of browsers who inspected our book covers and usually moved on. In between this, I'd hit the local black-owned book stores, and schmooz with the owners in the process of getting a few of my books on their shelves. Making a profit from these pursuits was rare. Equally sobering was how your friends and family humored you, never seeming to take your book writing as seriously as curious strangers did. Fast forward to today's technology of Word documents and PDF files, online domains and web sites for selling e-books and print- on-demand hard copies. You convince yourself that FaceBook will be a good source for sales. After all, look at the glut of traffic it attracts. Post a blurb here, and you're good to go. While waiting for the order of my latest novel to be filled, I went this route, and started plugging and promoting it on FaceBook. In response to my "Coming Soon" announcements, I received all kinds of "likes" and posts from "friends" expressing their interest in purchasing this book as soon as it was available. But once I had copies for sale, I found out this was all hype. When I decided to make the small supply of "The Only One" copies available by mail order until I could complete the process of getting it on Amazon, I realized that unless you make the purchase of books extremely convenient (and low-priced), you will not have much success with cyber customers carrying through on their promises. None of the FaceBookers gushing and congratulating and promising to purchase the book could be bothered with puying a stamp, writing a check and sending off their addresses in order to receive a copy of this book via snail mail. Poor old me, I was stuck in the 90s. Moreover, there's no guarantee that getting on Amazon will produce any better results. People really aren't that interested in reading books, especially the ones hangin out on FaceBook. Fortunately I knew better than to order more units than I could unload. Most of my sales have been one-on-one with acquaintances with whom I personally interact. Interesting enough the people most motivated to purchase my book are the ones I discourage by suggesting that it is not the kind of book they could relate to or that it is too racy. This seems to challenge them, and occasionally insult their intelligence. Now I use this as a ploy. Just some thoughts... One of these days on this site, I will provide a link to Amazon for anyone who is interested in purchasing my novel as an e-book or a hard copy one. But I won't hold my breath. Alas, writing is a lonely profession.