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From a reader and prospective buyer's point of view I can only speak for myself. I prefer illustrated cover designs as opposed to those with real people posing on them. What I immediately check out is the book's synopsis. This tells me all i want to know. How well and concise it is written indicates to me whether the author has skills. But the book's subject matter is what ultimately determines whether or not I want to buy it.. A long author's bio that reads like a resume is also a red flag because it is usually more than I want to know. I have had results in unloading books by simply having a few copies readily available for the people who, when they know or find out that I am an author, are curious about this. If they immediately have a copy of the book in their hands and there's chance of getting it autographed, they will buy it if the price is no more than $10.00. Bottom line, I don't think a book cover and a lot of promotion can turn a non reader into a reader. Exposure may catch the eye of avid readers but they still gravitate toward well known authors. Fortunately for me, writing books has never been a profit driven venture. Actually, I guess that's unfortunate for me. LOL

Good post Troy. I gotta say, it feel weird to post on the site again. I haven't posted here since the Thumper's Corner days. I agree with most of what you said here. There are three things I'd like to add: If you're going to place a display ad (picture ad) on a website, try your best to have your ad include a call to action. A picture of a cover alone doesn't necessarily convince a prospective customer to click through. For the same sized ad as just a book cover, you can shrink picture so that you can some text. Text could include the words, "Click here to buy," or "Save 32% Today Only," or "Download the 1st chapter." Give prospective customers a reason to engage with your ad. Secondly, impressions are SO overrated. They simply mean that the page was loaded. There is no guarantee that your ad was seen (the user could have pictures turned off on her browser) or the reader could be so engaged in other content that she didn't even notice your ad. If you can help it, don't pay for impressions, pay for clicks. And make sure the publisher is someone you can trust. They could have a trained monkey clicking on your ads and draining your bank account. Your display ad should have one of three objectives: 1. Create a prospect to advertise to at a later date. Getting a prospect to sign up for your e-newsletter is a great way to accomplish this goal. You get permission to advertise to him. He gets more and more familiar with your brand. And he could become a guaranteed sale for future purchases, like sequels or merchandise related to your book. 2. Get the prospect to engage with your brand. Giving a potential buyer access to your first chapter, a video of you speaking at an event, or even an e-book download can accomplish this. You cannot achieve #1 or #2 if you send your prospective readers directly to an online bookstore. 3. Conversion, better known as a purchase. While getting the prospect to buy something might seem to be the obvious goal, you could lose the opportunity to upsell and cross-sell to this new customer when he goes directly to Amazon to buy your book. This is why it is crucial that authors maintain a website or at least a free blog. If you have a website, you can install a free tool like Google Analytics and see where your traffic is coming from. You can't do that with a free blog. And when you send your potential customers directly to Amazon, they're not sharing that customer's valuable information. But that's information you could use to sell him more now or in the future. I'm encouraged that some indie authors are at least spending some money on advertising. I see the ads all the time on sites like this one. I remember when most self-pubbed authors budgeted just enough for the production of their books. After that, their strategy was all about word-of-mouth, luck, and hope. Now more indie authors are starting to realize they need to compete with larger publishers and better-known authors. Advertising is a way to do that.