I’m rapidly discovering that being a first-time self-published author is a case of having to deal with one frustration after another.

The latest is the realisation that I can do Amazon Ads after all, when the evidence suggested I couldn’t. If you recall, last time I went at this it was the lack of a VAT Number that had me going down a dead-end street. Well, I’ve since discovered that I can go ahead with Amazon Ads without a VAT Number! Arrrgh!

I don’t know how I missed it, but I did. In my defence, the way the Kindle Direct Publishing site is laid out, it gives Newbie Authors, or at least Newbie Authors like me, the impression that you need a VAT Number, when the truth is you don’t. Thanks, Amazon.

Hint: Nothing will ever be harder than when you do it for the first time.

Which means I’ll need to find the now-deleted Kindlepreneur Amazon Ads Course email from my “Deleted Items” folder and go at it again. Thanks, Amazon.

As for the Ads themselves?

Well, I now have two Ebooks that I can advertise, as the Fan Film book is now on pre-order and goes Live on Friday the 13th [!]. So with A Fan Film Adventure In Space And Time! and The Next Prime Minister both available for 99p, the question is whether Ads are worth doing at all right now.

The reason for that? The royalty rate I get for the 99p price point will, in all probability, be less than the cost of the ad to promote it!

The plan as far as pricing goes is to increase the price of the Ebooks when the paperback versions come out. So while I can certainly go ahead with the rest of the Kindlepreneur course to get a handle on how you do all this ads stuff, I doubt I’ll actually be running any until the paperbacks come out.

And that’s a whole load of other frustrations altogether!