Katharine --

Unfortunately, it's advertising (not "marketing") that tends to sell books. A lot of good research shows that taking out ads for a book (whether on Amazon or Facebook or elsewhere) gets results.

That's how James Patterson became the literary juggernaut he is: He was the first major author to insist that his publisher advertise his books on TV. Television ads are prohibitively expensive for most authors and even for a lot of well-established publishers. But things like Facebook ads and sponsored tweets are relatively inexpensive and do sell books.

The problem is that most authors--especially poets!--can't afford to pay for ads. So they hope to find something free (such as a social media strategy) that works as well. And, alas, this seems to be another case of "you get what you pay for."

I haven't seen a really good article on how and where to advertise your books for a minimum of dollars and a maximum of effect, or I'd give you a link. And I don't know anyone who could guide you.

But you might be able to turn up leads online if you searched for topics like "the most cost-effective ways to advertise your book." And I plan to look into this and maybe write about it here in the future. Thanks for your interest.

Jan