I’m so sorry your second ad attracted so many trolls. But I’d be willing to bet it also attracted more of the readers you were looking for.

In a way, this sort of illustrates a point I try to make about people promoting their writing. If the title and image clearly work together to tell a story, then many more people are likely to click and read.

I get a little frustrated sometimes editing P&P when people submit stories with vague titles that don’t work together at all with the photo to tell potential readers what the story is about.

I might even spend more time talking to writers about that than about the mechanics of their writing.

But maybe you have touched upon a good rule of thumb. If your title and image aren’t enough to stir up the trolls, then your title and image aren’t enough to find readers.