Creating Books and Buzz — ready to take the plunge?

It’s not like promoting a book didn’t demand a heck of a lot of effort from book authors before. There was always the legwork of book tours, finding individuals and organizations willing to recommend your book to others, putting on ancillary events. But if individual effort was part of the package then, it’s tenfold now.

That’s not a bad thing. For your efforts, you actually get a book published, sometimes with just a three-day turnaround. Your book may lack some of the touches of custom formatting or be published without the benefit of more professional review, but you’ll get it out there, giving you authorship and a good many of the services traditional publishing affords.

For some guidance on this topic, check out 5 Great Services for Self-Publishing Your Book where there is some great information about the major differences among the various services, the new terms promulgated by these publishers, as well as common standards for payment/royalty rates. Self-Publishing 2.0, a blog with some entertaining Youtube videos, concentrates exclusively on POD (print on demand) topics, and provides readers with insight into the hot topics of the self-publishing world. Writers and Editors focuses on both traditional and non-traditional publishing formats, sharing good information about the writer’s circuit with discussion of the POD field as well. And SelfPublishingResources.com offers up the latest trends, some of which can further your thinking about marketing as well.

Which brings me back to the original reason for writing this blog. Once you’re self-published, generating that buzz now falls squarely in your lap as author. AuthorBuzz does a solid job of revealing what actually makes for good “viral effect”, the spread of activities that will spur people to either promote you or be involved with your creation. For example, one suggestion is to buzz readers, booksellers & librarians that you do phone calls with book groups.  It’s a novel idea, and a double value strategy for getting promoted AND getting connected directly to potential readers.  Since every creative professional can benefit from sharing their expertise, self-publishing is an opportunity with the promise of some very enticing returns.

2 Responses to “Creating Books and Buzz — ready to take the plunge?”

1. BookWhirl.com says:

   October 14, 2009 at 5:20 am

   I much appreciate the rich information about this post. Thanks for pointing a number of justifications on extending efforts on promoting and marketing books. By the way, the link on the 3rd paragraph is broken. Thought you must be informed about it. Keep on posting!

   Sincerely,
   BookWhirl.com | You have the book…We have the Marketing Resources.
2. el says:

   December 12, 2009 at 1:02 am

   Thank you for pointing this out! I’ve been away from it a while but I appreciate your feedback and will check your group out as well.