I think that the reality of the writing world can be extremely overwhelming for new authors. It takes a great deal of courage
to start writing in the first place. Finishing the text can take every ounce of commitment, time, and energy available. Once complete the new author finds out that the real work is about to begin: editing, trying to find a publisher who will publish the work, and then finally marketing. Of all of the steps in the publishing process, I think that marketing is the most challenging. Most first time authors assume that if they write it people will automatically flock to read it. The harsh truth is that if no one knows about the book, they can’t buy it. To make matters even worse spreading the word isn’t as easy as it would seem. Authors can spend thousands of dollars on publicity campaigns and not even break even. Plug Your Book is a good resource for new and not so new authors. The majority of the ideas detailed are low cost easy to do activities that any person can undertake. Many of these notions focus on making full use of the features of high density sites such as Amazon and Google as well as a variety of social networks such as Book Crossing, Library Thing, and MySpace. These kinds of connections are essential for word of mouth promotion.