This document discusses various self-marketing services that authors can use to promote their self-published books online. It identifies services like web design, email advertising, press releases, and video marketing that online book marketing companies offer. It emphasizes that while these tools are important, authors must also put in their own personal efforts through activities like maintaining their website, participating in social media, directly contacting press and industry contacts, and disseminating their materials widely. The document concludes that successfully marketing a self-published book requires utilizing available tools and the author's own active involvement.

1. Getting the Most in Self-marketing
Summary: Find out how acquiring self-marketing services can be expanded.
Due to technology’s rapid advancements, there’s no task quite impossible these days.
According to New York Times article which dated June 16, 2007, “Sales on the Internet
are expected to reach $116 billion this year, or 5 percent of all retail sales.... Analysts
project that by 2011, online sales will account for nearly 7 percent of overall retail
sales, though categories like computer hardware and software generate more than 40
percent of their sales on the Internet.” No wonder why the World Wide Web has been
the favorite venue of every self-published author who aims to generate great market for
their books. One third of the planet is glued to the cyber world – that’s a lot of
prospective readers to catch.
There are numerous online book marketing companies that offer services to self-
published authors. These online book marketing companies offer a line up of tools to
equip self-published authors in getting their books on to the marketing play, primary
services like web design, e-mail advertisement, media release, video marketing, and a
whole lot more. Self-published authors can very well make use of these efficient tools to
jumpstart marketing their books. However, self-published authors must understand that
marketing tools and services works hand in hand with personal efforts too.
Acquiring a splendid website design service is a big step in marketing one’s book.
Owning a corner on the web gives every author the opportunity to showcase a lot of
details regarding their book and about the author himself but as that famous comic book
cliché goes, “with great power, comes great responsibility”. Maintenance and updates are
vital. Readers are always eager for fresh and new details. Comments and hints of
appreciation are always helpful to generate proactive relationships among the visitors of
the site and the readers. Participation and connection to social networking sites will
surely sustain web traffic to the site. The power of online relationships can never be
underestimated.
Email advertisements are also one of the many efficient ways to disseminate information
about a book. It directly penetrates the email inboxes of prospective readers. One may
send from a hundred to millions of email advertisments. A small budget will not stop an
author generate multiple e-mail advertisements. Apart from the acquired service,
authors can forward e-mail ads to their own list of personal contacts. The author can also
ask the personal list of contacts to forward it too. Through this, it can generate
information dissemination at no extra cost, just extra effort. Email advertisements can
also be posted on author’s social networking sites, especially on the blog page section. “A
third of the population has reviewed something online, and any of those reviews can be
read by millions of people” according to Andy Sernovts, CEO of Word of Mouth
Marketing Association. Written reviews about an email advertisement campaign can
gather ideas and suggestions that are helpful for upcoming book marketing campaigns. It
leads to a room for improvement. Complete.com shares its top five social networking
sites. These are namely: Facebook.com, Myspace.com, Twitter.com, Flixter.com, and
Linkedin.com. It is also important to use suitable and appropriate social marketing sites
for book marketing campaigns.
Press releases are powerful and it can generate major “buzz” for marketing books. But
again, personal efforts and initiative makes a lot of difference. Apart from acquiring a

2. press release with a limited number of recipients, authors can personally send press
releases to more publishing firms. The internet has lists of PR firm directories which
authors can use to send out more copies of their press releases. Examples of these are:
gebbieinc.com, pr.com and publicrelations.uk.com. The press is always busy that’s why
consistent follow-ups are always an extra plus for press releases to be printed.
Book trailers can easily capture the reader’s attention through audio and visual impact. It
makes books stand out in a crowd. However, productions of book trailers are quite
expensive. That is why personally re-producing copies of book trailers is a clever move.
There are sites that upload videos for no charge; examples are YouTube.com,
DailyMotion.com, VideoWebTown.com, Veoh.com, and PhotoBucket.com. Video
uploads will eat much time, so a better way to broadcast book trailers is posting its
embedded codes on social networking sites. This can generate comments and
discussions which add more buzz to the marketing campaign.
The success of self-marketing books does not merely rely upon the perfect mix of
marketing tools and services that have been used. Authors must be actively involved in
the game. Authors must make efforts and have the initiative in molding their books
market into a victory. Extra little efforts will help pump up every book’s marketing
proficiency.