I’m often asked which of my most current publishing/marketing books I would recommend to authors. To refresh your memory, they are Publish Your Book, Promote Your Book and Talk Up Your Book. It might be a good idea to order all three as they sort of play off of one another—one picks up where the other leaves off, but they do overlap a bit, too. Here’s my general rule of thumb:
• Read and study Publish Your Book if you are new to publishing—just starting to write your first book or even thinking about writing one. If you have written your book and have not taken any time out to learn something about how the publishing industry works, what book promotion is all about, etc., start by studying Publish Your Book. It explains today’s publishing industry, it lays out your publishing options and helps you to determine which is the best one for you. One of the most popular aspects of this book is where I give you the pros and cons of each publishing option. I give you a time-line if you want to publish your book yourself. And this book includes an entire section on book promotion.
• Promote Your Book focuses totally on book promotion, offering over 250 ideas, tips, techniques provided by me (from my 40-years experience and study) as well as from other professionals and successful authors. If you plan to produce a book for publication, you MUST read Promote Your Book. It will help you to write a better book for a more well-defined audience. It will give you the tools and understanding to create a reasonable marketing plan. Keep it at your elbow throughout the writing and marketing process as a guide and reference into the highly competitive, intense world of book promotion.
• Talk Up Your Book is for the author who needs a more beefed up marketing plan that involves a lot of public speaking, radio interviews and so forth. It is also for the author who is too meek to go out and speak—who has noodle knees. This is your complete lesson plan for using your personality to sell books and it’s brought to you by around 2-dozen professionals and successful authors.
All of these books are in print, digital and audio at Amazon.com and most other online and downtown bookstores. You can also order them here: http://www.matilijapress.com