Dan Schawbel is a personal branding expert who is getting ready to launch his first book, Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success, in early April. He has written a series of several articles on his blog about his experiences getting his book published and organizing his publicity campaign.

Yesterday’s article is entitled “14 Book Marketing Ideas For Authors.” It has some helpful info for writers about to launch their own publicity campaigns. Schawbel considers the marketing of a book “just as important (if not more) as actually writing it.” As he points out, it’s especially important for new and lesser known authors to know how to promote themselves since the bulk of most publishing houses’ marketing budgets are dedicated to books that are a safe bet.

Schawbel talks about branding first, of course, and has three tips for building a book’s brand:

• 1. Before your book is published, start getting press on traditional news sources such as print media, and in trusted online news outlets like blogs affiliated with those print publications.
• 2. Get good endorsements for the book, particularly from celebrities and other recognizable names.
• 3. Find experts related to your book’s subject and collect quotes from them to include in the text.

Schawbel’s suggestions for a book marketing campaign include the usual suspects of starting a blog, using Twitter, and creating an author website. He gives specific examples for how to integrate these into your plan, however.

Some of his other suggestions for a book marketing campaign include:

• Speaking Engagements: Schawbel reminds us what many of us tend to forget these days: offline publicity and networking is as important as the online stuff. He speaks at college campuses to promote his own book.
• Guest Post on Blogs: In addition to running your own blog, it’s a good idea to be a guest on someone else’s blog. Ideally, be sure the content and audience jive with your book’s message. Guest posting is also a good way to practice for your own blog if you’re nervous about getting started. If you’re never going to get around to actually setting up your own blog and maintaining it properly, regularly providing guest content to a couple of popular blogs is better than not blogging at all.
• eBook/Bonus Material: It’s pretty much a given that authors need to put excerpts of their work online. Excerpt syndication can be a strong promotional tool. What better way to get someone interested than to give them a free trial?

Check out the rest of Schawbel’s suggestions at the source article linked below.

SOURCE: “Road to Me 2.0: 14 Book Marketing Ideas For Authors,” 02/23/09