With book coverage in print and newspaper sales declining, authors and publishers must extend their reach to the Internet if they want to boost book sales and publicity. Furthermore, authors are more involved in marketing their books than in the past as publishers can’t or won’t do enough.

Print publications still play a valuable role in books’ lives though the Internet offers many other advantages for promoting books:

• No need to rely on battery power, electricity, or a working Internet connection to read print.
• People leave finished copies of printed resources in doctor’s offices, coffee shops, and other public places for others to pick up.
• No shut down needed upon flight take off and landing.
• No taking it out of your carry on or briefcase to get through airport security.
• Fewer distractions and information noise as you don’t have links and animation enticing you away from your reading.
• Knowing where something starts and ends. The Internet consists of connected pages making it easy for someone to jump from page to page endlessly.
• Just open and read. No booting up, waiting for loading applications and pages, signing on…

Authors and publishers need to make the Internet their partner in marketing books. The Internet offers the following benefits:

• Cheap: It costs as little as $5 a month to have a Web site and $0 for a page on sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Bookhitch. Plus, add the book to your e-mail and discussion board signature for noticing when people read your e-mails and posts.
• Search: Search engines and Web sites help people find books on topics of interest.
• Access: Contact reviewers and bloggers who cover your book’s topic offering to send them a review copy. Also contact sites that publish book reviews like BlogCritics. The Internet also provides a great way to connect with reading groups. Many reading groups invite members to submit questions for the author to respond or hold a conversation online through chat or a Web-based application.
• Network: Forums, online groups, and social networks allow you to connect and interact with potential readers and reviewers.
• Link: Contribute articles to article libraries, online magazines, and other online resources where you can have a byline that links to your Web site or book ordering page.

Start or boost online book marketing with help from the following resources:

• Steve Weber, author of Plug Your Book!, walks the talk with his blog and Myspace page on this topic.
• Christopher Diggins’ Marketing Your Book Online guide
• 101 Book Marketing Sites
• BookSistah Blog often covers book marketing. Sophfronia Scott also has book and writing articles in EzineArticles.
• SalesRankExpress has a tool for checking a book’s Amazon sales rank.
• Future Perfect Publishing blog often covers book marketing.
• 27 ways to sell more books doesn’t focus on online book marketing, but authors can integrate its tips with online marketing.

Authors can’t rely solely on their publishers to do the marketing for their book especially self-publishers. They need to take it in their own hands and the Internet simplifies the task. However, are authors making full use of the Internet? Plug Your Book! is a checklist complete with instructions so authors ensure they explore every potential book promotion resource.

The book’s introduction gives good advice on how to use this book. Make a copy of the table of contents and cross off each item as you do them or pass over them. To be thorough, read the book and decide which methods work best.

As a frequent book reviewer, I’ve seen successful authors rely on many of the tactics covered in this book. Book marketing goes beyond using Amazon, blogs and your own web site. Weber shows how to get more mileage from these resources and points to others like social networks, search engines, and tags.

Creating an account in MySpace may be obvious to most. Some tips Weber offers for making MySpace work for you including making the right friends, managing your top eight pictures, and paying extra attention to specific parts of the profile. He provides detailed advice so there’s no confusion on what to do.

The Internet makes it easy for authors and publishers to use other identities in posting positive book reviews and buying books to boost the book’s rank. Weber briefly addresses the ethics of marketing books online.

Authors and Internet pros who know about most of the resources covered in the book will benefit because of its organization, scannable contents, readability and conciseness. Plug Your Book! succeeds in ensuring the author makes the most of every opportunity and resource.

Title: Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors
Author: Steve Weber
Publisher: Weber Books
ISBN: 0977240614
Date: February 1, 2007
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 208
Cover Price: USD: $24.99 Amazon: $18.99

So many article libraries and content directories exist for the purpose of providing free content for publishers in search of articles for their own publications or web sites. These offer you the opportunity to get your name out there, establish yourself as an expert and thought-leader, and link back to your web site or resources like a book you’ve written.

You don’t have to limit yourself to these article libraries. Contact publishers of email newsletters, blogs, web site and other content that are appropriate for your articles’ subject matter. Don’t just contact anyone out there. After I published the last issue of eNewsletter Journal (in which the editorial clearly said it was the last issue), I continued to get article submissions and they weren’t even right for my audience. Many focused on money making schemes whereas my newsletter was focused on building relationships through online marketing.

If these folks had read my newsletter, they would’ve wrote a note along the lines of “I’m sorry to see your newsletter go. Here’s an article that might fit with the new newsletter…” and of course, the article should match the content.

Another route is to join a network of bloggers who post articles. Blogcritics is one example. I often post book reviews there as well as the occasional video review. The site contains a diversity of high quality articles that are editor-approved before publishing and a very nice-sized traffic to go with it.

The most important thing to remember: Avoid blatant self-promotion. People easily recognize it and you’re likely to lose credibility.

I believe the following make for a strong and successful library because these features encourage more submissions:

* Save byline – So you don’t have to enter your byline (bio) every time you enter an article. Better yet, save multiple bylines so you can select the right one based on the article.

* Accept text AND HTML in the same box — all you would need to do is click a box if you’re using HTML. It’s time consuming to convert the article to the other format.

* Accept unlimited articles in one session.

* Allow at least two links in byline.

These are the best article libraries based on others and my humble opinions:

www.ezinearticles.com
www.ideamarketers.com
www.goarticles.com
www.article-host.com
www.articlecity.com

The list (Know another? Leave a comment. I add more as I come across them):

chinese-school.netfirms.com/submit-business-article.html
finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Free_eContent/
groups.yahoo.com/group/aabusiness
groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce
groups.yahoo.com/group/articles_archive
groups.yahoo.com/group/articles4you2use4promotion/
groups.yahoo.com/group/free-content
groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Reprint-Articles
groups.yahoo.com/group/freezinecontent/
groups.yahoo.com/group/netwrite-publish-announce/
sbinformation.about.com/library/blsubmission.htm
store.bellyandbeyond.com/yhst-4403591833340/submitarticle.html
www.a1articles.com
www.activeauthors.com
www.addme.com
www.addme.com/index.htm
www.allbusiness.com/Article_Submit/submit.asp
www.amazines.com
www.amrithallan.com
www.article99.com
www.ArticleDashboard.com
www.articledestination.com/
www.articlefinders.com/
www.articlegeek.com.
www.articlehound.com 
www.articlepros.com
www.articlestop.com/
www.articlesubmit.com
www.article-treasure.com
www.bestmanagementarticles.com
www.boconline.com/sub-art.shtml
www.bpubs.com/
www.businessknowhow.com
www.business-opportunity.biz/addarticle.php
www.businesstoolchest.com/articles/submit.shtml
www.clearviewpublications.com
www.clickforcontent.com
www.commoncontent.org
www.connectionteam.com/submit.html
www.constant-content.com/
www.digital-women.com/submitarticle.htm
www.ebooksnbytes.com/articles/submit.shtml
www.ebusinesshelpsite.com/Articles/submit-article.htm
www.ecademy.com
www.executivecoachingstudio.com
www.family-content.com
www.free-articles-zone.com
www.freelancewriting.com
www.freesticky.com
www.freesticky.com/stickyweb/
www.goarticles.com
www.home-based-business-opportunities.com
www.homebiztools.com
www.internationalpractice.com/business/
www.internetbasedmoms.com/submission_guidelines.htm
www.iSnare.com
www.justarticles.com
www.makingprofit.com
www.MarketingArticleLibrary.com
www.marketing-seek.com
www.MarketingSwap.com
www.marketingwords.com
www.mbnet.com/article_add_form.asp
www.MyFamilyLiving.com
www.optimizemag.com/mediakit/contribute.jhtml
www.powerhomebiz.com
www.salessuccessmagazine.com
www.searchwarp.com/Login.asp
www.selling-it.com/Add_article.htm
www.smallbusinessoutpost.com/
www.submityourarticle.com
www.theallineed.com
www.theezine.net
www.thewhir.com/find/articlecentral/
www.tigrafix.com/articles/submission.htm
www.topten.org/
www.toupin.com
www.virtual-professionals.com/articles.shtml
www.webmasterslibrary.com/articles/
www.webpronews.com
www.web-source.net/articlesub.htm
www.workoninternet.com
www.worldwidefreelance.com
www.writerswrite.com
www.zinos.com/