Using a Web site for book marketing and author publicity

This year, 150,000 authors will finish their masterpiece, but most of them will be horribly disappointed with their sales -- only about one-third of new titles sell more than 100 copies. Most books fail in the marketplace simply because they never had a chance -- nobody ever heard about them.

Bottom line: word of mouth is the only thing that can make a book really successful. And that has always been the Catch 22: how can a new writer without a track record not only get into print, but get people excited about the book?

At last, there's something authors can do: use online communities, social networking, and blogs to ignite word of mouth, Internet-powered. Today the last barrier to writing success is gone: Anyone with the skills to write a good book can to publicize it worldwide -- easily, economically, and effectively.

Internet publicity isn't the only way to promote your book, but it's a great way to start -- it can open doors you never dreamed of. The real value of online publicity is that it endures, and leads to more publicity, the kind that canÂ’t be bought. More than ever, journalists and producers of radio and TV programs use the Internet to find expert commentators and new story ideas.

But Internet book publicity won't help a poor book. Your book needs to be strong, because your competitors are online too.

Online word of mouth depends on an educated consumer. You're asking the reader to help promote your book, and this requires a very good book, according to your target audience. Thanks to online communities, it gets easier all the time to sell good products, but it's getting harder to sell mediocre ones. Word gets around.

Bad word of mouth will hurt your sales. Great marketing only helps a bad book fail faster.