In this economy many authors are choosing the self promoting route. While most author promotions and book marketing experts don't recommend this, there's no doubt that there has been a increase in the self promoting author and especially those that have self published. If that's you, I encourage you to take the time and do your homework before jumping into the marketing arena. While it may seem easy, one soon finds out that it's not, few find success and it's very time consuming.
Yes you can build your own blog, but the question is do you know how to build and launch a successful blog and do you have the time to learn the process and everything surrounding that process? Yes you can join various author sites, interact with other authors, share your book, book cover and so on. However, are other authors your market? Yes there are some great authors forums out there, however, and once again is that where book lovers hang out or authors? Then there's the Internet, the search engines, key words, labels, how the search engines work and many other things to consider coupled with the fact that they are constantly changing and evolving.
My point being while all these things can be fun and a part of building a network while creating book buzz, they are and should be seen as secondary to a well thought out authors promotions and book marketing plan. Here is a simple author promotions and book marketing plan for the new and self published author. Let's call it class 101 for authors.
1) Have a professional authors web site built.
2) Get your own .com that fits your book and marketing plan.
3) Have someone with the knowledge build or help you build and launch a professional blog.
4) Create a network that promotes you, your book, your web site and your blog that markets and promotes you as a author and your book not to other authors, but to book lovers within your market and buying audience.
5) Understand that you will not become a overnight success, that it takes hard work and time.
That's simple, now get started.
Christian Book Marketing