You've taken the plunge into the world of self-publishing. Maybe through Amazon's CreateSpace or Lulu -- it doesn't matter. What does matter now is that you need to spread word about your book so that people will look at it and, ultimately, buy it.

Most authors don't know or understand how to market their writing. After all, their writers, not marketers, and are more interested in starting on their next novel than trying to drive interest and sales in their last project. The Web, though, obliterates the difficulty of promotion, by offering several very powerful tools.

1. Blog About It: The single most effective way to get a fan base is to start a blog. Blog about the book you just published. Blog about your current or upcoming projects. Share excerpts of your projects so that people can see what it is you write, so that they can make an informed purchase of your book. Your blog should be your central hub to help build your "brand" as a writer. From here, you can link to the various online stories that sell your work.


2. Forums: There are several forums for writers, along with forums that are run by your self-publishing company. Use them -- read them often, post helpful contributions. Shamelessly plug your work, but never, ever spam. The best tool for this is to include a link back to your blog as your forum's signature, so that it will be displayed following every post. This should drive traffic back to your blog and then, in time, to the stores selling your book.


3. Read Author Blogs: Find authors that write in similar genres and read their blogs. Post relevant replies to their blogs, including a link back to your blog. Again, this is to drive the traffic back to your central hub and then to their online stores.


4. Social Networks: Facebook and MySpace get tons of daily traffic. Use that profile to have links to your publisher's online store, or back to your blog.

Selling a self-published book is a lot like selling any other online product. It is, in many respects, a numbers game. Without traffic, you won't have people's eyes on your written word. And without that, you won't get sales. Browsing for items on the Internet is not at all like browsing through the local book store. You can't hope that people will happen to find your book on Amazon, you need to grab their attention and then direct them over there.

Good luck with your book promotions, and build that fan base.