"Being an author is 5% writing and 95% promotion." -Anonymous. Once you write your book, how are you going to tell people about it? The old adage, if you build it they will come doesn't work in publishing - just movies about baseball. What does work in publishing is marketing. Now many people hear the word marketing and shut down. Marketing is for sales people after all, right? Wrong. Marketing is simply telling people about your book. Read more to learn powerful, proven, marketing tools to sell your book and become a successful author.

Plain and simple, if you do not market your book then no one will know about it and no one will buy it, which makes writing it an incomplete exercise. If you truly want to make money and experience all of the benefits of becoming an author, you must market it

As promised, here are a few tried and true marketing tools

Advertising, particularly online advertising can be beneficial for gaining attention, if not leading directly to a sale. You can also consider buying ad space online with blogs or other websites that have a similar theme or subject matter as your book. Then all it takes is a click onto your website and a potential sale is made. Additionally, web advertisements can be much less expensive than print advertisements.

Publishing articles is a terrific way to gain credibility and attention for your book. Articles made available on free websites are an amazing way to drive traffic to your website. Posted articles are read by visitors, who then click to your website for more information. You can also query online and print publications with article ideas. You can write for businesses and organizations that share a similar subject matter. For example, if your book is about youth basketball coaching, then you could contact coaching associations to see if they're interested in including an article in their newsletter about dealing with difficult parents or motivating young players Book signings are required whether you self-publish or publish via traditional means. The key to a book signing is to make it an event

Attend conferences and trade shows that might have a similar subject matter. Again, you will want to present your book and topic in the most exciting and interesting light possible to gain an opportunity to sell your book

Community events and organizations. Many community events and organizations are starving to get speakers. You can give anywhere from 20 minute to 90 minute talks on your book and business which will bring you many leads and a good amount of long term customers who will be very eager for your information

Press releases are a very inexpensive way to get the word out about your book. You can send your release to media contacts and post it on the web. This makes it available to resources all over the world to reprint

These are just a few of the marketing options available to you. When you have a website, the marketing options available to you are limitless. Jumping in and tackling all of these marketing tools at once can be both time consuming and overwhelming. Instead, focus on one or two at a time to make sure your time and efforts are rewarded with book sales, which is after all the ultimate goal.