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Plug Your Book

Written by: Andy Marken

Article Overview: Maybe you're not ready to write the next great global novel but if you want to learn how to leverage the Internet and Web 2.0, we'd suggest you check the book out. And it's one of the first we have seen that you can try before you buy!

Plug Your Book

Plug Your Book – Steve Weber, Weber Books, www.weberbooks.com, www.plugyourbook.com; ISBN-10 0977240614; 208 p, February 2007; $18.95


Reviewed by G.A. “Andy” Marken
President
Marken Communications Inc.
andy@markencom.com


We did two things with Mr. Weber’s book:
1. we read it
2. we gave our review copy to a friend who had just had a book published and was lamenting the fact that the publisher wasn’t doing anything to promote his book

We admire individuals who have had the fire-in-the-gut to sit down and do the disciplined job of writing a book – factual, fiction, how-to, historical, whatever. It is a monumental task. The problem – based on talking with a dozen who have undertaken and completed the task – is that once the effort is completed publishers seem to come up short unless the book is by someone of fame or infamy.

We admit that is a blanket statement and subject to criticism by the publishing industry. In the business/trade industry (the area we are most familiar with) the Dummies series, Reilly Books and TimesWarner do a good job of publicizing and promoting many of their titles.

But the fact is for the individual who has poured his or her words onto the computer screen, the effort never seems to be enough. There is always that unrealistic belief that once the book is complete the world will rush out, buy and embrace the work as a major contribution.

Simply doesn’t happen!

So books like Plug Your Book! are something you’ll probably want to invest in and read after you have completed your writing endeavor.

Weber builds his entire campaign for you to learn from – and for his own book – around viral marketing techniques. He does an outstanding job of explaining how authors can go around today’s conventional publishers and take advantage of today’s Internet and Web 2.0 social networking avenues to gain visibility and credibility for their work.

Weber has taken the next step in book publishing by offering his work using the two-pronged distribution approach of selling hard copies through conventional bookstores and also offering it over the Internet using POD (print-on-demand).

We have no desire to write a book ourselves but if you do, we’d strongly suggest you read Weber’s book early on in the process so you can gain visibility, credibility and perhaps even sales.

If you’re not going to write the next fiction or nonfiction top 10 book, we’d still advise that you read Plug Your Book! because Weber gives you an outstanding education into the world of the Internet and how you can leverage it to promote your products, your concepts, your causes.

We gained some excellent ideas from the book that our people are using to help promote clients by encouraging grassroots reviews and articles on client products with such outlets as Amazon, MySpace, YouTube and other review/commentary outlets.

Building 1:1 and 1:many buzz on the Internet is always a challenge and Weber does an excellent job of explaining what it is, how it works and how you can leverage it to your advantage. The author has an unusually clear understanding of promotion on the Internet and how to make the most of online publicity.

Plug Your Book! may have been written specifically to help budding authors reach the broadest possible audience to sell more books but he also did business, industry and cause publicists a huge favor. He clearly and concisely gives the reader an understanding of how he or she can make the most of publicity on the internet.

If you have the desire and discipline to write a book – fiction, nonfiction, technical or business – and want to ensure it is exposed to and made available to the widest possible audience you need to learn how to use the Internet and Web 2.0 to your advantage.

Plug Your Book! is a great place to start and if you’re interested in trying before you buy, visit www.plugyourbook.com.

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