I’ve been thinking a lot about marketing when it comes to books. Truth be told, I think about this subject all the time! I’m always keeping my eyes open for ways to get the word out about my books. After all, you need to market your books (and yourself) in order to connect with readers. With all the books published in a year, readers simply cannot find you without marketing.

Lately two things have stirred my marketing juices. One started with a question from a new writer about how to market his book. I went into great detail in answering his question, so much so that I ended up writing an article about the subject shortly after. I’m happy to report that “Marketing a Book – Tools and Resources (Inexpensive Promotion Tips for Authors)” just won an editor’s choice award from Suite101.

I create a marketing plan for each book before I publish it, and sometimes even before I write it. Since up until now I’ve written poetry and nonfiction, this has worked very well for me. After all, my goal is not only to indulge my creative muse but also to sell books. Here’s the problem that many writers have, they write for themselves and never for their reader. I agree that you should write for yourself, but once you make the decision to publish, you should know who your readers are. You have to, otherwise you will have a very hard time finding them.

I’ve also been thinking about marketing these days because of M.J. Rose’s Buzz Your Book class. This class has opened my eyes to all kinds of ways to market a book! I thought I knew about marketing before, but this class has really added to it. Best of all, we get feedback each week from M.J. when we turn in our assignments. Love that. I would also recommend reading M.J. and Doug Clegg‘s Buzz Your Book, which is a companion to this class. Even if you are a whiz at marketing, the class can spur your creative juices on new ways to get the word out.

The ironic part is that I’m doing this class for my novel, For Those Who Knew Zach, which has yet to be published. You could say that I want to be “ready to go” once I have the go ahead from an agent and publisher. (How’s that for positive thinking?)