I know this is a lame blog post. But if you said to me, “My head shot was featured in a two-story display on Times Square. Should I share it on my blog?,” I would say to you, “Absolutely!”

I need to practice what I preach a little more . . . so here’s mine.

The giant mug shot on the Reuter’s Building in Times Square, New York City, on December 4 promoted the Twitter chat I did with ProfNet for its #ConnectChat series (read the recap online). It’s both fun and freaky at the same time, but I’m glad my friends at ProfNet sent me the photo so I could share it with my mother.

Keep at it

This kind of, um, “exposure,” didn’t happen by chance. It wasn’t a fluke. It’s not the result of “knowing the right people.”

It’s an outcome of my effort to stay focused on my goal, which is to help authors save money by learning how to do their own book publicity, promotion, and marketing. Sometimes something pulls me slightly off course, but because my goal is clear, I can always get back on track.

And I just keep working at it. I hope you will do the same thing with your book publicity. Just keep at it, even if all you give it is 30 minutes a week. I’m not saying it will get your book cover up on Times Square, but you might be surprised at where you end up. I sure was.

What are you doing this week to promote your book?

As you might imagine, it’s pretty hard to share everything you need to know in a tweet, so I’ve created this resource list with links to more detailed information. I hope it’s helpful.

• When should you start promoting your book?
• Where should authors start?
• Don’t publishers usually take care of promotions? (Scroll down a bit to get your answer.)
• How important is an author’s “platform?”
• What about social media? (Also, use the search box on the right to find more on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest)
• What about press releases? (Also check out this post on tip sheets, a type of press release.)
• How can authors use sites like Amazon and Goodreads? (Learn more about finding online reviewers on this post, too.)
• What key mistakes do authors make?

Thanks so much for joining us on the #ConnectChat, and thanks to ProfNet for hosting it! (Read the chat summary online.)