You’ve spent a year writing your book, spent money on an editor to proofread it and a designer to create a book cover, then spent a week or two taking it through the publishing process. And now, after all of that hard work, your book – your labor of love – is available for purchase with its own page on Amazon.com and able to be ordered at your local Barnes and Noble.

All you have to do now is sit back and wait for fame and fortune to roll in.

Unfortunately, you may be waiting a very long time.

It’s the rare book that somehow goes virulent and captures the public’s attention and admiration all on its own. Indeed, more than 900 books are published daily in just the United States alone, so no matter how good yours is, the odds of it even being noticed are nil at best.

The reality is that indie authors and those who self-publish need to market their own books.

For most authors, the idea of marketing their book is anathema. Marketing for many writers means using guilt and fear to convince people to buy a product. Even for those authors who don’t hold such a view, they probably never studied marketing and have no idea of how to begin such an effort.

But the reality is that unless you’re satisfied with your book languishing in anonymity, you need a marketing plan. You’ll need to send press releases to media outlets. You’ll need a website and probably a blog to inform people about your book. You’ll need to do some book signings, some book readings, maybe some radio interviews. You may need to make some business cards and even advertise.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.