Success is relative, I guess. There are plenty of people (experts?) out there who make their fortune selling secrets to success books to writers. There really are no magic wands to marketing books. There are basic marketing strategies that one can learn in business school. The things that I do, won't always work for someone else because I inject a lot of personality into my projects. I'm as much of a commodity as my books.

Take my recent 4 week long blog party where 19 authors from the US, UK, France, and Canada gave away 31 autographed books. We had visitors from 57 countries. We covered non-fiction, Self-Help, Mainstream, Pre-reader/toddler, Young Adult, Thriller, Memoir, SciFi, Audio Book, Lesbian, Historical Fiction genres. Not everyone could pull that off. The point is, know your audience and be yourself in your marketing, don't be desperate or too pushy.

BTW, the blog party book launches this week.

FiledBy Author Helen Gallagher has a really great blog called Pajama Marketing for Authors http://pajamamarketing.wordpress.com/ . One of her main concepts is the following: your book stops selling when you stop selling it! I think this is a very important bit of information for self-published authors. Traditional publishing houses serve to constantly marketing and promote a book, but if you are a one-person team, it is your job to market and promote your book....you must wear many hats! Nadine--thanks for joining in the conversation--as a highly successful self-published Author you have been there and done it and have solid marketing ideas that really work!

The problem is that first time writers arrive on the scene and think, I've written a book everyone will love and it will results in books in bookstore. That is about as reasonable as me knocking on the door at NASA and thinking I can be an astronaut because I like SciFi movies.

The publishing industry is unbelievably complex. Anyone wanting a shot at one of the 6 major NY publishers must lay aside the list of fiction they want to read and read EVERYTHING they can about the craft and the industry.

People can get published through POD companies with nearly zero understanding of writing or the industry. I'm an Indie writer, but 'Indie' isn't for everyone and it is certainly more work and responsibility than finding a lit agent and going the traditional route - either way, ignorance doesn't spell success.

Um, in 50 words or less, no. I'd say most novice fiction writers want to have their books on the front table of a major chain bookstore. If that is the case, it is called traditional publishing. I'm not much for the NFL, but for example, it would be like an unknown, small stature person as a walk on and thinking they will be the starter quarterback. Or, the same deal for auditions of a Broadway play. That said, it isn't impossible but mediocre understanding of the craft or the industry isn't going to get you there.

I would like to jump start this group by asking a question to all the FiledBy Authors out there....can you speak to the difference between traditional and self-publishing your work and when or who would want to do one over the other?