Most published writers will admit that there is no secret formula for writing a winning query letter, however, many professionals can share some basic suggestions to help new writers formulate a query that will sell their story idea.

I can think of four simple guidelines to follow for building good query letters.

1) Capture The Editor’s Attention

You must develop original ideas that will stimulate editors almost immediately. Proposals have to provide something out of the ordinary, a unique angle, a new approach or a different view of the common, over-publicized topics that editors and readers are tired of seeing.

Think about how your article can offer innovative insight, inspiring material, or contrasting views of well-worn subjects. You probably have less than a minute to spark the interest of most editors, who receive hundreds of similar pitches every week. Make yours stand out from the rest!

2) Be Concise But Explicit

Eliminate fluff. Use action verbs and effective nouns to explain exactly why your idea will appeal to their readers and add quality to their publication. Give adequate details without going overboard.

Tell the editor why you want to write the article, why he should care about your topic and how you plan to deliver your completed work (estimated deadline and approximate word count etc.)

3) Know The Market

You can spend hours constructing the perfect query letter, but if you send it to the wrong publication, your efforts will probably be wasted and your idea rejected.

The most obvious way to gain knowledge of any market - that many writers may overlook - is to read the publication. I mean really read it. Don’t just browse article titles or skim the written words. Spend some serious time reading what other writers have written and learning about what the readers seem to prefer.

Most publications will provide writers with printed submission guidelines. Request this information and follow it completely. Some editors will toss a query in the trash immediately if it is not written according to their specified format or if it does not include the information required for submission.

4) Be Professional

Consider your competition. If an editor opens one envelope that contains a hand-written, sloppy, wrinkled letter on yellow notebook paper and another envelope that has a type-written, clean, easy to read letter printed on quality paper, it’s not difficult to figure out which letter will be more impressive and more likely to appeal to the editor.

It’s just like going on an interview - you never get a second chance to make a first impression!

Crafting a Creative Query

Paragraph One - The Hook

Your first sentence counts more than you can imagine. Make it informative, interesting, and honest!

Examples:

1 - Start with a question that will fascinate the editor so much that she feels the need to read on just to find out your answer. (How many professional anglers catch hypodermic needles and other fishy items in their nets each week?)

2 - Use a shocking or uncommon statistic to lure the editor into your letter. (Although many national news sources reported that suicide among teenage girls increased dramatically by more than 35% last year, did you know that more than half of those 5,000 young girls were raised without a father for most of their childhood?)

Paragraph Two - The Specifics

Who cares about your idea? Who will be effected by your article? What will your story reveal that hasn’t already been reported? Why is your idea perfect for this particular publication? When can you deliver it? How many words? Who will you interview? What about background, statistics, historical references? Research your topic. Give them the facts accurately, quickly, honestly and persuasively.

Paragraph Three - Your Credentials

Why are you the person to write this article? Where have your writings been published in the past? What similar subjects have you written about? What makes you different, special, unique?

Paragraph Four - The Closing

Thank the editors. Suggest a follow-up contact time. Offer to provide any further details, answer their questions or clarify your query at their convenience. Thank them again and tell them how much you look forward to talking with them within the next two weeks - month - whatever you feel is appropriate (refer to their submission guidelines for tips on this information - they usually provide writers with an estimated response time.)

For more ideas on writing query letters that will sell your work, see the Articles on this page http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art1821.asp

Good Luck!

Go research and then go write some query letters.

Do not expect overnight success and do not be disappointed by the inevitable

rejection letters you will receive.

Do be persistent, focused and positive. Do keep sending queries! You have to start

somewhere and it’s hard to get published if nobody hears about your great ideas!

Resource Box - © Danielle Hollister (2004) is the Publisher of BellaOnline Quotations Zine - A free newsletter for quote lovers featuring more than 10,000 quotations in dozens of categories like - love, friendship, children, inspiration, success, wisdom, family, life, and many more. Read it online at - http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art8364.asp

Suspense novels, unlike any other genre, need fast starts. Fans of suspense novels or their close relatives, thrillers, detective stories and mysteries, expect a fast-paced read. These suspense fans want that pace to begin immediately. So, if you want to create marvelous, fast-paced suspense novels, follow this one simple rule.

If your goal is to pen successful suspense novels, you will likely have a killer or some type of conspirator in your story. Your protagonist is likely running from the killer or is trying to unravel the conspiracy. In order to have your suspense novels hit the ground running, have either a tragic event in the opening chapter or have your protagonist involved in something dangerous.

Let me offer an example, using one of my own suspense novels. In The League, a group of people are trying to bring down someone or a group of people harming professional athletes. In order to get fans of suspense eager to read the rest of the novel, I decided to have an attack on a player in chapter one. So, instead of working on building characters and setting or something else, as some suspense writers do, I get immediately to the action that gives suspense novels the pace that they need to keep readers turning the pages.

So, when you sit down to begin the first of what will hopefully be many best-selling suspense novels, be sure you hit the ground running. Give your suspense novel the pace that your reader wants.

Mark Barnes is a novelist, sports writer and writing coach. He is the author of the novel, The League, a shocking, sports-related conspiracy, published by DNA Press. His next novel, Troon, a suspense/thriller about a golfer fighting for his life while trying to win a 5 million-dollar secret tournament at Royal Troon in Scotland, is currently in production. Learn more about Mark Barnes and his work at http://www.sportsnovels.com. Once there, pre-order his unique suspense/thriller, The League, and have it delivered right to your doorstep.

Writing articles is by far the most effective online promotion strategy I’ve come across. If you can write good, readable, original content, you can easily put yourself far ahead of the pack in your field of interest.

But article marketers and new article writers are often stumped for topics to write about. Finding topics that appeal to your readers can be time-consuming but well worth the effort.

Here are no less than eight awesome ways to research your market and find newsy topics that attract loads of traffic and the interest of your target audience.

1. Keyword Research Tools

To write an article that will get you a significant amount of traffic, you need to write about topics that people are searching for.

You also want to know which terms your target audience uses while searching, so you can use them in your article title and copy and increase the chance of being found by search engines.

Two excellent keyword research tools you should always use to research article topics are Wordtracker and Overture’s Keyword Inventory Tool.
http://www.wordtracker.com
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

2. Newsletters and Trade Journals

Subscribe to email newsletters, ezines and offline publications related to your topic of interest. Reading what others in your field are writing about will give you lots of ideas for your own article topics.

It’s easy to find newsletters that cover your topic online. If you want to write about internet marketing, for instance, you could search for “internet marketing newsletter” and find the most well-read and respected publications in that field.

3. Google News Alerts

Google News Alerts is like a news aggregator that allows you to receive news based on your keyword of choice.
http://www.google.com/alerts

When you subscribe, you’ll receive the latest stories that carry your keyword. Go through them and you may find some gems of information that you can write up into a topical article based on that story.

4. Press Release Alerts

Press releases are an excellent way to find out more about new discoveries or advances in your field. These can make an excellent topic for an opinion piece about that discovery or development.

Search press release sites for the latest releases in the field of your choice. You’ll find a bunch of them listed here.
http://www.onlineprindia.com/press-release-distribution.htm

5. Online Forums

You can get some of your best article topics from other professionals in your field. Online forums provide an abundance of opinions, queries and ideas that might just make that flashbulb go off in your brain.

Visit forums, lurk and read other’s posts or participate in discussions and benefit from the minds of some of the most interactive people in your field.

6. Blogs

Blogs are a hotbed of discussion and opinion. They often carry some very interesting and topical pieces that can help you ideate.

Blog directories, a long list of which can be found at the link below, are a good place to start looking for blogs written on your topic of interest.
http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/

7. Seminars and Conferences

One of the best ways to keep up with new ideas and developments in your field is to attend seminars or conferences and network with other people.

You can often come away with a bunch of ideas, at these gatherings, and use them to write up articles.

8. Spy On The Competition

Check out your competitor’s business and websites. They may be using ideas or even making mistakes that could give you ideas for articles on what does or doesn’t work.

And finally, always remember to give credit (and a link back) to the news sources that you cite in your article.

_______________________________________________

Priya Shah is the CEO of an online marketing firm and writes an online marketing blog. Visit Article Writing Tips for more article marketing tips and tools.

This article may be reprinted as long as the resource box is left intact and all links are hyperlinked.

_______________________________________________

Are you a reluctant marketer for your book? Do you avoid the social and selling aspects of self-publishing and promotion?

Discover the easy and free way to promote your book. It’s still the number one top way–writing and submitting articles to other ezines and Web sites.

Getting Started Tips to Create your Selling Articles

1. Use your non-fiction book’s chapter how to’s or your fiction’s juicy chapter excerpts.

2. Keep your articles around 200-800 words each.

3. Keep your article focused on just one thesis or point.

4. Create a hook for your two or three-sentence introduction. Notice this one asked you a few questions to engage you.

5. Forget the old school of writing for print magazines and getting paid. Follow the Internet way– give your article away like Mrs. Field cookie samples, so people will want to visit the site where you sell your book.

6. Keep yourself out of it. Your audience wants to know what you can do for them. Replace those “I” constructions with “you.”
“If you are like me….”

7. Number the main points for clarity. People love easy to read tips.

8. Collect ten well-edited articles before you blast off. Online readers will look at your more seriously when they see you offer more than one quick thing. They will see you as the savvy expert and click to where you sell your book.

9. Leverage one article into five. Change your audience. Change your number of how to’s. Three Tips to… or Five Tips… or The Two Best Ways to….

10. Remember free information is the reason people go to Web sites, so put your articles there as well as in a blog.

Once you get dozens of short articles or excerpts out to no spam ezines or top web sites n your field, you will notice the search engines optimizing your site because they see your important key words that link you, your book, or your service together. Your submitted articles lead to the magic of “viral marketing.” The thing is that this is attraction, natural marketing at its best.

Judy Cullins ©2005 All Rights Reserved.

Judy Cullins, 20-year Book and Internet Marketing Coach works with small business people who want to make a difference in people’s lives, build their credibility and clients, and make a consistent life-long income. Judy is author of 10 eBooks including Write your eBook or Other Short Book Fast, Ten Non-Techie Ways to Market Your Book Online, The Fast and Cheap Way to Explode Your Targeted Web Traffic, and Power Writing for Web Sites That Sell. She offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, “The BookCoach Says…,” “Business Tip of the Month,” blog Q & A at http://www.bookcoaching.com and over 185 free articles.

Email her at Judy@bookcoaching.com
Phone: 619/466-0622 — Orders: 866/200-9743

Increase your ezine subscribers by submitting articles once or twice a week to the opt-in ezines. Read by thousands, even hundreds of thousands, you get 10-25 new subscribers for each submission. Your articles also bring people to your Web site to buy your products. Use this checklist to edit your own work.

Knowing these benefits, you want to create and submit as many excellent articles as you can. At times, you have the articles complete, but don’t have anyone handy to edit them. While it’s best to get at least two other edits from business associates, you can edit your articles yourself with a little help.

Use this checklist to edit your own work:

1.

Every writer eventually develops her own unique style of writing. As you struggle to create your own voice, while focusing on the required standards, you may want to consider the following tips for improving your style and establishing a professional formula for success.

1. Edit your work continuously to eliminate all those extra words. One of the most common mistakes a writer makes is to use too many adverbs and adjectives. You should try to eliminate unnecessary content to keep your crisp and concise. Less is more.

   Example: Does the meaning change if you cut -

   • “past history” to “history”

   • “really unusual” to “unusual”

   • “very impressive” to “impressive”

   • “accurate facts” to “facts”

   • “true reality” to “reality”

   Choose your descriptive words carefully and utilize them in sentences where they will be most effective.

2. Select uncomplicated language to say what you mean as simply as possible. Writers frequently have a more extensive vocabulary than the average reader does. You will not impress people by using long, uncommon words that they do not understand.

   Example: Does the general public know the definition of the first or second word below?
   

   • exigency or emergency

   • prognosticate or predict

   • contumacious or contrary

   • rancorous or resentful

   • facetious or fun

   Most readers will give up on your writing before they will pick up a dictionary to figure out what you are trying to say.

3. Construct short sentences. Lengthy sentences are usually more difficult for people to read and equally challenging to write. If you find yourself wondering where to place the commas appropriately or whether to use a colon or semi-colon in your sentence, it is probably too long. Using short sentences to express yourself can eliminate common writing problems, like incorrect subject/modifier agreement or improper parallel construction. Your work will be more readable if you write with a balanced combination of short and long sentences.

4. Produce original work that shows your individual voice. Avoid clich

Did you know that your back cover information is, after the cover, the best way to sell more books? And, that most authors, emerging and experienced, miss this opportunity to engage more potential buyers?

Your book’s front cover and sizzling title must impress your buyers in four-eight seconds. If they like it, they will spend ten-thirty seconds or so on your back covera great opportunity to convince them that your book is necessary for their pleasure or success.

Does your back cover pass the test?

Five Best Solutions to the Biggest Book Back Cover Mistakes:

1. Mistake: Too many non-powerful words and too busy to have a focus.

Solutions: A back cover of 6 by 9 inches should have fewer than 60 words. Use sound bites; picture and emotional words; benefits, not features; and testimonials to capture your readers’ attention to keep your message focused. Make every word count and be willing to get five-fifteen edits.

2. Mistake: Too much superfluous material on it such a long author’s bio or large photo. Potential buyers want to know how the book will help them, teach them a skill, or entertain them.

Solutions: Print only a one or two-line bio on the back cover. Put your photo and more bio on the inside of the back cover. Omit features such as format information, which belong in the introduction.

Connect with your buyer emotionally with specific, powerful ad copy. For self-help books use bullets with specific benefits, and enough of the right kind of testimonials (specific benefit driven) to sell your book in 30 seconds. For fiction, modify to include a bit of plot, with a powerful quote or dialogue. Use bookstore models to assist you.

3. Mistake: Repeating the book’s title at the top of the back cover.

Solutions: Since your potential buyers already know the title and are stimulated enough to look at the back cover, hook them with an emotional question or statement to read on.

Create a “Hot Headline” that compels your reader to buy. Notice the headlines in your newspaper. Visit your bookstore and notice other best selling authors’ headlines. “What’s So Tough About Writing?” by word smith Richard Lederer, author of The Write Way; “Imagine Being an Author,” in Dan Poynter’s Writing Nonfiction; “To Age is NaturalTo Grow Old is Not! In Rico Caveglia’s Ageless Living, or “Imagine 1000’s of People Reading your Book Next Month! for your coach’s “How to Write your eBook or Other Short Book Fast!”.

4. Mistake: Omitting testimonials.

Solutions: Testimonials sell more books than any other information on the back cover. Put at least three up. Contact a variety of people. Use one from a top professional in your field, one from a satisfied reader, one from a celebrity who cares about your topic, and one from a famous media person.

In her book, “A Kick in Your Inspiration,” Ruth Cleveland got one testimonial from an ex convict! Jacqueline Marcell, author of Elder Rage, took eight months to get forty testimonials from celebrities. Her book is endorsed by: Steve Allen, Ed Asner, Dr. Dean Edell, Dr. John Gray, Dr. Nancy Snyderman/ABC, Regis Philbin. Jacqueline Bisset, and Phyllis Diller.

It was worth the effort, because in April 2001, she made the cover of the AARP Bulletin distributed to over 35 million readers. It included a feature story, some how-tos and contacts and pictures of the author and her book. She had to dance fast, and order 10,000 books to get distributed by the time the piece came out. After it came out, she was inundated with speaking engagements. There’s a problem you might love to have!

After you write several books and become rich and famous, you, like other professionals, will fill your back cover with testimonials. You won’t even need to add benefits, because people have already bought your other books and liked them.

Potential buyers will purchase when they see people they trust and know recommend the book. Besides filling the back cover with testimonials, you may want to even add extra testimonials in the front pages of the book. The more testimonials, the better!

5. Mistake. Independent publishers submitting galleys to reviewers, distributors, and wholesales without ANY back cover information.

Solutions: “Make the back cover your first area of concern,” says Susan Howard, Director of Consulting Services at top publishing firm, The Jenkins Group Inc., who write “The Publishing Connection” She adds, “Waiting for testimonials is generally the reason the back cover of a galley is left blank. Failure to realize the value of the back cover seems to equate with the failure to realize that the text for the finished back cover can always be changed before the printing of the book.”

It’s important for writers to “market while they write”– To make each part of their book sell copies. The back cover is all-important.

Judy Cullins, 20-year book and Internet Marketing Coach, Author of 10 eBooks including “Write your eBook Fast,” and “How to Market your Business on the Internet,” she offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, The Book Coach Says…and Business Tip of the Month at http://www.bookcoaching.com/opt-in.shtml and over 140 free articles. Email her at mailto:Judy@bookcoaching.com

If you become a writer for any publication, private business, public entity, non-profit organization and/or large corporation that employs more than one editor, you may find that your job description, expected contributions, desired writing style and similar “guidelines” for your position - are subject to change daily/weekly/unpredictably - according to each editor’s mood and/or personal preferences.

It takes time, but eventually you will learn how to satisfy everyone to the best of your ability. You can help yourself by recognizing which editor you seem to “connect” with from the beginning and then make it your business to go to him/her with questions and/or to send your articles directly to her for editing.

Although editors can sometimes seem to not care about anything but “getting the story,” you will probably find one or two, who like your style, see your potential, want to help you LEARN to improve your writing - instead of screaming at you for your inadequacies without supplying any advice to make you a better writer.

Be warned - Editors do not usually “play favorites” as bosses in other professions may do. If you try to become “the pet” not only will you hamper your professional relationship with your editor - you will also lose the respect of your colleagues - which you should truly want to earn - particularly when you are first starting out.

There are some very important things you need and can only get from your fellow reporters, who are “veterans” at the game - compared to you.

Their trained eye proofreading your story before you send it off to the big editor can catch errors that could send your boss into a fury.

The rolodex of phone numbers that they store in their head can help you contact good sources, public officials at home, informants, anonymous - but reliable tipsters…

Their words of wisdom will usually mean a lot. So LISTEN when they talk.

Try to develop a positive relationship with GOOD reporters by working your butt off, requesting their input(without bugging them to death), by treating them with RESPECT.

This means NOT

1. stepping on their toes


2. stealing their story ideas


3. ratting them out for taking long lunches


4. eavesdropping on their conversations


5. and unless you are 150% positive you’re right NOT arguing with them over topics (like grammar, spelling, issues, quotes etc.)

Remember what they’re telling you comes from more experience writing, reporting, interviewing, dealing with people, understanding editors, deadlines, etc…

5 - If your writing job includes conducting interviews and writing articles/reports/profiles etc….. based upon your interview, you may be shocked by the reactions you get from your sources and/or their colleagues when they read your published work. Some people will be offended by comments the interviewee made and some interviewees will complain about the “accuracy” of your writing and/or accuse you of “misquoting” them.
This can happen to the best of us regardless of how well we compile the facts and/or how “correctly” we quote our sources.

Even if you tape record your interview (with the interviewee’s permission) and type their quotes in word for word from the tape, you may still be questioned about your published work at some point by somebody who’s unhappy, upset, and/or irate about how you wrote your story.

Many people do not realize how what they say sounds until they see it in print and/or read it aloud.

Defend yourself to the end when you know you’re right.

Admit it immediately when you realize you did make a mistake. Always offer to print a retraction and/or correction if your article was truly inaccurate in any way.

Your credibility is on the line. If people do not trust you, you will find it difficult, if not impossible, to become a successful writer.

6 - If you choose to become a professional freelance writer, you will at some point complete an assignment for an employer, who fails to fulfill his promise to pay you $X by a specific date.

Contracts are a MUST for freelancers.

READ all of the tiny print in every contract you’re offered BEFORE you ever sign anything. If there is any wording/legalese you do not understand, get clarification from the employer and/or request the advice of an attorney BEFORE you sign the contract.

It’s more likely to cost you less money to hire on a legal professional to review the contract and/or answer your questions than it will if you sign a bogus contract and/or have to pay a lawyer to represent you in your fight to get an employer to compensate you for your work.

7 - Writing is not a profession for the weak-hearted or people seeking fame and fortune.

Professionals in almost any field of writing (journalism, PR, advertising, marketing, creative writing etc…..) will probably find that criticism comes quicker and more frequently than praise or big fat paychecks.

I believe that you have to believe in yourself, your writing ability and your goals before anyone else will give you credit for what you do.

If you expect pep-talks from your bosses, support from your peers, and/or positive feedback from your readers, you will probably be disappointed rather than delighted by a day in the life of real writing professional.

© Danielle Hollister (2004) is the Publisher of the Free Ezine for Writers featuring news, reviews, and continuously updated links to the best resources for writers online like - freelancing & jobs, markets & publishers, literary agents, classes & contests, and more… Read it online at - http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art157.asp

Do you have a problem creating a focus in your chapters? Does your writing slip around, leaving a muddy path to the gold–your unique, useful message?

Format each chapter in your book. Your consistency, your organized, focused copy will compel your reader to want to read every chapter because they are easy to understand.

Most writers start writing before they are sure of their eBook’s main focus or thesis. The thesis is your book’s major answer for a problem your targeted audience has. “Five Ways to Market Your Book Online” has its thesis built into the title, a definite plus. You know by the title you’ll learn five online marketing techniques to overcome your problem of not selling enough eBooks.

Before you write any chapters except chapter one, make each chapter title a mini thesis that also answers a part of your whole book’s thesis. For the title “Five Ways to Market Your Book Online” you will have 5 chapters that all have to do with the title. Let’s say one chapter is titled “Market your Book Through Free Articles.”

In this chapter you need to sketch out what your format will be before you write a single word.

1. For instance, you may open the chapter with a pertinent quote. “Articles are the # One Way to Promote your Books and Services” by Judy Cullins, Book Coach.

You may open with several thought-provoking questions or shocking facts. You may even start with a short story or analogy. Any opening needs to hook your reader to keep reading.

2. Second, you follow the opening with a success story to illustrate how one person’s articles brought her new product and service sales.

3. Third, you will offer a section where you give numbers of tips, how to’s, check lists, or resources. For instance the heading of,

Although he has his own website, John Grisham probably does very little self-promotion. When you have Doubleday on your side, most of the marketing is done for you. There are not too many John Grisham’s out there though, so the unknown authors, with small publishing houses, have to be responsible for marketing themselves. This is not hard work, but it does take persistence and ingenuity. Follow this model, and you’ll be successful.

My first novel, The League, was picked up by DNA Press in November of 2004 and will be released in May 2005 (unusually fast work for a publisher). While the publisher works feverishly to put together the cover, the press kit and the final galley, my job is to promote the author, me. In just three months, I secured have five reviews, done a national radio interview with others already arranged, submitted my idea to ESPN for a potential movie, and I’ve already received nearly 1,000 hits to my website, which has been published for just one month. How have I done it? Non-stop hustle, that’s how.

This is not hard work; it’s actually quite exciting, knowing the fruits of my labor will be book sales. Here’s my plan to get as many people excited about my book as possible, even before it hits the bookstores.

First, I started sending e-mails to publishers of magazines and websites, whose content is similar to the plot of my novel. I asked them if they would do a review or give me a quote I could use on my novel’s cover. While I was waiting to hear back from the 50 or so people I contacted, I began creating my website. If you’ve never done this, it’s extremely easy and inexpensive. Just visit Register.com for more information. I had my site up and active in one day. Of course, over the next few weeks, I continued to improve it, adding my picture and a picture of the cover of my book.

Next, I started fishing for radio interviews. There’s a number of ways to do this. I’d recommend starting at home, using a local author angle. I also went to shows that talk about fantasy football, since my plot surrounds this game. This is how I got on a national show, the week leading up to the Super Bowl. That night, 60 people visited my website, and eight of them pre-ordered my book — four months prior to its publication date!

As I continued to make contacts with media people, I created business cards with a picture of the book, my website URL, and a sentence on the back from the synopsis. I hand these out everywhere I go, and they lead people to my site, which leads them to the synopsis and an excerpt. This gets them wanting more. Your website is your most powerful tool. You want people there early and often. You want them telling others. I have my website beneath my signature on my e-mails. I send hundreds of e-mails each week to colleagues and friends. Again, this gets me hits.

I sent an e-mail to a colleague, who saw my website URL, clicked on it and looked at the excerpt. He came to me the next day and told me he had an aunt who was a writer for a local paper, and she could review the book for me. I was thrilled, to say the least. All because of a link to my site in an e-mail. The e-mail wasn’t even about my book.

Finally, I’m beginning to arrange book signings, months in advance of the book’s release. You want people coming out to buy your book, and guaranteeing bookstores customers is the best way to do it. I contact a store’s events manager and tell him or her that I’m going to get 20-30 of my friends and family to attend my book signing. They are almost always willing to sign me up, because they want the traffic in their stores. Best of all, this guarantees that they will have your book on their shelves — an obvious necessity if people are going to buy.

So, if you want to self-promote, get yourself a website, business cards, interviews and book signings. Then, hit the streets and talk up your work. Learn how I did it at www.sportsnovels.com. And have fun.

Mark Barnes is the author of the new novel, The League, the first work of fiction, based on fantasy football. He is also an investment real estate and home loan finance expert. Learn more about his suspense thriller at http://www.sportsnovels.com. Get his free mortgage finance course at http://www.winningthemortgagegame.com