The most common mistake people make when self publishing their books is to ignore marketing until it is too late.

Good marketing is critical in everything and book self publishing is no exception. Yet time and again you will see people going through the entire process of self publishing their books from just an idea to the printed book without giving marketing any thought. The truth is that marketing has to touch every single aspect of your project and influence every decision you make along every inch of the way if you are to be successful.

Marketing has to start with the book idea your are considering for self publishing. You will need to ask yourself marketing questions like, has it been done before, if so, how well did the previous title or titles sell? How was the marketing done. If your idea hasn't quite been done, there must be books that are similar which you need to ask the same questions over and get answers.

Your choice of title is yet another critical marketing decision for the book you are considering for self publishing. If it is catchy title that addresses the most pressing problem of the target market you have in mind, then chances are good that it will sell well.

Even decisions like how many pages you would like your book to be, is a marketing decision. This is because the number of pages and size of the book you are self publishing will influence price and price is one of the key pillars of marketing.

You can find a literary agent by going online to find agents that are current accepting new clients. Just be sure to look to see what kinds of books the literary agent is currently accepting as you want to work with someone who is already knowledgeable in your genre of expertise.
Each literary agent will also have their own set of submission rules, so you will want to look for these or call their office to see what they need from you in order to evaluate the possibility of you becoming their client. Most of the time, you will need to write a cover letter, include a resume of writing experience, and your manuscript.

Or you could skip the middle man that is the literary agent and do this work on your own. This will mean that you need to send your manuscript to various publishing houses to see if anyone is interested in learning more about you and your publication design. The good news is that there are a number of great reference books available that can help you find suitable publishing houses for your genre, as well as listings of those publishing houses that are accepting new manuscripts right now.

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