Advertising is one of  those mysteries where you throw in time and money and hope you get a return.  Everyone agrees that an author needs promotion to distinguish his/her book from all the others on the shelf.  And then the author needs MORE promotion to convince the reader to pick that particular book.

What works best?  That depends. 

Don't you hate that answer?  Depends on what, you ask huffily.  It  depends on what genre of book, how your publisher distrbutes that book, and your own inclinations to publicize your book.

Look through our tips and hints and pick what works best for you.  Some promo actions are some tried-and-true.  Others are innovative and unproven.  And still others are big guesses as to how effective they are.  I'll list them all, including opposing views.  Give them a try and drop a comment on whether you agree or disagree.  Tell us the variation that worked best for you.   Explain how you measured your results.  Help us help you and we'll all sell lots of books to readers who will want to know what's between our covers (or in our electrons, for all you digital folks.)