Most book author’s today would be well advised to take a crash course in modern advertising and marketing techniques if they want to be competitive in the new marketplace.

My all time favorite marketing strategist is Seth Godin (www.sethgodin.com) who initially came to my attention because I heard through the grape vine some years ago; that he had some fresh new ideas on marketing, that his ideas were directly applicable to my business, and that he would share his insights with me for free. Godin initially gave away his eBook “Unleashing The Ideavirus” – yes, free - under a creative commons license (creativecommons.org) and it became the most popular eBook ever written. More than 1,000,000 people downloaded the digital version of this book.

How did he benefit? By giving it away as an ebook, he was actually implementing his own “Ideavirus” and creating a demand which he then fulfilled by later releasing a printed version that catapulted to Amazon’s Top 10 Bestseller list and, perhaps more importantly, created a world-wide readership for subsequent books he authored and even a movement (www.vbma.net) based upon his concepts.

The latest example of that this strategy can be successful is “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” which has spent 33 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list selling over 140,000 copies despite being available as a free online download for the past 3 years. Could giving away your book (or even just part of it) work for you?

Here’s a link to The New York Times article.