At my age I find that there are very few surprises in life but I find myself still scratching my head with this one as well as several other developments in the self-publishing world. This, of course, includes the follow-up on my publishing adventure with Amazon’s new publishing service, CreateSpace.com

How do you publicize a children’s book? Many authors of children’s books don’t spend much time trying—but publicizing a children’s book can be easier than publicizing an adult novel. Here’s how to get started:

Do you need a high-powered copy editor, or could your 10th-grade teacher do the job just as well? At the end of the day, it all comes down to one thing—your goals and your writing ability.

Direct mail has been given a bad reputation because of overuse and poorly designed mailing pieces. Unfortunately, people perceive all direct mail as junk mail, and its Internet equivalent as spam.

Marketing plans are great guides for business owners, and a book marketing plan is the specific tool you will use to find and create places to sell your book(s). Learn how to develop a smart marketing plan that will help you sell more books.

If you’re an author, you know how important it is to publicize your book. You’ve told everyone you know about it. You sent notices to your entire mailing list. You’ve submitted announcements to your online groups and forums as well as appropriate newsletters. And you’ve solicited a few online book reviews.

You don’t have to pay big money for a “Millionaire” seminar. You don’t have to inch along with old-style marketing that takes too much time and money. You don’t have to tell and sell. You don’t have to spend big dollars for pay-per-click or Google ads.