It was a tie for the top marketing challenge of 2009: Nearly 38 percent of authors authors found it difficult to find the money for promotions and balancing family with writing and marketing.

While nearly 70 percent of authors created marketing plans, 63 percent of respondents said they thought their marketing efforts were only somewhat effective.

Nearly 90 percent y of authors listed Facebook as their top network. Seventy-five percent also used Twitter and half of respondents used GoodReads.

Sixty percent did not hire a PR firm or virtual book tour company for promotions. Nearly half said their publishers did not provide financial assistance for marketing. Only seven percent received financial help from their publishers, which 20 percent had a publisher that actively marketed their books.

Book tour expenses were the top expenses, followed closely by time spent on marketing.

Half of authors said some marketing efforts were worth it, but others were not. Only a quarter of respondents said their efforts were worth it.

• Eliminate unnecessary social networks. Choose only those with broad appeal to readers in your genre. Remember, writing networks have fellow writers who don't necessarily buy your books, even if they do provide solid feedback or encouragement.
• Streamline blogging. Instead of logging in to several different accounts, you can easily manage blogs via one-stop sites like Ping.fm. It allows posts to microblogs like Twitter and FriendFeed, as well as posts WordPress, Blogger and Typepad. Also, many blog platforms - including Ning.com - give you an e-mail address where you can send posts. Also, consider using a third-party client like Tweetdeck, Seesmic or Twhite to update multiple social networks with just one click.
• Update your Web site. Every author needs a Web site. Every author Web site needs a media center that includes a short and long biography, author photographs, book cover photos, book lists and more. If you want to be interviewed, you must have some information to give bloggers and traditional media. If you don't have a Web site, get one - even if it is on a free service like http://www.Moonfruit.com. If you already have a site, review all the information there to be sure it is current. Sending reporters and bloggers one link with all the information they need will save you a lot of time - and they will love you for it.
• Use editorial calendars. Blogging is a necessity for many authors. Set up an editorial calendar to make it easier to know what to post when. Know the number of posts you can create each week. Be sure to remember that each post must not only be written, but edited, formatted and illustrated with photos whenever possible. Calendars also help you stay organized if you invite guest bloggers to your site. Also, try to stay ahead of the game by posting a week or two in advance. You can use a paper calendar to a program like Google calendar, which will also allow you to share your updates via social networks.
• Be adaptable. If you aren't seeing results, then adjust your marketing plan. Drop items that aren't working and build up venues that are. Add new social networks or traditional marketing tactics that are promising when you can.
• Work smart, not hard. Don't try to do everything at once. Sit down and map out your current family and writing obligations, then work marketing in around them. When your book is in print, then you will need to put marketing before writing to promote it. Promotional times vary by author and genre. It could be anywhere from four weeks to three months.

Tick-Tock: Time Management for Authors

One of the biggest complaints I hear from authors is lack of time to do it all.

Blogging, finding Facebook friends, Tweeting, surfing Ning for new networks, keeping abreast of new social media trends, attending critique group sessions, sending out e-mail newsletters, doing book signings, holding Web site contests...

And then, you have to WRITE.

Thing is, you don't have to do it all. You just have to do what works best for you. Too many times, authors overwhelm themselves as they try to keep up with marketing trends and pressures from others in publishing who are now on the social media bandwagon. They also don't plan accordingly once they find promotional gigs that work.

Check out the tips below to help you better manage your marketing time. Be sure to leave your tips for time management in the comments for other authors struggling with this issue.

Market My Novel Tips for Author Time Management:

• Create a blog editorial calendar. Many authors have a hard time figuring out what the blog about. Plan to entertain your readers, share bits and pieces about writing your work - with a few sneak peeks when you can, your cover art and talk about life in general. An editorial calendar will help you stay on target with consistent content - which is key to blog success.
• Look outside social media for promotions. As you know, Market My Novel is a huge proponent of social media for free or low-cost publicity. However, sometimes you need to get offline, get some sunshine and actually meet real people. For some authors, this is even better than networking online. For example, some authors like to speak in public - and are quite good at it. Not only can they promote their books at events, but they can also get paid to speak. Make a list of activities you like to do offline and research their potential for networking.
• Limit social media networks. There are hundreds of networks online that beckon to your marketing sensibilities. There is also a lot of pressure from agents, editors, publishers and other authors to join them. Play around with different networks to find the ones that work for you. Then, close the accounts that are not working and focus your efforts on those that show a return on your time investment. The number of social networks you end up and the time you put into them will be different for every author, so don't try to keep up with Joneses.
• Make friends with the time clock. Use your kitchen timer to keep yourself on a rigid marketing timetable. That way, your tasks don't absorb valuable writing time.
• Make writing your No. 1 priority. Marketing will do you no good if you don't have more content for your fans to read. That means that producing needs to me your first priority. Marketing is always secondary - until your book hits bookstore shelves. When this happens,  plan to make marketing your priority for at least two months before you switch your schedule back to a writing focus. This will help you touch base with fans, new readers and reviewers during critical sales times.

The trick to time management is to not only find the formula that integrates well into your writing and family life, but to develop a strategy that targets your fans with each event and online activity. Once you have that plan, creating a workable marketing schedule will be a piece of cake.

Newspapers are difficult to use for publicity.

Newspapers are notoriously stingy with space these days.

With sliding ad revenues and increasing competition from the Internet, print publications have sliced their budgets, using fewer reporters to do more work that is placed is fewer pages. Book review columns have been cut at many publications, and other just don't believe author news is news to readers.

Magazines aren't much different.

While the market is tight to get publicity in a print publications, it is possible. Here are a few tips to help:

Newspapers

• Send an emailed news release, no more than three paragraphs long and with live links. Do not include attachments, as these will immediately shuffle your message to SPAM.
• Limit print releases to two pages maximum and do not send more than once - especially by fax. Releases sent multiple times are immediately labeled as JUNK and trashed.
• Follow up with a phone call to the appropriate editor a week after you send a release, if you haven't heard anything. Typically, you will deal with features. However, you may deal with the metro editor if you tie yourself and your work to a current event.
• Don't send a generic email to a database of media people. They hate to be a number. Personalize your emails whenever possible for maximum impact. Also, be sure to constantly update your email database for reporters, as they switch jobs frequently.
• Don't use your own name as the publicist contact. Reporters simply will not take you seriously. If you don't have a publicist, ask a friend or family member to stand in that position. All they have to do is arrange an interview for you.
• Suggest submitting a guest column for the newspaper's blog or Web site. While space in print is limited, Web sites are always hungry for new content.
• Approach newspaper blogger for interviews, or send them a link to your book trailer. Again, bloggers are hungry for new content.

Magazines

• Follow the rules for newspapers above.
• Target magazines that have something to do with your genre. If your book features an elderly man with health issues, approach AARP magazine or publications where you can discuss the disease.
• While newspapers are more immediate, magazines tend to plan ahead. Be sure to contact them several months before your book is released, so they can plan space for your story.

More on Market My Novel:

News Releases that Get Face Time

Sample One-Page Hardcopy Release

HOT TIP: Even if you cannot get publicity in print, check the publication Web sites for a free community calendar, where you can list book signings and other events.

The post, "One Author Speaks Out About the Bad Side of Online Promotions," generated a lot of virtual discussion. As a result of comments, I'm going to tackle a few additional topics that came out of it. These topics will begin with "Online Marketing," and be numbered. You can find these topics by clicking the "Online Marketing" category.

Today's topic: Be Reasonable.

Many of those who commented were pretty tough on the anonymous author, who posted very candid replies to detailed questions about an online marketing strategy that ultimately failed.

The author's online strategy equaled a full-time job, which wore the author out to the point that he/she does not want to check e-mail now. The author lost out on family time, and the family - well, they were pushed to the brink of sanity because the author was stressed and unable to help out in the usual family ways.

The author believed this strategy would put him/her into the blogostratosphere and, ultimately, lead to big sales.

That did not happen.

There are lessons to be learned from this experience, and I think we should all take them to heart - and profusely thank this author for being so candid and taking hits from those of us who read the interview with 20/20 hindsight.

Reasonable Expectations

I think the author had the right idea, but I think the expectations were too high for a newly-published author. As a social media consultant, I caution my clients until I lose oxygen that starting a blog isn't going to immediately lead to new sales, donations, referrals, etc. For newly-started blogs, it takes a year to start getting truly noticed by peers, newbies and the competition. (There are a few exceptions, of course.)

It does not matter if you are new to the blogosphere or not. If you are newly published, you are starting from scratch. Instead of just connecting with work colleagues, friends and family online, or others with similar hobbies, you need to connect with readers and reviewers. Your online strategy must be more targeted, focused. 

When starting out, worry more about branding and developing a solid fan base online, not so much sales. Also, understand that while you may not make a big splash in the beginning, online posts have longevity that print and broadcast interviews do not. They are on the Web forever. That means someone could find out about you in two years, forward your book links to all their friends and produce big sales numbers. At Pop Syndicate, where I host authors on virtual book tours, I've had readers find author interviews over a year later - and it prompted them to buy the book.

Cheryl C. Malandrinos, a virtual book tour consultant with Pump Up Your Book Promotion, had some great things to say about reasonable virtual book tour expectations in her interview with Market My Novel.

Reasonable Work Hours

Do NOT kill yourself when doing virtual tours. Figure out what a reasonable schedule is for you - and stick to it. You may have some days that are busier than others, but that will happen. Search for a balance that you can make work for you.

Do as much work in advance as you can. Have five to ten guest blog posts ready - perhaps use three topics and write about them different ways - and have a thorough Q&A available if sites want to pick it up.

For some authors, you may only want to do guest blog posts, instead of Q&As, which take a lot more time. If so, be up front with sites about it. Tell them you'd like to appear and would they pick up a guest blog on whatever topic you write on. Be sure the topic fits the blog.

It is easy to judge this author for what they did wrong, but we should also applaud them for sharing their experiences in a public forum to help other authors avoid mistakes.

An innovative use for Twitter can be a marketing gem for you.

TwitterLit and KidderLit use Twitter, e-mail and RSS to deliver novel teasers from adult and children's books. The teasers include the first sentence from a book, and a link to the Amazon site for the novel or kiddie lit.

Their site allows you to suggestion the first lines of books to post in their feeds. That means you and your fans can submit your own novel teasers for placement.

If you have Google mail, you can use the TwitterlIt Google Gadget in your account.

Check out the sites:

Recently, a MySpacer and fellow writer befriended me. The gentleman approached me via private message, bemoaning the publishing industry while asking me about my favorite authors and what I write.

His email was filled with misspellings and grammatical errors, but not enough to make me delete it. I gave him the benefit of the doubt. After all, if you are loopy from cold medication, hitting the CAPS key isn't always your first inclination when typing. It happens to the best of us - including some high level PR folks I work with during my "day" job.

I responded back, telling him I write erotic thrillers and short stories, as well and straight up mysteries. I didn't get too much into the business of publishing, except to say I don't mind self publishing in today's Kindle environment. I asked him a little more about his goals for writing and moved on to other social networking gigs.

Within a few hours, I had a response back. Again, the prose was filled with spelling errors, grammatical problems and sentences that did not make sense. Again, he asked what I wrote... and some of the other questions I had already responded to. Again, the bemoaning of the industry and its clicks. It wasn't positive in any sense, just a rehashing of old news from former missives. I received several of emails in the same vein from this writer - as well as a few others on MySpace.

If you are going to approach me via social networks to chat about the business, critique groups, marketing/promotions, best authors, etc., be professional enough to at least try to make your emails cohesive and legible. I don't expect perfection, but I do expect someone to try.

Consistent misspellings, obvious grammatical errors and fractured sentences that make no sense tell me you are lazy. Lazy writers are not part of my network for a reason: They typically want to sit and talk about how they cannot get published because the business is against everyone, instead of working hard to polish their manuscripts for agents and editors.

Would you send this type of message to a possible agent, editor or marketing/PR consultant? What about the media? Do your queries for a book review or interview look like this?

Take a guess at how many queries I've received from authors who want placement at Pop Syndicate's Book Addict blog that have the same problems described above.

More than you can possible imagine. Sadly, most are from self-published authors, who give other, really good self-pubs a very bad reputation by association. Those emails go straight to my Cyber File 13.

If you want to be taken seriously by fellow authors and other professionals in the industry, do your part to look and act like you already belong in the business. Spell check and a once-over proof will go a long way to building your reputation.

As a book reviewer for Pop Syndicate - and the virtual book tour host at Book Addict - I am approached by authors every day to review titles.

Earlier this year, I was approached hard and fast by an author desperate to have her true crime book reviewed at our site. She found me from a post at another author's blog. She e-mailed several times and I told her to send along a copy, and I would get to it after I reviewed a few other books.

This author expedited shipping (even though I told her it would be at least a few weeks before I could get to it) and e-mailed a few times to be sure I received it.

I was nearly ready to review it when I received another e-mail from her. She asked if I had reviewed it yet, and I said no, it was next in line. At this point, I was getting a little frustrated. It had only been a few weeks, and this was not a new release; it had been out for nearly eight months. There was no rush for us, and her persistence was becoming annoying.

Then, the author e-mailed back a response that not only angered me, but will forever keep her from being reviewed again at our site. Here is what she said:

I sat back in my chair, reeling from the audacity of this self-published author. She pursued me hard to get her book into our review system, then believed she would tell us not to post a bad review and we would do it?

Out. Rageous!

You can do everything you can to get your book in the hands of reviewers, but never, ever expect to dictate the final outcome of the review. Reviewers who are worth their salt never guarantee a good book review. Unlike the paid writers who expound the virtues of really crappy cinema on movie posters and DVD covers, most book critics take the time to read, compare to other works in the genre and write an honest review.

Needless to say, I did not review this book. I handed it off to someone else because the author's attitude angered me so badly. I politely decline to review anything else from the author, or pass it along to other reviewers.

Now, some might ask how this applies to marketing plans for authors. Quite simply, this author created a PR nightmare for herself. Her dogged pursuit was overkill, and her final statement so outrageous I refuse to review her again. Our site nets thousands of page hits per day. I guarantee there are not a lot of other review sites willing to take on self-published authors for reviews or virtual tours. This is one major virtual pit-stop no longer available to this author.

Do you really want to burn bridges because of your attitude? Think, before you send that next email. It is OK to follow up with reviewers to be certain they received your book, and ask about virtual tour dates, but that is IT. Daily e-mails and arrogance do not endear you to reviewers.

One of my biggest frustrations as a Virtual Book Tour hostess for Pop Syndicate's Book Addict is never knowing exactly how information will be sent.

Authors send documents in multiple e-mails, sometimes just hours before their tour. Some send part of their tour documents; some send none at all. All but a handful use such generic titles for their items, I have to open multiple downloads on my desktop to figure out which one belongs to whom.

Want to save your host some headaches? Follow these tips when sending your Virtual Book Tour items:

• Use your name in the title of every document, photo, book trailer or other item sent. Do not use a generic phrase, like Q&A or the blog's title. (Do you have any idea how many documents I receive titled "Pop Syndicate Questions?")
• Use a checklist to be sure you have all items needed for your tour. Different blogs have different requirements. Get them up front - not hours before your tour. It is easiest to create new folders for each site where you tour.
• Send all items in one e-mail. Resize photographs so you do not have to send them one at a time.
• When you send the documents, ask your host if they need anything else - and be available in case you - or your host - forgot something.
• Get your items to your host at least one week before your tour. Tours are tedious to plan and post. The more time hosts can work with your items, the better.
• If you have to cancel or postpone your tour, tell your host IMMEDIATELY. When possible, give them plenty of notice to find others for that slot. Better yet, find someone who can fill in and see if that is OK with the host. A good host will make exceptions for family emergencies and natural disasters - and they will appreciate your honesty.

These simple steps will have your host valuable time.