David Louis Edelman catalogs all his efforts to promote his first novel, the SF/thriller Infoquake, breaking them down into "well worth doing," "may have had some positive impact, but it's hard to tell," and "seemingly no impact." What he's learned, he says, is that good self-promotion doesn't have to be a financial suckhole, but perhaps more importantly, "you, the author, are the only one who really gets to decide if you succeeded or not."

Turns out author marketing was also on Miami Herald contributor Richard Pachter's mind. The idea that "authors are now expected to play an active role in book marketing and promotion" is probably old hat to 'Cat readers, I suppose, but writers like Joseph Finder, Edna Buchanan, and Les Standiford provide a good introduction to the issues, while Da Capo publicity director Lissa Warren discusses what authors should be bringing up with their publishers about their support of the book.