This morning the Morning Media Menu podcast chatted with author, model, and self-promotion expert Isobella Jade. In 2006, this peppy author wrote her memoir on showroom computers at a Manhattan Apple Store. Her struggles ultimately paid off with a book deal at HarperCollins.

As publishing struggles through a difficult 2009, more authors will follow her self-publishing lead. For more tales from the self-publishing front lines, check out this Smashwords interview with Norman Savage.

Here's more from the Jade interview: "I'm extremely self-absorbed, but in a productive way. I'm always thinking ... how is what I'm doing interesting to somebody else? How could this appeal to an audience? Why would somebody care what I have to say?"