What advice would you give someone who is trying to get a good book noticed?

[Joss]

Also, consider smashwords. It's possible that you might have to spend some money and buy some ads to promote it; no one said self-publishing and trying to get that book out there was cheap.

& you don't need an ereader in order to make your book available there.

Consider some of the promotional and marketing efforts that real publishers do. You need to look at the long term for your book (and publishing career) and not just the short term of making as much money as you can right now. Consider giving away free copies of your book where the only thing you ask for is an honest review on Amazon (is your book available on Amazon? If not, that's a problem). Host giveaways on your website, facebook, and Twitter where you giveaway copies of your book. You do have a website right? If not, that's a huge problem. How will people find you and find out more about your book and upcoming work if you don't have a website with which to promote? Besides giveaways, try a limited time discount offering of your book. Also, consider making it free for a limited amount of time. Not only do major publishers do this with their books, but self-published authors do to. The goal is to get readers. People who will read your book, hopefully like it, and if you release another book, will consider buying it simply because they liked the first. That's what you want. You need to start building your readership and you might have to lose out on some income in the beginning, but fruits at the end might be worthwhile - assuming your book is good.

There are a lot of self-published authors and lots of readers on twitter, start connecting with them. Communicate with them. Dont' just promote your book all the time because that will be annoying and that's how you lose readers. RT their messages and comment on their tweets. They'll do the same for you, thus helping to promote you & your book to their followers. In fact, there's a whole community of writers, literary agents, authors, editors and publishers on Twitter. Are you connected with that community? If not, you need to start now. And, I don't mean "connect" hawking your wares to them, I mean engage in conversations with them that have nothing to do with your book.

To be honest, this is why you can't jump into publishing blindly. You need to do your research first and have a plan BEFORE you jump into it. As you're finding out, getting readers and getting people to know that you and your book exist is hella hard and it's even harder when you don't have any kind of marketing, advertising, and promotional plan. Lesson learned?

Ignore what your friends say about your book. They're your friends, so they're not exactly unbiased. In fact, it's a running joke in publishing when a writer says all their friends and family love their book. Chances are your friends no nothing about publihsing or how to write a great book. I know, I have a sister who thinks that just because you wrote a book that it should be published and that you'll make a lot of money off it. I have to keep telling her that 1) it's not that easy and 2) writing a great book that's worth putting my name on the cover isn't that easy. I wish some of these people would try their own hands at writing a book and go through the submission process agents and publishers. Reality will hit them in the face when they start getting all the rejections. Just because you write a book doesn't mean it's good enough to publish.

Anyway, good luck. These are just my opinions.