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

[MarieF]

I have written a book, and my friends all seem to like it. Now since I don't have an agent and self published it, how do I get my book to the outside world? I have done face book and I have done twitter. I am open for suggestions. Thank you in advance.
Thank you for the answers so far, now what if it is an e-book how do I get that around since a person would need a kindle or nook?
I really want to thank you all for your imput. I have passed flyers around, cars, houses, business, nursing homes, hospitals. My Alzheimer's book I actually left free ones at hospice houses and nursing homes. I sent my Alzheimer's book to stars like Maria Shriver and Richard Simmons just to name a couple that actually said something nice about my book and than it stops there. My romance books are e-books and I have just left flyers. I even put flyers on the cars at movie theaters during the new twlight movie night thinking that those people may really read. Libraries won't take free books. I also agree that a self published book is very hard to noticed is very hard to get attention to. I think you really need a publisher to help promote a book. I do have a website and a blog, and facebook and twitter but you actually see the same people all the time. I am going to try the website voices in space. I don't know what smash words is but I will find out. To be honest I

[Olivia Bella]

Take a cool picture and the place to buy it & post it on tumblr with additional facts on ur profile. Then send flyers around, email random people

[Roadwalker]

Give away free copies. Drop off copies at libraries, hospitals and senior centers.
Don't expect to make any money off your self, published book. But this is a way to get people to read it.

[S.K.]

Not having a Kindle or a Nook isn't really an issue, since both Barnes & Noble and Amazon have free programs allowing their ebooks to be read on a PC. That's the good news.

The bad news: self-published books do poorly on ebay, amazon, the publisher’s website, and the author’s own website, whether in print or epubbed.

Marketing a self-published book is damned difficult. Many of the avenues open to traditionally published authors are not available. Chain bookstores won't host signings or carry copies (although they will order them for customers). Newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio don't want your press releases and won't do interviews. The library system won't accept free copies. Writing- or book-related conventions won’t let you set up a sales or autograph table, don’t want you on their author panels, and forbid you giving away promotional material.

The author's blog, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and other electronic self-promotion efforts seem to have little effect in terms of increased sales. Favorable reviews by the author, friends and family are obviously biased and don't seem to affect sales.

About the only marketing I've seen have any effect for self-published authors is active participation at forums and chats dealing with the subject of your book. Find your niche market and determine where online they hang out. Some sites may allow you to discuss your book *if someone asks about it* (but will ban you for bringing it up more than once). Some may allow a link to a point of sale in your profile, or to your blog or web-page which in turn links to a point of sale.

You'll sell a few more copies than you might have, but overall, like most self-published books, regardless of quality, total sales will probably remain below 100 copies. More often, the number hovers somewhere around 2/3 to 3/4 of your total number of friends and family members. This compares pretty unfavorably to the thousands of copies a moderately-selling book from a conventional publisher can anticipate.

I’m sorry not to be able to offer much real hope for promotion, but I figured you’d rather hear the truth than sugar-coated lies which might cause you to waste your time or money.

[?]

I think the website http://www.voicesinspace.com is the answer. If you're looking for guidance to ensure that what you produce is compelling enough to stand out in the aggressive field of writing, this is the place. It will also allow you to see/read the work of other aspiring and established authors to help you gauge what else is out there.

To give you a brief idea of what Voices in Space is all about, it's a literary forum that provides writers-- no matter how experienced—with the opportunity to post their work and get feedback from a chorus of impartial critics, i.e., the community of users. Authors also have the ability to workshop their writing. For writers seeking anonymity, the site affords the option to post work anonymously. Another benefit of an online forum such as Voices In Space is that the community of users is not hand-picked. This allows writers to cast a wide net when attracting an audience—whether it be for exposure, feedback, or both. Plus, you have the chance to be a User in the Limelight on their VISionaries page, or have your work selected as an Editor’s Pick. Both are an honor!

[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.

[Red]

A Scary Good Book is indeed scary (but not too scary), but it isn't good. It's GREAT! The first chapter pulls you in as Hannah discovers that someone has written clues in a library book. Hannah and her friend Ollie team up to solve the mystery, so this well written book can be enjoyed equally by boys and girls. Their friendship is very sweet and realistic. The mystery unfolds at a great pace - very suspenseful with a touch of creepy. I read this in two sittings because I HAD to find out what happened next. The ending even brought tears to my eyes. Excellent book geared towards ages 9-14, but can be enjoyed by 8 through adult. I can picture this story on the Disney channel one day.