Many top Internet gurus have sold books through these outlets. They have sold books based on their seminars, workshops, and business tactics. These books are highly valuable, but only if everybody knows about them. If your book shows up on Amazon and Barnes and Noble with little fanfare then you will experience low sales which can be devastating to your bottom line.

The basics of promoting your book include letting people know the title, cost, and publication date. How do you promote these details in the most effective manner to massive audiences that will want to buy your book? Read on to find little known tips from top Internet gurus who have traveled this path before you.

Book Launch Tip #1: Focus on Amazon.com first. It is more difficult to drive traffic to Amazon.com so you want to conquer that task in the beginning. Then focus on sending traffic to Barnes and Noble.com. Plus, achieving an Amazon.com bestseller designation is worth its weight in gold.

Book Launch Tip #2: A great way to drive traffic to either Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.com is to have an opt-in page on your website. Once people subscribe to your list automatically send them to your Amazon.com (or Barnes and Noble.com) landing page where they can buy the book.

Book Launch Tip #3: Verify that your book information appears correctly on Amazon. Make sure that the title, author, price, etc. are correct before people are sent to your page. If your page has errors then it will look unprofessional and may turn away customers.

Book Launch Tip #4: Don’t make your book launch schedule too short. Some people try to complete a book launch in 45 days which is very difficult. There are so many details to take care of that people don’t realize how long they actually take. For example, obtaining an ISBN number can take a long time.

Book Launch Tip #5: Don’t wait until the last minute to find joint venture partners. Try to find these partners well in advance because you want people to commit to your book launch right from the start. In order to obtain joint ventures you need to establish and build relationships earlier as well. For example, the minute you determine that you are going to launch a book is the minute you should get on the phone and call your friends and colleagues for their support and joint venture possibilities.

Book are published, marketed, sold and distributed the same way they have been since the birth of the business. Certainly prices have changed dramatically, shipments are better coordinated, cover designs have evolved, merchandising has improved, but the basic business rules have not. Today there are still three general rules that apply to the business of publishing.

Rule number one: Every book is guaranteed to the bookseller, meaning, if they don’t sell at the bookstore, the publisher guarantees they’ll take them back. Returned books are as common place as paper and ink. Books have always been returnable. There are few if any retailers still in existence that will purchase newly published non-returnable books. The fallacy of this is that today, 2008, there are still some publishers that force their authors to pay several hundred dollars for the right to have their book considered returnable. Returnable books should be standard for any book contract. This is a clear example of how some publishers are not fluent in the ways of the business, and as a result they take advantage and prey on the pocketbooks of unsuspecting, and uninformed authors.

Rule number two: The business is about revenue, selling books. However there are two ways to look at revenue. For the Independent publishers and authors, revenue is when a book is sold and the money changes hands, that is a sale and represents the cleanest form of revenue. For the biggest publishers and all the others that want to compete in the marketplace, revenue is both gross and net. Gross is the number of copies multiplied by the cover price. This does not account for the returns that will eventually arrive at the publisher’s warehouse. The net price is what is left after all those books have been returned and counted. The big companies play with these numbers in a variety of ways and if you plan to compete in this market, you must be aware of this fact.

Rule number three: Bookseller real estate is for lease. When you walk into a bookstore and notice all those wonderful displays with multiple copies of the bestsellers, then you stroll down the aisles and look at the covers laying face up on the tables, keep in mind — this is not accidental. These retailers aren’t doing any favors. All of that space has been leased by the publisher of those titles for a specified period of time. In fact, virtually all of the floor space is for lease, if you can afford the price. Typically the front of the store is the most expensive real estate and the price goes down slightly as you move to the back of the store. Bottom line, retail space in major retailers, including bookstores and mass merchants, is for lease.