When to Start Marketing Your Book

How about an information overload?  One quick search on the internet for tips on when to start marketing your book and you'll get hundreds of different answers.  The more answers you get, the more questions that come up.  Launch week?  Hard launch?  Soft launch?

I prefer to stick with the easy answer when it comes to marketing my books.  I start immediately.  It doesn't matter if I have written one word or a complete novel.  It is never too early to start marketing yourself as an author and your work.

When writing, I keep two notebooks handy.  One for notes regarding the story itself, and another just for marketing ideas that pop into my head.  I try to market during every stage of creation, but it really gets easier once I have my cover art designed.  There is just something about having a visual that makes it easier.

So, what sort of marketing can you do before your book is finished?  Well, let's see.  You can build your followers on Twitter and Facebook, you can blog about the current progress of your work, you can update your website to show you have a new project underway, and you can tell everyone you know about your new book.

What about after the book is published?  All of the above, plus more.

See why it's a good idea to get started early?  What are some of your favorite marketing methods?