Reading List for Promoting Your Indie Book, Music, or Film

Want more information about promoting your book, music, or film--or yourself!--through social networking media such as Twitter, Facebook, or Blogger?

Here's a reading list from Tim Grahl of Out:think Group (who says, "Feel free to republish this list anywhere as long as you link back to http://outthinkgroup.com/ for attribution").

1. Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin

The guide to building a tribe and the first place to start. Your mission as an author is to gather a group of fans and influencers around yourself and lead the way to a bigger idea. Tribes explains why this is so important and why you are the person to do it.

2. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath & Dan Heath

If I asked you what your book is about, what would you say? How long would it take you to say it? Would I be interested when you were done? Made to Stick teaches you how to pull the big ideas out of your book and present them in a way that resonates with people and "sticks."

3. All Marketers are Liars: The Underground Classic That Explains How Marketing Really Works--and Why Authenticity Is the Best Marketing of All by Seth Godin

Stories are the back bone of any marketing effort. Stories make your ideas clear and help them spread. All Marketers are Liars explains how you can best use stories to grow your tribe.

4. Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation by Sally Hogshead

What are the 7 triggers for fascination? Which ones can you use to grow your tribe? Fascinate walks you through each one, helps you identify yours and teaches you how to leverage them to fascinate your fans.

5. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini

Why do people do what they do? What drives people's actions and decisions? Influence will walk you through how people make decisions and teach you how to craft your message in the most persuasive way. This is a fascinating book that everyone trying to sell anything (especially a book!) should read.

6. Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath & Dan Heath

This amazing follow up to Made to Stick teaches you the framework for catalyzing change in your tribe. Merely crafting your idea to stick is not enough, you have to then figure out how to get people to follow you and make a difference. Switch teaches you how.

7. The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott

Media has changed and the power is now in your hands. That's great but now what? The New Rules of Marketing and PR walks you through how to leverage the online tools to maximize your marketing and spread your message.

8. Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers by Seth Godin

How do you build a fan base that will buy your book (and anything else you sell)? Traditional forms of advertisement and marketing don't work like they used to. The future is found in Permission Marketing.

9. The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself by John Jantsch

While this book is written for businesses, it is a gold mine of information for the author. You want people to spread the word and tell their friends to buy your book. The Referral Engine offers a systematic way to do this.

10. Web Copy That Sells: The Revolutionary Formula for Creating Killer Copy That Grabs Their Attention and Compels Them to Buy by Maria Velosa

Writing a book and writing web copy are two very different things. You want to move people to buy your book and Web Copy That Sells offers a step-by-step plan on how to do this. Skip this title at your own peril.

11. Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business (New Rules Social Media Series) by Ann Handley & C.C. Chapman

This is the newest book on the list and the title I've been waiting for. One of the hardest things to figure out is how to come up with content for your platform and use it effectively. Content Rules is the definitive guide on this subject. It will walk you through how to come up with content, how to leverage it to grow your tribe and "reimagine" it for multiple uses.