It may be a labor of love, but it's still a labor. And while you're not out there cracking rocks with a sledgehammer, some might even call it hard labor. That's totally fine. Nothing good comes easy. And there's no question that you're wonderfully suited for this kind of labor, right? But the problem in fact, the big sneaky surprise, comes shortly after you finish laboring on your masterpiece:

That's when most authors realize they face the brand new labor of promoting their books, too.

What do I mean? I mean that, unless the good publishing fairy comes down and waves its magic wand over your book, you've got to jump into the promotional trenches and fight, tooth and nail, to get your book anywhere near the bestseller lists.

It's not fair, I know. Call it the double whammy of publishing, as hard as it is to write a good book, it can be even harder to promote it. Which has, sadly enough, turned out to be the death sentence for far too many "could-have-been" bestsellers. After all, how many authors have been great at the first "whammy" only to throw their hands up at the second (and then, tragically, and out of sheer frustration, given up writing altogether)?

Fortunately, good book promotion doesn't have to be as mysterious as the pyramids you can put some little-known (but wonderfully effective) promotional "tricks" to work for you starting this very day. For example:

Is This Your Month?

Ever notice how every month comes with "awareness themes." Take April, for example. Among its other awareness themes, April is Cancer Control Month, Child Abuse Prevention Month, Couple Appreciation Month, National Humor Month, National Autism Awareness Month, Lawn and Garden Month, National Poetry Month

and Alcohol Awareness Month.

And that's just April. Every month has its own theme list. And you can bet many of those months have themes aimed at your book.

So what's the strategy here? Pretty simple, really: Tie the theme of your book to a month's theme. Do a good job of that, put your press release right in front of the media's "nose" and you could just land several high-profile interviews.

That's one nice way of cracking into the formerly impenetrable "media fortress." Here's another:

Tie Into Today's News

You've got to be a bit more agile for this. Whenever there's a news story that relates to your book, cook up a strong press release and shoot it right over to talk radio producers, TV news producers and newspaper editors. These people are always looking for credible guests with great slants on today's news.

How long do these kinds of news windows stay open? Not long at all. That's why, as I said, you've got to be quick and agile.

Either that or you've got to enlist the help of a PR professional who is quicker and more agile than you'd ever care to be.