What are three words that authors hate to hear? Promotion, promotion, promotion! A writer is someone who generally prefers to stay locked away in a small writing studio (perhaps in an undisclosed tropical location), to speaking in front of crowds, answering questions on national radio, or God forbid, have their un-photogenic faces filmed beside Oprah's! But these are all fears that must be overcome in order to reach that coveted title of "bestselling author." The task is made even more terrifying when you are a self-published author with little or no PR experience and no one to represent you. Because let's face it, the majority of self-published authors can't afford a publicist with services that can cost anywhere from $1,000 - $20,000 just to retain, not to mention their hourly rates.

So what's a poor little self-published author to do? That's where 's book, "From Book to Bestseller; An Insider's Guide to Publicizing and Marketing Your Book!" comes in. Penny is in fact herself a self-published author, starting with her novel, "The Cliffhanger" published by iUniverse in 2000. Acting as her own publicist, Penny was able to rocket her little romance novel to number one on the Amazon Bestseller List for the San Diego area, three months in a row! She then marketed herself as a publicity expert, created a very successful business helping self-published authors, and compiled all of her techniques in this easy-to-follow book.

As a print-on-demand author myself, who has been dreading the idea of promoting my book with little or no assistance, Penny's book is like a how to manual on the first steps to publicity. It contains things that a self-published writer (particularly a fiction writer) would never have thought were even available. There are other books out there that will perhaps describe in more detail one or a few of the areas covered here (in fact Penny even states up front that this book should be used more as a guide than absolute Bible), however Penny covers it all from a self-published author's perspective. And not many experts in this area can say they understand that side of it.

Some of the invaluable topics that are covered include:

* Creating an Exceptional Press Kit
* Getting Book Reviews
* Getting into Book Clubs
* Courting Special Sales
* Getting Into Catalogs
* Garnering Celebrity Endorsements
* Pitching to the Media
* The Art of the Morning Show Pitch
* Tips for a Successful Radio Interview
* Book Signings
* Internet Marketing
* It even lists contacts for The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Early Show, and Oprah! Not to mention many others.