Tim Ferriss teaches book promotion secrets – for $7000.

Although Tim Ferriss (4 Hour Work Week, 4 Hour Body) isn’t self published, his success is due entirely to his own promotion and marketing tactics. Pretty much single handedly he’s created a book promotion campaign strategy that is keeping both his books high on the best-seller lists, for years. A couple days ago he announced that he’s going to hold a private conference with only 200 people, and share the secrets he’s developed to launch a bestseller and keep it selling. And you can join – for $7000. Yes, it’s too pricey for most self-published authors; but it is something to pay attention to.

Hopefully after the conference someone who attended will share some tips (although why would they?).

However it is possible to get a sense of the things Tim has been doing well; he even recommends the book where he got a lot of his inspiration: Author 101: bestselling book publicity By Rick Frishman, Robyn Freedman Spizman, Mark Steisel (link goes to google books version).

One of the things Tim has done well is to be The Star that publishing houses and media love – that’s something indie authors usually cringe from (we like to promote our books, not ourselves). Another is to blog and make videos about things that people are searching for – even simple things like “How to peel a hard boiled egg”; which resulted in a lot of traffic and name/brand familiarity.

At any rate, it’s good to realize that even Tim Ferriss started by reading books like the Author 101 series, experimented with techniques and persevered.

Derek Murphy is the author of “Jesus Potter Harry Christ.”