The greatest challenge in today’s digital publishing world is pretty much the same challenge that faced publishers since printing was invented in China; how do you tell people your book is available?
The art of marketing is simply the art of getting a message out to as many people as you are able, the art of advertising is to make that message alluring and ineluctable. Marketing on the Internet at its most basic is using twitter and other outlets to blitz people with a message or newsletter about what is available. This is more-often-than-not seen as spamming even if you only do it once as it is very much in your face. The whole power of the Internet is one where the user – the computer surfer – is in control and marketing is not a matter of immediate returns but of building up a reputation so that people come looking for you.
It is as important to build that reputation in the real world as well as have an on-line presence but the importance of the on-line presence is to appear high up in searches when people come looking for you. The easiest way to do that is to have a unique name.
The main piece of marketing in the future will be the use of copywrights on personal names.