The New Era of Book Marketing

"With Simon & Schuster Foursquare, we can deliver our book and author content right into the hands of fans and readers at their immediate points of interest," Goodman adds.

But Foursquare doesn't necessarily end with the person using it. Each user can opt to publish his or her location check-ins and the information he or she learns from Simon & Schuster Foursquare on Facebook and Twitter. "So you reach a much greater audience of impressions about your book and about your platform," explains Goodman.

Foursquare is one of the latest additions to Simon & Schuster's nontraditional marketing strategy, but it's certainly not the only part. The publisher is also active on both Facebook and Twitter, which it uses to start and join conversations. Through these conversations, the publisher offers book excerpts, contests, etc., that Goodman says are meant to excite and invigorate the fan base so consumers will then share the offerings with their friends and followers.

Simon & Schuster also has a presence on ustream.tv, a broadcast platform that enables it to hold author events online. This way, people who can't make it to a live reading can tune in online and even ask the author questions, or they can watch the reading after it has happened from an archive.

This is the perfect blend of new and old marketing, says Goodman: "It's about adding these online layers to the real world. It's another way to give [readers] additional information to get them excited about a book and make that purchase."

Touring the Blogosphere

Blogs also have become a popular—and relatively inexpensive—marketing tool for book publishers.

This was the marketing method that San Diego-Calif.-based Legacy Press selected to market its book, "The Christian Girl's Guide To Style," by Sherry Kyle, who embarked on a month-long, "11-stop" blog tour. From mid-November 2010 to the end of the year, three months after the publication of the book, Kyle talked about her book and its message on different blogs, either by guest blogging, or by being interviewed by the blogger. Additionally, other bloggers reviewed her book.