On Wednesday night, approximately 80 web people came to the sophisticated new upstairs bar at the Flying Scotsman, Mt Lawley, to celebrate Christmas with Port80, at our official Perth Port80 Christmas Soiree, and to also celebrate the launch of The Principles of Successful Freelancing. Thanks to everyone who showed up, and I apologise that we ran out of books so quickly.

The feedback from everyone was great, both on the event and my book, and a huge thanks to everyone who bought the book!

Today, I’m pleased to announce that SitePoint have now started taking orders for the book, which will be officially launched next week on SitePoint.com. Read about the book over here, and then head to the pre-order page to grab a copy (Oh, and if you’re in Perth, bring your copy to a Port80 meeting, and I’ll happilly sign it for you as well).

When you buy the book, not only do you get a 30 day money back guarantee, but you can also get free shipping anywhere, if you buy more than just this one book. Have a look at some of the other great SitePoint titles.

Image: Photo from Wednesday, by Gary Barber.

I’ve been thinking alot recently, about the best way for an author to get attention for their book on the web. In particular, my own book, of course, but it is very interesting research about the power of the web in general.

In pre-Internet days, all you did was a book launch and then maybe some readings at book stores. I still recall being at my fathers book launches, for each of his books. Times have changed drastically for publishers and Authors now, and they are quickly grasping the web as a tool for promotion.

Luckily, my publisher SitePoint is all about the web, so we’ve got the advantage over some of the old school publishing houses that may be stuck in last century. This means, that when the book officially launches, they’ll promote it via their various online properties.

Before you read any more though, you have to watch this YouTube video by Author, Dennis Cass.

Book Launch 2.0

This is a great example of what an Author can do themselves, delivered by Dennis in a very amusing way.

So what are some of the things an Author can do to promote their book, online? There’s the obvious ones;

• Create a book-specific blog
• Create a Facebook page
• Get on Twitter
• Make a video intro for the book
• Join Amazon Connect, to control your book’s Amazon page
• Email all of your contacts
• Look for opportunities to get excerpts and interviews on other sites

Then there are other examples, such as having a ‘virtual launch’ on Second Life, creating a MySpace page, advertising the book using contextual advertising networks, sending review copies to high profile bloggers, and the like.

The trick here is be authentic – don’t just sign up to lots of social networking or social media services, looking to pimp your book – you need to be engaged with your readers and prospective readers, to get value.

Have any other online promotion ideas, yourself? I’d be keen to hear them – please post a comment below!

Image: First box of copies of my book to arrive!

There’s about four or five weeks left until the book hits our shores, however that doesn’t mean I can’t start pimping it!

As with any self-respecting new book about the business of building the web, The Principles of Successful Freelancing will have its own blog, designed by the very talented Jay Hollywood, where I’ll be sharing short interview snippets with freelance web designers and developers, as well as providing more information about the book, links to freelance resources, etc.

I’d love it if you would head over to http://www.principlesofsuccessfulfreelancing.com/ now and check it out. Feedback and comments are welcome both there and here!

To make it easier to know when a new post hits the blog, you can always follow @posf on Twitter, or indeed join the Facebook page as well…

Image: Screengrab of The Principles of Successful Freelancing blog.