(Business 2.0) – To promote his books Why Do I Love These People? and the best-selling What Should I Do With My Life?, Po Bronson has submitted opinion pieces to newspapers, visited regional book fairs, kept a blog, and even asked readers to vote on potential book covers. "Unless you're lucky enough to have a book picked by the Today show or Oprah," Bronson says, "you have to help make the market for it."

Anyone interested in marketing their own work can learn a lot from today's authors. In the past, publishers handled promotion by organizing tours and paying for shelf placement. But with more books competing for fewer marketing dollars, authors are increasingly asked to build their own buzz. Author-run blogs, once nice-to-haves, are becoming must-haves. Writers now travel around the country not only to read at bookstores but also to visit tiny book clubs in fans' homes. "Many of these promotions are paid for by authors, not publishers," says Joseph Finder, a Boston writer who recently got Steelcase to donate a $2,000 office chair, which he gave away online to promote his thriller, Company Man.

Whatever the method, the goal is the same: getting people to buy more books. The adult hardcover market grew less than 2 percent last year to $2.2 billion, compared with 6.3 percent in 2004, according to the Association of American Publishers. "Marketing dollars are being squeezed," says Pauline Hubert, president of BookMovement.com, which connects Bloomsbury, Warner Books, and other clients with local book clubs.

Those clubs, which count about 5.6 million Americans as members, are a valuable word-of-mouth marketing tool. Colorado-based author John Shors spent the past year chatting with book clubs in more than 50 cities to promote his novel about the Taj Mahal. Titled Beneath a Marble Sky, it has landed on regional best-seller lists, and Shors has sold the movie rights. "I would be foolish not to go after these clubs," he says.

M.J. Rose, author of The Halo Effect, not only made the book-club rounds but also organized virtual "book tours," fielding questions on various blogs that cater to her reader demographic. Last summer she worked with Santa Monica-based production company VidLit to create an online video ad, akin to a movie trailer, for her book; she then promised to donate money to charity every time a blogger linked to the ad. In four weeks 40,000 people had viewed the trailer. "A very small percentage of books are best-sellers," Rose says. "The rest of us have to figure out a way to stay alive." You don't have to be a writer to relate to that story.

Rewriting the Rules of Promotion

Here's what author M.J. Rose did to market her 2004 book, The Halo Effect.

1 Book-club chats.

Rose met with groups of avid readers in living rooms across the country.

2 Virtual book tours.

She sought out relevant blogs where she could answer readers' questions.

3 Online "trailers."

Rose worked with a video production company to create a movie-style preview for the book.

4 Web-based contests.

She promised to donate money to charity when bloggers linked to her video trailer.