I am an author and looking for great marketing, public relation, and book distribution ideas.?

Okay, I am both a published author and PR professional. You've got to make the painful realization that there were almost a half million book published in the US last year. Only a fraction of these books ever make it into a bricks and mortar book store, but all are available on Amazon.com. As for traditional distribution I would make sure to call every book store in the city where you live and ask them to please carry the book. I would also do the same in other cities you've lived or in areas where you have a lot of friends. There is no magic bullet here. You've got to make this happen. Good luck and happy holidays.

So you wish to reinvent the wheel? Get a decent agent who will find good enough publisher if you are worth anything.

Provide free copies to people who do book reviews in your local and small town papers. Create profiles on websites such as GoodReads and ask for reviews from your friends and family who have read your book - honest reviews :-)

Good luck!

Try this http://www.BoxForYou.com a free classified website, you can sell anything for free!

Some people put a link in the ad, to help direct traffic to their own business website. I think that is the cheapest way to promote your business, especially to those newly start up small business owner. $zero cost.

Hope this will help. Good luck!

In addition to the other great comments you got, I would suggest turning your books into e-books, so they can be distributed electronically over the 'net.

You'll have to create a web page and do some research on how to drive your target market to your website.

Another alternative is to make an ebook that has just a little bit of the contents of your regular book. You would have links in the ebook to where to buy the book online-Amazon, etc.

Good luck.