I recently came across a good book on marketing called "Contagious: Why Things Catch On"
Here's a video of him promoting it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN4eDk1pq6U.

It looks really good. The basic "STEPPS" are:
Social currency -- What about this will make the person telling others about you, cool?
Triggers  -- What events will naturally occur in their life to remember (and want to talk about) this?
Emotional -- How will this make them feel?
Public  -- How available is this to everyone to see?
Practical value -- How does this compare with all of the other ones out there?
Stories -- A short, memorable story, joke, or anecdote about this that is easy to share quickly?

They sound like good things to think about. The "this" doesn't have to be the book; it can be what ever promotional (or other) thing you want others to help you share.

(Full disclosure: I checked the book out of the library, but I haven't gotten past the first chapter yet.)

If anyone is interested in the paperback version of my book, I've set up a $3.00 discount here (https://www.createspace.com/4036130) with the promotion code (W7LSZ8GF). Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Discipulus-Secretus-Discovery-Hidden-Volume/dp/0938399241/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1415736406&sr=8-1) offers a $1.50 discount and the possibility of free shipping. So there are a couple of more options available now.

For my Discipulus Secretus series I wanted to create a world that was close enough to reality that readers might wonder how much of it could be true. I wanted to blur the lines some between fiction and reality. Having loved The De Vinci Code, I thought that part of the magic of that story was that sense of blurred reality. I intentionally chose my conspiracies and magic based on this principle of having my pretend world look like it could be real.

I picked a magic system that I hoped could spark more of sense of wonder and imagination because it might look more believable. I figured that a lot of the fun in reading a book like this would be in imagining that it could happen. I picked a system that a reader might at least easily see as something that others might come close to already believing in.

I've realized, however, that in doing this, in creating a world "too close to home," that it might trigger in some emotional barriers. While I intended to spark imagination and fuel the excitement and adventure, I may have inadvertently knocked against strong barriers of psychological discomfort. The word, "Mormon," alone can have strong visceral meaning associated with it that instantly raises large defenses of impenetrable strength.

With my love of many of the fictional iconizations of Catholicism, I was excited to have the opportunity to help draw and define a fictional Mormonism. Where as "ancient" and/or perhaps "lost" texts can be found while searching through one of these fictional Catholic libraries in exciting stories of the supernatural, Mormonism offered a different path for me with it's additional scriptures and promise of restored ancient truths. The fictional dramatization of this into a world of mystery, mysticism, and deception was exciting to me and I hoped to capture the imagination of those reading this into my new world of fantasy and adventure.

I should have realized that with similarities to The De Vinci Code and The Golden Compass that I was starting to tread on sensitive subjects for some readers who might have loved the same story much more if told from a completely different context, without it being so "close to home (perhaps)." I was intrigued by how much I loved The Golden Compass and didn't take into account, as much as I should have, the readers that it did alienated.

I don't want readers to be kicked out of the story because of concern or worry about how some of these issues are handled. At the same time I love making loud noises and shaking things up, at least in this literary sense. I can't imagine having written this book with a different, more fictional or fantastic, world or magic system. So I'm afraid that even though I want to apologize for any bruised or injured feelings that I may have caused by creating this fictional world of mine, I'm still going to keep it where it is.

I am thinking, though, that instead of writing the sequel next, I want to write a horror novel that is based on this same world structure. I think that will help ease readers into this imaginary world better by taking a couple of steps back from religion and just exploring the magic. I think it will also help me as a writer as well, improving all of my writing skills that are needed to write a successful horror. (And I don't think I'll take it as personally when readers are turned off because they don't like horror.)

In trying to understand what makes a good story, I've come to realize how personal and at the same time how universal this can be. From the universal stand point a good story needs a good hook, the better the hook the more compelling it is to dive into and forget everything else that might try and pull you away from the story. The story then needs to hold the "listeners" attention. Very much like the hooks, the hold needs to persuade the "listener" over and over again how important it is to follow the story all the way through to the end. And then there has to be a payoff at the end. The "storyteller" has to deliver on his/her promises that the "ride" was well worth the "price of admission".

Yet for each of those, (hook, hold, and payoff) what makes them compelling is individual. Each person can have very different goals for their life, how and where they find entertainment, and how each element of their life provide fulfillment and enrich their lives to make them more than they would have otherwise been. Some of these individual characteristics can be categorized, like if they are just drifting though life without any real or solid goals or if they are strongly compelled to some very specific goals. Other characteristics can be much more individualized like a strong affinity for purple and pink dragons with social personality disorders which compel them to try and please those less likely to be accepting.

In the processes of trying to figure out what creates a good hook, hold, and payoff I've come to a bit of an epiphany about myself ( http://wordmindjourney.blogspot.com/2013/10/understanding-me.html ). But, here, I realize it is better to get you're views and opinions on the best ways to hook, hold, and deliver. Because there are so many contradictory "suggestions" out there for writers on how best to do this. And for authors that want to try their hooks and such out, I've noticed that some are tried here, I've also heard that the Baen slush pile is a good place to get feed back. What are your views on how to make the absolute best hooks, holds, and payoffs?

I’ve heard that there are three types of sales:
1)      Soft sales: where the person might pay for the product after they’ve seen it and know that it meets their needs.
2)      Hard sales: where the person will pay up front for the product because their fairly certain in advance that it’s probably alright and worth the risk.
3)      Ecstatic sales: where the person loves everything you’ve ever done and wants everything you can sale them and is clamoring for more.

I figure that there is nothing that exemplifies this ideal of the “ecstatic sale” more than with writing. Whether you call it brand name recognition or the “Harry Potter” phenomenon, it’s an elusive ideal worthy of all the effort it takes to reach that lofty goal.

I recently went to a writing convention where one of the authors that spoke talked about how you can’t think of being an author as a hobby. He joked that when people say to him that they want to take off for the summer and write a book he’d respond with, “Yeah, I was thinking of taking the summer off to become a neural surgeon.” The point being, that when you create a book that you want others to read, it’s got to be professionally done. If the author bypasses traditionally publishing because it’s too much work to go through all of the editing and revision stages, then the book is really just good for one reader alone, and that’s the author.

On the flip side of this however, of the approximately 1% of people that get accepted by a publisher and get a book published, the average income is about $3,000. This means that even for those that are published it’s not likely that being an author is more than just a hobby. Perhaps this is the fault of the publishing industry. Perhaps the reason for so many inadequate books that get published is because of an inadequate model.

I’ve realized that before I want to do anymore marketing of my book, I still have to improve the writing inside – which means for me paying for copy editing. Having come from a science/engineering background where my communication skills and knowledge of the English language is still quite limited, in order to give my book a more professional feel I have to pay someone that knows what they’re doing. Even as I learn more spelling and grammar rules, I imagine I’ll still need someone who can professionally look through my work and make sure I didn’t mess up. My brain is just too amazingly good at filling in details that it wants to see as opposed to what is actually there.

I think the path to getting ecstatic sales also includes holding back on other promotional methods until the quality of the product does match the standard that you want to reach. Once a bad review is out there it will limit the potential audience. On the other hand each critical review offers the potential for improvements that can be made to insure that people are ecstatic about what you have to offer.

Hopefully someday I’ll be able to make a career out of this, it’s certainly exciting enough that I can imagine enjoying creating entire universes and tour guides through them on a full time basis.

There are so many amazing people here that I look forward to reading what you have to say on the subject.