The author of Still Alice shares some tips for self-publishing authors.

There is a saying in academic science: "Publish or perish!"

They say this because if you don't publish your results in peer-reviewed journals, you won't get the next round of funding, which means you won't have the money to do the next round of experiments, which means you're out of a job.

I no longer work at the lab bench as a neuroscientist. I haven't in ten years now. But this "publish or perish" mantra must've gotten under my skin and into my blood. It gave me just the mentality I needed to become a novelist.

Before I self-published my first novel, Still Alice, in the summer of 2007, I tried going the traditional route. I spent a year querying literary agents. But no one wanted my book. I was sitting in a holding pattern with a completed novel and no one reading it, waiting to find out if Still Alice was ‘good enough,' waiting to find out if I was a ‘real writer,' unable to give myself permission to write the next book. This was not a fun year.

To the last agent that year who said, "No thanks," I said, "Okay, then. I've had enough of this. I'm self-publishing."

I'm so grateful I had the confidence to ignore his response:

"Don't self-publish. You'll kill your writing career before it begins."

He couldn't have been more wrong.

It's important to know that a self-published book was not my goal. I self-published because I couldn't make any headway down the conventional road to a book deal. My self-publishing goal was to demonstrate that Still Alice had an enthusiastic and sizeable audience. I wanted to give my book a chance to wave its arms in the air and yell at the top of its lungs, to create a buzz loud enough for the literary agents and publishing houses to hear. And at the end of my self-published day, I still wanted a book deal from a traditional publishing house.

So with that goal in mind, in the summer of 2007, I paid iUniverse to publish my novel. I required no editing, no book cover design (thanks to my talented husband at AuthorZoom), and no marketing. They offer all of these services and more, but I had either already done these things or was willing to do them myself. I simply needed them to print the book.

Since Still Alice was not going to be carried in physical bookstores outside my local area, it was crucial to have it available for purchase online. This is where the internet plays a critical role in the marketing of your book and the creation of your buzz. Like Youtube, Myspace, and CDBaby do for independent filmmakers and musicians, there are many online sites that can help independent authors reach audiences from all over the globe.

You have to have a website. You have to have your book available at Facebook, Amazon.com and BN.com. You have to get social—start making friends at MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, GoodReads, Shelfari, AuthorsDen, Flickr, EBlogger, etc. In each of your profiles, share your book cover, your bio, an excerpt, praise, reviews, an author Q&A, a video, your blog. You will probably find that you like some of these social networking sites better than others. It's okay to spend more time at one or two and just check in with the others from time to time. But do visit them all. I've made the most amazing, influential, and important contacts through these websites.

Social networking works. Be everywhere you can be. And be as professional looking as possible everywhere you are. The more you look like a "real" author with a "real" book, the better your chances are of getting some real attention.

By seven months, after I'd started getting some significant feedback and press, I could sense the beginnings of a buzz. I then hired Kelley & Hall Book Publicity to join me in my efforts. By nine months, things were definitely beginning to vibrate. By ten months, you could hear the BUZZ. Word of mouth and a generous introduction led me to a literary agent and within a week of signing our contract, Still Alice sold at auction to Pocket Books at Simon & Schuster.

It was re-released in January 2009 and debuted at #5 on the New York Times Bestseller list.

This is not a math equation. One plus two doesn't necessarily equal three. There are no guarantees here. You can do everything I did and not get a publishing deal. But I hope you do!