Professor asks 4 advice on promoting new advanced book

Any specific hints for promoting an academic book in SE's?

[physics]

A former physics Professor of mine (one of my favorites) just finished writing a book on advanced statistical physics. He is one of the leaders in the field so there should be demand among the academic physics circles (graduate level and higher). I have offered to help him promote the book since he always helped me out (karma baby :)). I have a lot of knowledge about SEO but I have never considered how to promote an item of this kind. He is very computer savvy, and a quick learner (obviously) so let's assume that we can give him complex recommendations if necessary. Let's also assume that he wants to do it mostly for free (although I *will* recommend paid submit to directories). Some of the specific issues that I face in helping him are:

1) Usually one registers a domain and gets a host and so on so they can have a stand-alone site. However, since he is a Professor I'm betting that he could get a site like [physics.his-university.edu...] for free (plus, he would get big points from Google for being on a well-respected university site, no?)

*Should I recommend that he get his own .com or stick with the .edu page?
*Could he get that page listed in directories such as Yahoo and Looksmart and DMOZ?

2)I am thinking that I will recommend that he convert sections of his book into HTML (He already has it in .pdf and .ps format) and build a themed site which has chapter previews... i.e.

Home - Index
link to chapters and some key pages.

Chapter 1
Link to home and other chapters and some key pages.

Page 1
Content from page 1 of chapter 1, some links.

Page 2 ...
...

...

This is pretty simplistic, but I think I will also recommend that he read the 'Themes' [webmasterworld.com] discussion so he can make his own decisions in this regard.

It seems to me that these will serve as perfect natural doorways and take little time to set up. Any other recommendations on how he should set up the site?

If anyone knows of some resources that would be appropriate for this sort of thing, posts on WebmasterWorld, or example sites please let me know (sticky mail if you don't want to post).

[Brett_Tabke]

1) That is a tough call to make. I think I would go with the .edu site. There are some perks as well as hazards. Google, ODP, and Yahoo (paid) will love it. Fast, Excite, Alta, will knock the rankings mildly.

2) Yes. The more he can tolerate giving away for free the better. At best, I've seen good success with the the table of contents listed, an intro or preface, and then the leading paragraph of each chapter. Appendix might work too. All on separate pages.

[paynt]

What I would do physics, is purchase a domain and create a simple site to promote the book. Give enough information to be viable. Find some good affiliates to help sell the book and get them to link back from the
oh-so-on-topic sites. I would then have the professor create a nice little resource site on his .edu and provide a nice bio about the professor and the book. I would then have him theme link to related resources and ask those to link back to him. In the process I would suggest they read more about the book and suggest that site for linking as well. As a start.