Yesterday on my personal blog, I reviewed Ed Cyzewski’s new book, A Path to Publishing. In the book Ed writes,
“I strongly suggest that you consider developing a regularly updated blog as a first priority.”
Blogging provides a number of essential benefits to becoming a successful author. Here are 10.
1) A blog provides a place for authors to practice writing.
2) A blog provides a place for authors to flesh out ideas, getting feedback from readers about them.
3) A blog provides a place to connect with readers and potential buyers of their books.
4) A blog provides authors a place to connect with other bloggers and authors who could help promote their book.
5) A blog provides authors a place to post reviews of other books and participate in blog tours as a way of building relationships with other blogs and learning about blog tours.
6) A blog builds an author’s credibility and platform, which is one of the things publishers consider when deciding whether to offer a contract for a book.
7) Blog posts are indexed by search engines & will bring new visitors to an author’s site to buy their books.
8 ) Blog posts may be shared through social media by your readers, which will bring new visitors to an author’s site as a result.
9) Blog posts give an author good content to share on Facebook and Twitter, helping them build their Facebook and Twitter followers as well.
10) Authors attempting to make writing their career can sell ad space on their blog to generate revenue to supplement that generated from book sales.
How important do you think blogging is for authors? Which of the benefits of blogging listed above, are most important to you? What other benefits does blogging offer authors?
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That list kind of assumes that the author is writing non-fiction. Personally I'm in the middle of writing fiction and then write a blog that's Christian Inspiration type stuff, but ultimately has little to nothing to do with my writing. Occasionally I'll post poetry or short stories (although I only did the latter once) but I don't really talk about my writing. Is it worthwhile to start a second blog that's more closely related to my writing in this case, especially since my writing is fiction?
Hey Sage, I'm not sure it matters whether an author writes fiction or non-fiction, but I think it is essential that the blog targets the same audience as the book and touches on the same themes as the book on a regular basis.
If your current blog and the book you're working on have completely different audiences and different themes, then I think you'd have to start a second blog. But that would double your blogging work. It also complicates social media because you end up trying to connect with two different audiences with each profile. I think you'd be better off looking for synergy between your current blog and your book.
What is your book about?
Well there is a bit of synergy between my blog and my book…sorta, my book has a lot of veiled Christian themes and references. It is an Urban Fantasy in which a classical cyberpunk dystopia encounters the inexplicable and supernatural. Think BLADE RUNNER meets HARRY POTTER (Book 7 of course).
Good question. I agree with Paul. It should be possible to find that synergy, as it seems you have. The best part about blogging is that readers often want to know what you care about, so you can blog about all of the things you've mentioned and still connect with a great group of readers.
I'm pretty clueless when it comes the fantasy genre, but every story has parallels to real life. There's a main character who has strengths and flaws like we all do, he/she faces an obstacle or crisis like we all do in life, he/she struggles to overcome the obstacle as we all do, there are lessons to be learned from the outcome, and often the main character is transformed through the struggle as happens in real life. So, I'm sure you could find ways to blog about the themes in your book. You could also review other books in your genre and blog about the themes in those books.
Paul and Ed, I am in the same boat. I am publishing a juvenile fiction novel in October. But I feel my blog would be more centered around Christian Living. It has been suggested (and I intend to do this) to have one day of the week be devoted to things related to the book and/or juveniles. Therefore the portion of my audience who may only be interested in juvenile fiction can check out my blog on that particular day.
Call it Fictional Friday's or something catchy like that. It sounds like this may be good advice for justapen as well.
Brian, that sounds like a solid idea.
Have you thought about who the target audience for your book is? I know kids will be the ones reading them, but who is most likely to buy them? Parents? Teachers? Another group? Perhaps you could write other blog posts that fit the topic of Christian Living and would appeal to your target audience and help to strengthen your connections with them.
Paul, you bring up a good point. Is my audience the pre-teens or the parents who would be buying it for their kids? I am not sure I have figured that out yet. but I definitely tried to write the book in such a way that it would appeal across the somewhat fuzzy Christian/Secular line. I guess the hope for my blog is that my sense of humor in my writing would appeal to the secular side of the fence while Christian parents would see that the thoughts I put forth in my blog would be reflected in my novels and they would have the confidence to allow their children to read them. (As opposed to some of the trashy alternatives)
Awesome guys, thanks for the tips 🙂
I'm a published author, twice over, and have never blogged. I've been told I should, but don't know how to start a blog.
I think WordPress.com is the best place to start a blog. There's no faster, easier or cheaper (free) place to create a blog. But…
Before you create a blog, I strongly recommend you start by regularly reading the blogs of 3-5 of your favorite authors, so you can get a feel for how author blog.
Couldn't agree more. I manage a website for an author. The publisher said that the positive feedback from his readers was a big determining factor when considering whether to sign him or not. His first novel will be released in October. Writing short stories for the blog keeps him writing consistently between books and draws in more potential customers for his current book and future ones.
Thanks Katdish. It's great to have those points validated by another person so closely connected to the publishing industry.
Your points are excellent! I lead a Christian counseling ministry/educational academy and have begun the foray into blogging in the last few months. We are still sowing but have made some good contacts as we tweet the blog posts. The process is amazing. Am not yet an author, the book is still in my head, but can see the value to your suggestions. Thank you for this article
I agree
I also agree and my writing resources are more and more consistently promoting using blogging as a platform to build credibility and to new work to other authors and to one's readers. My writing has not been submitted for publishing for a while. My new writings are generally centered around themes that will be part of our School of the Prophets. I view blogging as extremely important to my writing success and the School.
Keep the good stuff coming!