From Blog to Book
In the past few months, I’ve come in contact with numerous bloggers who are ready to take their work from blog to book. Maybe it’s the influence of movies like Julie and Julia, it’s hard to tell, but the idea of selling your blog to a publisher is very appealing to a good many bloggers. But what does it really take to get your blog noticed? Here are some tips if you’re trying to raise the bar on your blog and get it noticed by a publisher:
Ironically, many of the rules of good blogging apply to this article and the first is: Blog often. If you’re a serious blogger you are likely posting daily, if you’re not, then you probably don’t have much to say. If you want to get your blog noticed, you need to be blogging daily. Why? Because it’ll not only help you look massively articulate, but it’ll really help with your traffic and search ranking, and let’s face it: If no one is finding you how do you expect a publisher to discover your blog?
Write great blog posts: OK, I know this is probably another “duh” tip, but here’s the deal: if you’re blogging every day you need to keep your writing strong. Not all your blog posts will be worthy of front page news, but your writing must remain consistently good and your blog posts should be unique, helpful, enlightening, or whatever your goal for the blog is.
Be consistent in your message: In other words, don’t change horses mid-race. If you start a blog on, let’s say, dogs, don’t start talking about guinea pigs three posts into it. You’ll have a boatload of dog people going “huh?” Keep it topical and on message always.
Educate yourself in publishing: If you’re going to compete in this market (meaning publishing) you’re going to want to get to know the industry. Go to (writers) conferences, read some of the trade publications (like Publishers Weekly) and dig into this market. If you find that what you’re blogging on is super-hot, you might want to ramp up the promotion of your blog.
See who’s buying what: There’s a site I highly recommend called publishersmarketplace.com. You can register there for either their free or paid Publishers Lunch newsletter, and with that you’ll also get Lunch Weekly, which shows you who is signing and what they’re buying. If you get a membership on the site you can also find Editors and Agents that might be interested in your topic.
Tell people you have a blog: Do you have a signature file on your email? If you don’t you should, this is the first and one of the best places to promote a blog. Second, get business cards and make sure your blog address is listed there.
Get a unique URL: If you’re going to be a serious blogger get a serious domain name. Yes, you can get sallyauthor.blogspot.com but that’s not your own property, meaning that Google still owns this. If you’re going to be a real blogger, do you really want someone else owning your blog? I don’t think so. Buy a domain name and make sure your blog is hosted there.
Brand yourself: When you’re ready and you have the budget, find someone who can turn your blog into a custom site. They’re great and super easy to do (read: not that expensive) and make a fantastic first impression.
Do some social networking on blogs: Get to know your space, meaning get to know who else is doing what you’re doing and make friends. Unless you’re sitting on the most original idea on the planet, I don’t believe in competition. Get to know who else is out there and start commenting on their blog posts so they know you. There’s a great way to find the top people in your market. Go to a blog search site like Google blog search, type in your keyword and start following the top five bloggers in your market. See what they do, learn from the pros and then thank them for their knowledge by posting helpful comments on their blog (bloggers love comments, by the way). There’s an article on social networking on blogs that you can read here: http://amarketingexpert.com/ameblog/marketing/social-networking-on-blogs/. Many of the tips will be helpful to you as you continue to cyber-schmooze online.
Market your blog: Now that you have a unique URL and branding, you’re going to want to start marketing it. You can do this by getting a Twitter page and feeding your blog through your account (you can use Twitterfeed.com to do this). You should also consider getting a Facebook business page (again branded to your blog) and feed your blog through that as well. Why do you want to do this? Well, it’s important to get as many access points as possible, right? Social networking sites are feeder sites. Use the content on these sites to help you dig deeper into your markets and gather new readers for your blog.
Make your blog shareable: Make sure that folks can share your blog posts to sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. It’s an easy widget to add and most blogs come with this pre-installed.
Social bookmarking: It’s good to social bookmark all your posts. Yes, and I do mean all of them. You should bookmark on the major sites like Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, and Social Poster. You can add more to this list but those are the majors.
Keep good track of your stats: This is another reason why you want to have your own site: so you can keep track of your traffic, which you can’t do if someone else owns your domain. You’ll want to keep a close eye on your blog traffic and learn how to read the site analytics (which is a lot easier than it sounds).
Publishing: An industry of out-of-control of egos, unrealistic expectations, and books with the shelf life of milk. This is Kate’s world, but for how long? When one of Kate Mitchell’s star authors is carted away in handcuffs, she thinks it’s only the beginning of her troubles. As her world crumbles around her, Kate desperately looks for anyone to hold onto but finds that happy endings are truly works of fiction. When her career and love affair hit their expiration date, Kate sets off on a new adventure….
Starting over in California is easy, but Kate soon learns that leaving her old life behind isn’t. Nicholas Lavigne is eager to help her forget, but two things still own her heart, the dream of discovering the next great American novel, and MacDermott Ellis. As Kate tries to rebuild her life she finds a surprising gift that reboots her career in a new and unexpected direction. Suddenly her name becomes synonymous with one of the biggest bestsellers publishing has seen in ages and she’s welcomed back with open arms. At the height of her success the ghosts of her past come back to remind her of the world she’d been trying to forget and the man who never let go of her heart. Behind the book, there’s always more to the story. Welcome to Publishing, the ego has landed.
Buy Now @ Amazon
Genre – Contemporary Romance
Rating – R
More details about the author and the book
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Quality Reads UK Book Club Disclosure: Author interview / guest post has been submitted by the author and previously used on other sites.
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