I spent much of last week following coverage from the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing conference. What was made abundantly clear is that the future of publishing is largely in the hands of individual authors. In a nutshell: All writers absolutely need to start building their community of readers.
Marketing guru Seth Godin offered some brilliant advice to writers in this 2006 post Advice for Authors.
“The best time to start promoting your book is three years before it comes out. Three years to build a reputation, build a permission asset, build a blog, build a following, build credibility and build the connections you’ll need later.”-Seth Godin
Want to publish a book in three years? The time to start building your readership for that book is now.
Of course a blog is the most obvious place for a writer to start developing that readership. A problem I’ve noticed though, is that for whatever reason many very smart writers have a difficult time keeping a blog going. I believe this is largely due to the fact that they’re spending their creative energies on stories, novels and memoirs.
A blog shouldn’t be a dreaded chore. It can and should be just another creative outlet. A blog can actually help your writing if you approach it in a positive way, as a building block to a devoted readership.
And if you’re having trouble getting started or keeping up the momentum on your blog, here are some things to blog about:
• How’s the work on your book coming along? Readers can really get drawn into an author’s writing process.
• Who do you know? Some interesting characters most likely. Interview them Q&A style.
• What are you reading? Thumbs up or down?
• Do you have favorite inspirational quotes? Of course you do! Share them.
• What’s your point-of-view on E-Books, the Kindle, or any other hot topic that’s floating around the publishing industry.
• Writing techniques pieces, written in how-to format are always on the mark. You’re in it, so write about it.
• What are your favorite helpful writing gadgets? Your laptop? Your digital voice recorder? We want to know. Blog it.
• How do you motivate yourself when you’re not feeling inspired to write. Inspirational pieces are always a great draw.
• Post short excerpts of your work in progress. Don’t worry if the piece isn’t quite ready for prime time. It can and probably will change when it’s ready for book publication but so what? Your readers will love this and you may get some great feedback in the process.
• Forget about the adage, “No one cares what you had for breakfast.” If you’re a creative writer who can write about what you had for breakfast in an entertaining way, go for it.
There you have it. Use this list to get started and add your own ideas to it over time. Blog three or four times a week for three years. There you’ve got yourself a platform!
And if you want a little extra help to get your blog going, check out the Editor Unleashed Blogging Workshop starting in March. I guarantee it will get your blog going!
-Maria Schneider
flickr photo by notionscapital
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This was just what I needed to inspire me. I have been slowly picking up the blogging momentum recently just to cope with events and stay in contact with friends/readers but I have been thinking about channeling some of the more difficult aspects of writing a novel into blogs. Including, as you listed, things like books I have found helpful, kick-starts, ways I cope when the black hole of self doubt opens up beneath my feet. I think I am going to aim for at least 1-2 blogs a week, rather than subtracting from my other writing, I think it helps as a pressure release valve.
Thanks for sharing your ideas, Maria. What’s your opinion of including occasional non-writing related posts on our blogs? I visit many aspiring-writer blogs, and even some author blogs, where there is a general focus on writing topics, but also quite a few posts related to their kids, home life, garden, etc. I enjoy them, and since I don’t have a book to promote I
have used that approach with my own blog. Does that make it less “professional” or is that a good idea for building a wider platform?
Good question Carol, I should do a follow up post on this topic actually. I think it’s perfectly fine to include non writing-related posts on your blog. In fact, if you’re writing for a particular niche, you should be writing posts focused on that niche. If you’re a gardening expert who wants to write a book on that topic, write your posts about gardening!
Does this apply to fiction writers as much as to nonfiction writers? Is the niche for a fiction writer my targeted audience in general (ha)? I worry that writing blogs would simply give me access to writers, and I’d hate it if we’re the only ones who buy each other’s books. :)
Carol and Maria, I think you’re better served not writing about writing to tell you the truth. As an author, I NEVER write about writing. Early on I realized that for my blog, I want an audience of READERS not WRITERS (nothing against writers who are also readers, of course). The point is, when somebody reads my novel, it’s not to determine how my writing environment is set up or if I outline or not. They don’t read my novel to determine if I write through writer’s block or sit it out until it goes away. They read it for the story I tell.
Therefore, I set out to build an audience of readers. I do this by telling (hopefully) humorous and/or engaging anecdotes. My novels tend to have a message about society, so my blog occassionally goes political. People now know what type of writing to expect when they get my book OR at least have had their curiosity piqued enough to do some more reasearch. Just be careful, there’s always the possibility of alienating a reader (as with the politics) so you have to be comfortable and believe strongly in what you’re saying, rather than just trying to incite people to garner some attention.
Whichever path you choose, you’re only going to be able to sustain the blog if you enjoy writing it. :)
“I believe this is largely due to the fact that they’re spending their creative energies on stories, novels and memoirs.”
I think you are right about this. Plus it’s a format the writer is unfamiliar with. I think that is why a lot of writers struggle with query letters and synopses as well. They just are not forms the writer is used to dealing with.
I don’t have a problem coming up with blog ideas. Rather, it may be more of a lack of focus. I blog about a lot of stuff, and I think that may put some people off. But I am what I am.
I like your list and just for fun I think I’m going to run with it. I’ll make it my goal to do a post on each and every one of your points, in order. Maybe not all in a row (still need to post my Max Mann on Mondays and contest info on Thursdays), but I’ll work my way through them. The breakfast one should be a good challenge. ;)
~jon
I love to blog. I cannot believe how much I love it. I’ve been trying to assign myself topics, working to a kind of weekly schedule for what a reader might expect at my blog. I also post links to my writing online.
I really recommend that a blogger have a widget that tells something about who’s visiting the blog. It’s especially helpful when people aren’t commenting, because the widget still shows you’re getting traffic.
Nancy, great point. I use sitemeter.com and it works really well. Google analytics works too, but I had a friend just tell me they don’t report a visitor if the visitor’s javascript is turned off. Sitemeter is free…
Maya, this definitely applies to fiction writers. I learned this from M.J. Rose who’s an author of thrillers and a marketing guru. If you’re writing a novel and the main character is a hypnotist, for example, write a blog targeted to people who are interested in hypnotism. There are blogs and blog readers in every niche imaginable.
By the way, I think Jennifer Weiner http://jenniferweiner.blogspot.com/ is a great example of a fiction writer who is great at making a blog work for her. As is Neil Gaiman http://journal.neilgaiman.com/ Two very different styles but they both work!
Great post, Maria. For me the problem of maintaining a consistent regimen of blog postings concerns my own personal aversion to boring my readers. I would rather wait until I have something worthwhile than to put off my readers with a bunch of drivel.
Here’s a question I’ve had lately, though. If you read someone else’s book, and you think it’s truly awful, is it really okay to criticize it publically? Is there an unspoken rule about people in glass houses and all that? Even so, I did recently criticize an author’s work, but kept it on a level about maintaining the reader’s trust and how I believed the author had broken that trust. Not sure if my posting was okay or not, but I did it.
I think it’s also important for authors to note what NOT to blog about. If you’re going to point agents and editors to your blog, be careful that a blog comes across as a professional space. You can be personal to an extent, IMO, but be mindful of how it reads to a stranger.
Super post, Maria. I think my blog hits on all of the above, plus skirts the content of a lot of my fiction and non-fictions – mental health and substance abuse issues, as well as the ’stuff’ that makes being an academic oh-so-much-fun.
According to Godin’s 3 year timeline, I am right on track – except for the publishing part. Agent…. oh agent… Peace, Linda
Great post! As soon as I get my laptop back I’ll have to hang on to this. Well-timed too, as I’ve been wondering whether I started my blog waaay too soon. Turns out I’m on track.
I like the idea of interviewing.. I can see a lot of potential in that.
Though I’m positively cock-a-hoop about blogging on Write for Your Life, I still struggle to be open and regular, so to speak, on my own blog, about my own writing. And the stupid thing is, I know that I should be. I have writer-pals, both tangible and cyber-based, that are great at pushing their own writing, so this blog post should help kick me into gear and be more like them. Consider this a New
Year’sFebruary’s Resolution.Hi Maria,
it takes a great deal of dedication and motivation to continually update and maintain a blog. With that said, it is exciting to see the community build and the online relationships flourish.
For all of you writers out there, it is absolutely worth the effort!
Cheers
George
A great post, Maria, and its timing couldn’t be better. You’ve offered some good advice I plan to follow.
I have one question. You suggest posting excerpts from a book-in-progress, however, I recently read in another writing-related platform a caution pertaining to the selling of first rights. Apparently some book publishers feel too much pre-release exposure can interfere with sales and discourage these excerpts prior to publication. So, my question is, how much of an excerpt is advisable, and how many?
Gail,
That’s an interesting question and it really varies with publishers, but it strikes me as old-thinking. Most forward thinking publishers realize the value of building up a following by posting occasional excerpts. Don’t put the whole book on your blog, but occasionally it’s fine. By the way, authors have been publishing pre-publication book excerpts forever via literary journals and magazines. It builds the book’s readership.
Very useful tips. I’ve been incorporating a lot of them already over the past year but there are some new ones I’ll be happy to learn from. Also, a thanks to the other poster for sitemeter.com. I’ll check that out as well.
I’ve been watching the publishing/journalism world of events with great interest over the past months so in a way, having the responsibility for one’s own publicity and bookselling advantages could be a refreshingly good thing.