Guest post by Phyllis Zimbler Miller
Publishing a non-fiction book will usually make it easy for you to write a blog dedicated to your book. The non-fiction subject of your book and related topics can provide ample blogging material.
For example, if you wrote a book on cooking low-fat diets, you could post one low-fat recipe a day along with insider tips to ensure the recipe turns out well. Or if you wrote a book on new social media platforms, you could write each post about one new social media platform and probably never run out of new posts.
The problem of writing ongoing book blog posts really presents itself to fiction writers. If you’ve written a romance novel or a mystery novel, what are you going to write about in your blog posts?
With a little imagination (and you are a fiction writer, aren’t you?) you can come up with interesting posts for your book’s blog. Let’s look at some examples:
You write a novel that takes place in 1970 during the Vietnam War. Because the Vietnam War plays an important role in the novel, you could write posts about historical events that took place during that era or historical events that led to that era. And you could write about the military today fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan and about military families back home. There’s no need to mention your book in every post; the overall context of the blog is about your book.
Now let’s stretch our imagination farther. You write a mystery novel about a series of medical-related murders. You could write posts about deaths that were not murders but were actual medical mysteries. You could also write posts about new hospital procedures that are being implemented to reduce medical-related deaths. And you could write posts telling the family of hospital patients what to look for in suspected medical malpractice.
What if you’ve written a children’s picture book about family members learning to get along? Children are not going to read your blog and their parents aren’t going to read your blog aloud to their children. You could write posts about parent-child issues; if you’re not an expert, you can quote other experts. You could review other children’s picture books on similar topics. You could write posts about children’s literacy issues.
The truth is that you can cast your imagination net far and wide for subjects on which to blog. Just remember that every few posts you should mention your book in connection with that post. For example, if you were writing a post about children’s literacy issues, you could mention that a specific second-grader in your book could read long words but not short words and that her teacher suspected dyslexia.
Or you could quote an entire (short) scene from your novel to illustrate a point you’re making. And, yes, it’s okay that people reading your blog may not know who the characters and situation are. If you choose an appropriate scene, most readers will be able to understand the context of the excerpt.
Fiction authors should be as active as non-fiction authors in the use of blogs to market books. Give your blog readers interesting and well-written posts, and they will read your blog and hopefully buy your book.
For the free report 7 DYNAMIC REASONS FOR TAKING A VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR and other book marketing information, visit http://www.queensofbookmarketing.com. Follow Phyllis Zimbler Miller on Twitter at @ZimblerMiller and connect with her on Facebook and LinkedIn as Phyllis Zimbler Miller.
I really enjoyed this post because
it’s really possible to blog as a
fiction author.
As a fiction author you can find
issues, topics, and news that’s
being discussed throughout the
media and happening in society.
Some things don’t have to be
written by you. It can be an
article that relates to your
story that you can share with
your blog community. Relate it
to your characters and plot.
Excellent posting!
Continue to have an eXcellent week!
Won’t Be Denied,
C.F. Jackson
I really enjoyed this post because
it’s really possible to blog as a
fiction author.
As a fiction author you can find
issues, topics, and news that’s
being discussed throughout the
media and happening in society.
Some things don’t have to be
written by you. It can be an
article that relates to your
story that you can share with
your blog community. Relate it
to your characters and plot.
Excellent posting!
Continue to have an eXcellent week!
Won’t Be Denied,
C.F. Jackson
Good article, but the formatting is messed up. WordPress is sensitive to line breaks.
Also, there’s a problem with the blog layout–and I know what it is, because I just ran into the same thing on my own blog. You need to remove the BOM from the beginning of the header.php file, and to do this you need to edit said file in a text editor. (Doing it through the WP Edit Themes interface would work.)
Good article, but the formatting is messed up. WordPress is sensitive to line breaks.
Also, there’s a problem with the blog layout–and I know what it is, because I just ran into the same thing on my own blog. You need to remove the BOM from the beginning of the header.php file, and to do this you need to edit said file in a text editor. (Doing it through the WP Edit Themes interface would work.)
Great info and advice to get blogging material. Will read more later
Thanks for this great post!
Great info and advice to get blogging material. Will read more later
Thanks for this great post!
Blogging is definitely a powerful tool. Some good points made here – Thank you.
Blogging is definitely a powerful tool. Some good points made here – Thank you.
Great advice — authors need to diversify their income as well as their material. Blogs (and the web in general) serve to provide complementary information to physical products. It’s not far off when books will truly be on-demand, and the delivery mechanism will be the web.
Great advice — authors need to diversify their income as well as their material. Blogs (and the web in general) serve to provide complementary information to physical products. It’s not far off when books will truly be on-demand, and the delivery mechanism will be the web.
Hey Phyllis,
There were some good ideas in your article and I appreciate them. A blog is also an ideal place to market yourself and discuss the industry, just as you have.
All the best,
Lorenzo
Hey Phyllis,
There were some good ideas in your article and I appreciate them. A blog is also an ideal place to market yourself and discuss the industry, just as you have.
All the best,
Lorenzo
Tomato Turtle: A Trip to the Park
Tomato Turtle: A Trip to the Park
I have a friend who submitted her novel to a publishing company. It turned out that the company is concerned regarding the morality of the story, and they rejected it despite the good storyline. So, she decided to publish it in a blog, dedicating one chapter as post per day.
I have a friend who submitted her novel to a publishing company. It turned out that the company is concerned regarding the morality of the story, and they rejected it despite the good storyline. So, she decided to publish it in a blog, dedicating one chapter as post per day.