The Art Of Blogging And How To Use It As A Self-Publishing Author
It has been fairly common practice for writers of all genres to have a personal website through which they can advertise themselves, and their writing! However, as with all things technological, the information world has moved on from websites and towards blogs and twitters (yes-twitters!) as a means of on-line communication.
Blogs are on-line weblogs that consist of frequently updated journal entry style posts on a webpage. They historically contained personal diary snippets of each bloggers life, focusing on their actions, future events, thoughts, fears, ideas and emotional struggles. As the number of blogs evolved, so blog communities were created, where one blog would be updated by many, and where others were able to respond to blog posts, creating on-line debates, fellowship and support. Twitters are small blogs. They function in exactly the same way as standard blogs, but they can only contain less than 140 characters.
Blogs and twitters are a powerful way to communicate worldwide and are heavily used by commercial companies and journalists to raise their own profiles and generate business. Such an influential communication route should not be missed by self-publishing authors and writers. But how do you use a blog to improve your work, increase your readership, and generate sales?
— Use it before you publish to liberate creativity and test new ideas
Blogs are a great way of experimenting with ideas. They allow you to write what you want (within reason) and to test a variety of different writing genres and styles on your blog’s audience. This can help you define your style, structure and language of writing before you commence working on your latest novel of non-fiction book idea. Blogs also require regular, if not daily, updates to keep readers interested in their content. Having to update your blog everyday means having to write every day, and this is a great way to keep your mind creatively active.
Blogs are now predominately two-way, which means that you can post a blog entry and readers publish their comments on it! This on-line interaction enables you to publish samples of your writing on your blog, get feedback from your readers, and improve or amend your writing following this feedback – and all prior to submitting your work for final publication. As Peter Buckman of the Ampersand Agency explained to me, blogs are a ‘terrific way of stimulating interest in writers and encouraging discussion of their work.’
The two-way communication aspect of blogs and twitters allows you to build up a readership or an audience of people who are interested in the book you are working on or who like your writing style. Therefore, even before you have published your book, you already have a group of individuals who are likely to purchase a copy as soon as it’s released!
— Use it after publication to build up an audience and promote your book
Blogs and twitters can sometimes attract a bigger and wider audience than a standard webpage. Life today is often hectic, fast-paced and hurried. The snippet style writing of blogs and twitters allows readers to quickly get an update on what is happening in your life and your writing – something that is less easy to achieve through a web page.
Blogs give you, the writer, an on-line portfolio which allows readers to feel as if when they read your blog they are getting to know the ‘real you’. It is well known that people tend to buy the ‘seller’ not just the ‘product’ when they make a purchase, and this is hard to achieve in Internet sales…your blog is the closest thing you have to allowing a reader to get to know, and hopefully buy from, you – the seller. As Andrew Lownie, founder of the Andrew Lownie Literary Agency Limited, told me, ‘A blog helps build a relationship with potential readers and entice them to buy books’.
This strategy has proved successful for writers such as Neil Gaiman and Nora Roberts. Gaiman started a blog for his novel ‘American Gods’ in 2001, which was subsequently mentioned in several newspapers and magazines, which certainly helped to promote his books. Similarly, Roberts used her blog to build a strong relationship with her readers, allowing them to take part in her book tours by posting daily photos and entries. This also helped improve her popularity and sales.
Let’s not forget however that there are an awful lot of blogs and twitters available for readers to view on the Internet, and unless you spend a fair amount of time updating your blog regularly and keeping the content interesting and relevant, there isn’t any guarantee that many readers will view your blog. Regardless, it is still worth your while having a blogging presence on-line. As most blog and twitter entries include a link to other websites or articles, you have the opportunity to generate a reasonable number of incoming links to your primary website. Incoming links boost your search engine position, so the more links that you can generate towards your main webpage, the better. You can also add links to your blog or twitter entries that take readers directly to a webpage that is selling your book on your behalf, for example Amazon, which can also help increase sales.
Reading other people’s blogs can sometimes prove to be just as useful as writing your own, as you have an opportunity to glean advertising and marketing tips for promoting your novel, are able to comment on the writing of others, and can quickly keep abreast of up to date news in the world of writing and literature. Why not check out:
-You Don’t Say – A style and grammar guide with a splash of humour
-WordHappy – A celebration of good writing of all types
-Publicity Hound – An opportunity to glean tips on marketing and publicity generating ideas
Happy Blogging!
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I’ve tried Writer’s Market online, what other websites have thorough fiction submission listings?
For example, I have a 28 page literary story that takes place in the South with elements of horror and teenage coming of age. How can I find a suitable magazine or literary journal without having to spend hours wading through of listings. I am not lazy but it takes me longer to find a place to send my manuscript than it did to write the story.
Free would be nice, but I don’t mind paying a reasonable price.
A man with a stolen manuscript approached me today, what should I do?
My name is Boris Balkan and I once translated The Charterhouse of Parma. Apart from that, I’ve edited a few books on the nineteenth-century popular novel, my reviews and articles appear in supplements and journals throughout Europe, and I organize summer-school courses on contemporary writers. I wrote on Lupin, Raffles, Rocambole, Holmes, on Valle-Inclan, Baroja, and Galdos. Also “Dumas: the Shadow of a Giant”, and your essay on The Count of Monte Cristo. Today a man visited me, a Lucas Corso, a dealer in rare books and manuscripts. He wanted my opinion on a manuscript – the handwritten ‘The Anjou Wine’, chapter 42 of the “Three Musketeers”, by Alexandre Dumas pere. He wanted to know if it was original. It happens so that it is, and it is the writing of Dumas himself (and his collaborator). But I know for a fact that this manuscript is in a private collection and it’s not for sale. I recognised it at once, I delivered it to the present owner myself. Corso refused to tell me how he came into this manuscript, of who was the seller. I am unsure as to what to do. I don’t have any solid facts, is it feasible to go to the police? What should I do?
lulu.com
The Chinese write family name first and given name last, but you need to watch out so that the name hasn’t been “westernised” and reversed to fit western standards.
The wiki on the topic:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_name
how do Chinese names work? first, middle, last? some other style?
I am writing up my masters thesis, a lot of the biochemical journals I cite reference Chinese scientists. I just want to make sure on my final manuscript that everything is correct. would “Yue-Feng Shi” is Yue-Feng this individuals first name? or is Feng a middle name? Another common example would be Bernard P.L Chan. Would the individual have middle initials of P and L such as another hyphenated name combination for the middle name? any help would be appreciated. thanks!
I’ve been getting critiques on my own query letters here for a week or so, and have some advice to share.
First thing:
Paragraph breaks. You have a large chunk of text and that needs to be broken up to help the reader separate ideas out.
Good work on just diving into the synopsis – books about how to write query letters say you should have an introduction but the agents that I’ve had contact with say you shouldn’t. Take your pick.
You have quite the credentials, but I’d leave off any reference to your age. Have that be a surprise that the agent finds out after choosing to publish you on the merit of your writing, rather than a stumbling block that might prejudice the agent against you.
The summary itself doesn’t seem that interesting to me but that could easily be that it’s just not my genre. The history within your story attracts me (how do the 1920s in London shape what you wrote?) but I’m just not that into romantic comedies. So I’m going to give you the best advice I can muster:
Check out queryshark.blogspot.com. I spent a week going through the archives there, and learned everything I know about query writing.
Can anyone give me a critique on my query letter?
I have to write a query letter to a literary agent for a manuscript I recently finished and was wondering if anyone could help to make this something better than it is:
In 1920’s London, 22-year-old Gary Cresswell’s search for love starts in a bare flat above the infamous Sunnier Days Pub. Living with a sexually frustrated confidante of his, Charlotte, Gary feels he is missing out on the world, that his regular writing job is fulfilling but not as much as finding someone to truly love. Ironically at a party Charlotte has asked Mr. Cresswell to accompany her to, he meets a young actress and decides that night, that he would love her forever. Unfortunately, Charlotte has other plans and when Gary’s outlook on his relationship with his roommate is made clear, a bitter dispute will pull them apart. Desperately needing to find another job to cover himself after being kicked out, Gary takes one carrying letters to upper class townspeople and finds himself in a scandalous affair with one of his correspondents; Emma, the actress who had already stolen his heart. They plan to run away together but the prior engagements of her former lover adds to the already stressful position of their love.
Ellsbury is a romantic comedy of 61,000 words.
Although I am a 17 year old writer, trust me when I say (Even though I have years ahead of me) I know how difficult it is to find love in this world. My ideas have led to magazine publication, National Anthology publication, blogging, appearances on MSG, and Telecare, and a Columbia University’s High School Literary Journal #1 ranking honor as editor of my former high school’s literary magazine. I’m a member of the LIWG (Long Island Writer’s Guild, Inc.), and the AYJW (The Association of Young Journalists and Writers). I have also been mentored by screenplay writers, editors, and authors while crafting my writing ability. I am a regular to The Great South Bay Magazine, and Teenink.
Thank you so very much for reading my query and taking it under consideration.
Here’s my second revision of my story blurb:In 1920’s London, 22-year-old Gary Cresswell’s search for love starts in a bare flat above the infamous Sunnier Days Pub. Living with a sexually frustrated confidante of his, Charlotte, Gary feels he is missing out on the world, that his regular writing job is fulfilling but not as much as finding someone to truly love. Ironically, at a party Charlotte has asked Mr. Cresswell to accompany her to, he meets a young actress and decides that night, that he would love her forever. They plan to run away together but the prior engagements of a former lover add to the already stressful position of their love.
Any better? Sound more interesting?
What will it take for you to believe?
I’m just wondering why some of you won’t believe in God.
You discredit the Bible, even tho it’s got more manuscripts to back it up then what we have about Alexander the Great, and I’m sure more manuscripts than other historical documents.
You write off anything proven true in archeology, science, or anything else from the Bible as coincidence.
You deny that this earth we live in and the universe (as well as) the complexity of the human body is proof of a creator. Which, btw, I highly doubt that if you ever cut up a tree and shook it up in a giant box for all eternity that it would ever form to be a tree again.
You discredit miracles and other supernatural expierences, because, you yourself were not there to witness it.
Now, I imagine that all of this by itself is hard to swallow, but all of this together is more than enough proof.
But you won’t believe in God unless you see his face? Unless he pulls a rabbit out of his hat? He makes your life perfect? what do you want?
I suppose the journal entry from Sally down the street doesn’t exist either because you neither see her or know who she is.
The Human race is never always right, but notice how we always think we are? The phrase is “I think therefore I am” not “I think, therefore I am always right!”
Humans used to think the world was flat, doctors used to think they had to let their patients bleed to cure them of sickness (called bloodletting), humans used to think that black people were not as smart just because they were black (and some still do).
Human logic is flawed but God’s is not. If it was, than he wouldn’t be God because God is perfect and just. I know you don’t like God’s morals and that is what it comes down to. I’m sure many more people would believe in God (with the proof already stated above) if God was a hippie and let people do whatever they wanted, but that’s not how it goes. Honestly, some ppl act like teenagers that simply are rebellious and don’t want restrictions put on them, even if the restrictions are for the better.
We can’t drill the to center of our own planet but somehow humankind can deduce that without a doubt there is no God. We haven’t even searched the entireity of space yet humankind can somehow deduce that without a doubt there is no God. Humankind’s knowledge is limited to what we know, shock and surprise.
If we’re right about Heaven and Hell (which I believe we are) are you going to be mad at God after every bit of evidence you had of his existence or just be mad that He didn’t fly out of Heaven and perform a miracle for you?
Let’s all be adults here and answer the questions, since there are (multiple) questions here. If you report this question instead of answering it than simply move on to a question you can answer.
Contact the present owner, ask if he still has the manuscript.
It’s not your property.
(funny though…)
hey i believe the bible and since i know god and where i came from i know unbelievers do not know these things but because you say i have faith in god i say i see your body but do not belive you are alive like i am to atheists any one who is an athiest cannot live where all good people go to do everything to gether and science is their distant way of letting us know they already know that jugdejing on personality says alot about WHAT everybody is going tohave to do and to true atheists this means not going to be around people who are important very much,., but still pollutiong anything that exists by behaving like they do not know they are abnormal compared to to people who would rather trade their life than not for another .,,., the way people skeek says it all about them!