Blogging for Writers

Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody; from Blog to Book

"Just FYI, a lot of book publishers are watching this book to see how it does. The big question in publishing circles is this: If you have a high-profile blog with a million or so readers, how many of those blog readers will buy a book by that blogger? One in ten would still mean 100,000 books sold, which would be great." - from a Fake Steve Jobs blog post

While reading the December 2007 Forbes magazine at lunch, I came across another "blogging/writer" connection, this time in Steve Forbes' editorial page. In place of the usual restaurant reviews is a book review of Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody by Fake Steve Jobs, published in October 2007.

Before Fake Steve wrote his book, he blogged his fake life at The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. Per his current Blogger profile he began blogging in June 2006 and is quite prolific, posting 1586 times so far this year.

Turns out there's a Forbes connection. Fake Steve Jobs is real Daniel Lyons, a Forbes' magazine senior editor. (His blog is now a "Forbes.com site.") Lyons has also published a book of short stories and a novel.

So, if you have some wicked parody skills, find a person of interest and start blogging. You may want to consult fake-blogs.com to see the competition.

Now, go get your blog on.

"To Do List": from magazine to blog to book

Sasha Cagen's 2nd book, To Do List, is a perfect example of how to take your idea, however strange it sounds, and go with it. Who would write a book proposal pitching a compilation of to do lists? Who would accept it?

Sasha first did a magazine of lists from 2000 - 2003. In 2005 she started a blog collecting people's to do lists. On November 6 of this year she released a book of 100 TDLs. No doubt her publication of the book was influenced by the success of the blog.

Your lesson from this: take what interests you and blog about it. At the least you'll enjoy spending time with the subject and practice writing. You might even inform or entertain a few people. At best you'll get a book deal.

Then you can use your blog to promote your book.
 

BTW, if you want to contribute a list to Sashas' blog, she's still accepting them.

HT: Blogger Buzz, the blogger.com blog.

Book Tour: Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture

Publicity is one benefit of blogging for writers. Building readership of your blog can translate into name recognition and hopefully, book sales.  That's a somewhat relational approach to blogging publicity.

The opposite of being relational would be topic driven. Someone finds your blog via a search engine. (You could even get into "Search Engine Optimization" and intentionally create posts to be more easily picked by the search engines.) Perhaps they were looking for info on a topic you cover. Maybe they found your blog because of something you briefly mentioned. Either way, they found your blog. If they like what they read, perhaps you'll land a book sale.

Another way to use your blog and others as marketing tools is a blog tour. This is what author Mary E. DeMuth is doing for six weeks. (Here's the schedule of blog stops on the Authentic Parenting Tour.)

Mary was one of the first blogging writers I discovered, way back in 2005. Upon finding her blog, Relevant Blog (I think it was Relevant Girl back then), and her Relevant Prose newsletter I quickly subscribed to both because of the easily digested info for writers. I thought it was so cool to be able to go "behind the scenes" in a writer's life because of technology. The blog tour is another example of how she's using the internet to reach new readers and communicate with fans.

If you're interested in knowing more about blog tours, Mary's blog tour director, Tina, has some questions to consider before doing your virtual tours. She's also available for blog tour consulting.

You can go to Amazon for more info about the book. I've also written a quick post about it at LexicalLight. Finally, check out Mary's site, Relevant Prose, for more info from her and about her.

About the blog tour:
I've received a complimentary copy of the book from the publisher in return for writing a few posts about it. For a list of other blogs on the tour, go here. Thanks.

Typepad Tips

My blogging platform of choice is Typepad. I started using them because of author Barbara Curtis @Mommylife and Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt @From Where I Sit. Those were two of the first blogs I read. They inspired me to start my own.

Typepad is easy to use, has fabulous customer support and looks good. The $15/month for unlimited blogs is worth it.

As I'm building Blogging for Writers, I'll share different how-to tips as I use them in hopes of helping other Typepad users. I don't post tips about other specific platforms because I'm not familiar with them. However, the ladies at Blogging Basics 101 do offer instructions for Blogger and Wordpress.

Now, go get your blog on.

Blogging with the Writing Process

"If you're finding writing difficult, it's because you're not taking the writing in stages, and are trying to edit when you should be planning or just writing." - Angela Booth

I'm working on applying this advice to help me keep up with my blog. Hello! It's the writing process planning, writing, and editing. I preached it to my middle school students and am teaching it to my kids. Sometimes it can be condensed into short amounts of time. Sometimes, as in ACT/SAT tests, it has to be condensed. Other times the process can be spread out. The process could either by days long process or it could be minutes or hours.

The bottom line is to get my brain operating in the process mode. As I exercise with the process, my writing muscles will develop. My goals is to get better at writing quickly and well, another example of how blogging can help writers develop.

Too often I try to do the whole process in one sitting. Sometimes I can do it, most time it takes too long. I practiced Angela's suggestions with this post - just jotted down phrases and things at first, then came back to it over a few days. As Angela said in her post, sometimes she doesn't know the point until she writes about it. Her entry is full of inspiring quotes, take a few minutes to read it then go get your blog on.

Attend a Conference in your PJs

You may have noticed this on my sidebar:

What's Blogher? It started in 2005 as a conference for women bloggers and has grown to include an online gathering place for women bloggers.

Being the learning junkie I am, I would love to hang out at a BlogHer conference. However, I can't make it to Chicago, but I can still attend the conference virtually via 2nd Life.

My geeky self is quite excited about that. What's better is there is no fee to attend virtually. Woo-hoo.
It will cost me some time to learn how to participate in 2nd Life, but it will be a fun experiment.

I'm interested in the "Business of You" workshop track. It seems like a nice fit for blogging writers. Here's the description:

Business of You: This track is devoted to personal and business advancement. We will discuss speaker and media training, self-branding and promotion, mentoring, turning your blog into a book or a business, and even managing your time, your finances, your blogging policies and best practices...the business of you.

If you're interested in attending virtually, go here for more info. Let me know if you'll be there.

A Few Stories About Blogging & Writers

As a means of encouragement I like to pick up stories about how other writers have used blogs to compliment their traditional publishing careers.  Book author Lydia Teh's post, Blogging for Writers, gives a quick overview of a workshop panel she participated in. A monthly column, a television series and a book title were direct results of the panelists blogs. Take minute to read her post and plant some blogging ideas in your writing brain. Then, go get your blog on.

Online Resource for Helping Writers Use Technology

A subscription to Ten Keyboards is a must have for your virtual reference shelf. The mission of Scot Herrick's blog is "helping writers use technology to market their  work." Mission accomplished. One of the most helpful parts of the blog is th e "Writers' Resources" page. This is where he neatly compiles posts in topics including: 

• Technology for Writers - includes tips on keeping your computer running well
• Blogging for Writers - finding your voice, marketing, feedback, etc.
• Blog Parts -parts is parts, but what about blog parts?
• Blog Plans - including reasons not to have a blog

That's just a bit of the info avaible. Schedule some reading time to hang out on Ten Keyboards. Bookmark or subscribe to it. Then, go get your blog on.

Offbeat Bride: Blog for Book

Ariel Meadow Stallings, another BlogHer '07 speaker, started her Offbeat Bride blog to promote her book of the same name.

Her quick list of why she chose to use Google Ads on her blog gives some insight into the experiences of book authors who blog.

Your Web Presence

"If authors have a strong web presence, whether it's just a website, or better yet, a blog that they regularly post to and update, then they're driving readers who already have an interest in their topic to to their site. If authors can get linked into the communities that comprise their readership, then they're way ahead of the game."  Brooke Warner, acquisitions editor at Seal Press, in the June 2007 Writer's Digest

I stumbled upon this article right before my ETCWC presentation. I couldn't wait to share it with other writers. According to the article, Seal Press encourages authors to set up websites before their book comes out. There are a few things I see stand in the way of this: money, skills, and time.  Blogs can break down those barriers because they require minimal money and skills. You still have to make time, but you have to spend time marketing your book anyway.

The focus of the article is how much of your content to give away, so Jenna Glatzer covers more than just blogs in the piece. A big take away from the article would be to limit your promotional time, whether through blogs or other means. "If you spend more time on your blog than writing your book, something's off, " she says.

That is something to be aware of, but don't let it deter you from blogging. Barbara Curtis and Susan Albert are two examples of how blog writing and book writing can co-exist in an author's life. Though a lot of their blog content is either directly or indirectly related to their books, that's not a hard and fast rule. For example, Jenna (the article author) takes her "promotional cap off" on her blog and talks more about the non-writing parts of her life. Either way readers become a bit more familiar with the authors through their blogs, which is strengthens the authors' web presence. Can people find you on the web?

Now, go get your blog on.