Your Book Blog: 10 Practical Tips
Your Book Blog: 10 Practical Tips
by Debbie Weil
1. Just do it. As soon as a plan to publish your book is in place, start your book blog with www.TypePad.com or www.WordPress.com (free). Worry about the details later. Just get it going!
2. Grab the URL that matches the title of your book. If you’re not sure what the final title will be, register everything it might be. It costs less than $9 for a one-year registration on www.GoDaddy.com or the registrar of your choice. When the title is finalized you can move your TypePad or WordPress blog to that URL.
3. Mention the URL of your book’s blog in your book. In the text, direct your readers to www.yourbookblog.com for “updated or additional resources” or “useful links.”
4. Post to your book blog whether you feel like it or not. Try to post at least every 10 days, even if you’re in a crazy phase with your book. You want your blog calendar to show no fewer than several entries a month. Remember, the sooner you start blogging, the sooner your blog entries will show up in Google search results.
5. Don’t be afraid to write about your competitors. In fact, link to their blogs. Link to everyone and everything that relates to the topic or focus of your book. Links are what make the blogosphere go round. You’ll look more knowledgeable as a result, and your blog entries will come up in search results on keyword phrases relating to other books and authors.
6. Offer a free chapter or excerpt as a downloadable PDF. And be sure to embed links to your order page on Amazon or BarnesandNoble.com or to your site so readers can click through from your PDF to buy your book.
7. Ask for an email address from people who want the free chapter. Make it a quid pro quo. Get your blog visitor’s email in exchange for your download. Now you’re building an email list. Send these folks an update when your book is published with a direct link to the online order page.
8. Consider starting a companion podcast. This is the newest new thing and kind of fun, as well as surprisingly easy and inexpensive to create. Podcasts are a way to extend the content of your book into another medium. And they’re wildly popular. You might do interviews with some of the experts you quote in your book, and maybe you can parlay your podcast into your own radio show (see, for example, www.debbieweil.com/speaking/resources and www.corporatebloggingpodcast.com).
9. After publication, use your blog to extend the shelf life of your book. Andy Wibbels, author of BlogWild: A Guide for Small Business Blogging (Penguin Portfolio, 2006), ends his book with the following paragraph: “ As in all good seminars, it’s great to give participants a bag of goodies to take home with them. I wasn’t able to shoehorn everything possible about blogging into this book, and some of the techie stuff might go out-of-date as blogging matures. So, for a complete resource of updates, tutorials, and other goodies, go to www.goblogwild.com/goodies.”
Clever, don’t you think?
10. Just do it. Don’t overthink it. Work on your book. Start the blog. Figure it out as you go along.
Debbie Weil, a speaker and marketing and business communications consultant based in Washington, DC, is the publisher of an award-winning e-newsletter, WordBiz Report (www.wordbiz.com/signup.php) and the author of The Corporate Blogging Book, published by Penguin Portfolio in August 2006 and available at Amazon, via 800/CEO-READ, and in major bookstores. To download chapter 1 and other material for bloggers, visit www.thecorporatebloggingbook.com.
Sample Book Blogs
Buzz Marketing with Blogs by Susannah Gardner
www.buzzmarketingwithblogs.com
See Gardner’s Book Bits, including downloadable PDFs of chapter 1 and the contents, along with a PDF press release and links to author info and reviews.
Dear Mom: I’ve Always Wanted You to Know by Lisa Delman
lisarachel.typepad.com
This blog has links to book-related events, including Heartshops and Teleseminars.
Naked Conversations by Shel Israel and Robert Scoble
redcouch.typepad.com/weblog
Israel and Scoble posted sample chapters as they were writing and engaged readers heavily in the writing process. No need to do that unless you’re really secure as a writer.
The Long Tail by Chris Anderson
longtail.typepad.com
Anderson blogged the book while he was writing, thinking openly about his topic and soliciting input from readers.
