blogging

As an author, you’ve probably been told you should be blogging. Blogs are an excellent way to engage your audience and establish yourself as an authority figure. Still, many find the idea of blogging overwhelming and the actual process of writing blog posts almost unbearable. But with a little bit of planning, a few shortcuts, and some tips from the blogosphere, you can be posting and engaging with readers in no time. Here is our five-part series on blogging to help you get started:

Part One: To Blog or Not to Blog (why you should blog)

Part Two: A Blog Without a Cause (what to blog about)

Part Three: Taming the Blog Monster (managing your blog)

Part Four: The Blog Without a Name (promoting your blog)

Part Five: Blog Vital Signs (tracking your progress)

In part four of our series, we will focus on ways to promote your blog. It’s not enough to just create a blog and upload content. All of your hard work means nothing if no one knows about it.

The best way to promote your blog is through social media. Every time you publish a new post, create aquick lead line,attach a link back to your blog,and then share it on your social media accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others. Post them on message boards and in discussions that will interest your target audience, and use relevant hashtags on Twitter to get your post in front of people who will be interested in the topic of your blog. Do this every single time you post. You may even want to post the link 2–3 times in the same media stream in order to capture different people as they view their news feed. Just don’t get too obnoxious with posting links—even it out with plenty of valuable content and personal interaction.

Here are a few more tips to get your blog out there and in front of readers:

1. Comment on other blogs that cover your topic. When you post the comment,  share a link back to your own blog along with your comment.
2. Offer up your posts for syndication to aggregators and other outlets in your genre. Just be sure to prequalify outlets and their practices so you can keep your brand intact.
3. Promote social bookmarking through such outlets as Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Social Poster, and more. Most blog services have a widget that will display a bookmarking toolbar for each post. If not, have your web designer embed this type of widget on your blog.

In our next and final post, we cover ways to track your blog’s progress and statistics.

As an author, you’ve probably been told you should be blogging. Blogs are an excellent way to engage your audience and establish yourself as an authority figure. Still, many find the idea of blogging overwhelming and the actual process of writing blog posts almost unbearable. But with a little bit of planning, a few shortcuts, and some tips from the blogosphere, you can be posting and engaging with readers in no time. Here is our five-part series on blogging to help you get started:

Part One: To Blog or Not to Blog (why you should blog)

Part Two: A Blog Without a Cause (what to blog about)

Part Three: Taming the Blog Monster (managing your blog)

Part Four: The Blog Without a Name (promoting your blog)

Part Five: Blog Vital Signs (tracking your progress)

In part two of our five part series on blogging, we’ll focus on what you should be blogging about. Blogs began as online diaries, and diaries, by nature, are full of random thoughts. But in order for your blog to be effective, you need to focus at all times on the key message you want to convey to your author platform.

Start by identifying key topics from your book, marketing message, or genre. What would your audience be interested in? How does it relate to your author platform and marketing message? Here are some ideas:

• Industry news and updates
• Book reviews (review others in your genre)
• Tips, ideas, strategies, facts, and other helpful tools associated with your message. For example, if you are an expert in leadership, share tips on running a meeting or turning around a trouble employee.
• Events, new products, and other time sensitive items

Categorize your blog content into main topics, which might include book reviews, industry news, interviews, guest posts, etc. To go back to the leadership expert, your categories might include character development, understanding people, improving communication, etc.

Look at other blogs on your topic. What are they saying? Do you see something missing from the conversation? Once you establish your main topics (you can always add more later), start brainstorming talking points related to each.

As you are brainstorming, consider ways you can group and dissect topics while you are writing them. For example, you can pull bits from a larger work and share them as a series of posts. You can also take short bits of information from those posts and use those for tweets. Publishers call this process “content chunking,” and it’s a tremendous time-saver. While you are developing one big work (like a book or article), you can simultaneously create small blog posts, tweets, and Facebook posts. This saves you from doubling up on your efforts.

Unfortunately, not all publishers let you chunk sections from your book into posts, but some publishers, like Greenleaf Book Group, actually include content chunking as part of the publishing service. (Full disclosure: This blog is the creative outlet of Greenleaf Book Group.) Other publishers actually forbid any content chunking due to infringement laws (since the publisher may own the publication rights to the original work). Check with your publisher before you blog any content from your book to avoid potential legal hassles.

In terms of what a blog post should look like, they are relatively short—anywhere from 250 to 1000 words, depending on the topic and the nature of the post. Generally they fall into the 250–500-word category, which is roughly one to three paragraphs (unlike this post). Posts aren’t limited to text either. Pictures and video are great items to share, as long as they are relevant to your overall message. Also, here is an excellent article for building credibility in your posts.

You’ll also want to be professional, but use a conversational tone to engage readers. It’s a good idea to post questions and invite feedback at the end of a post. The purpose is to engage readers, so above all, let your personality shine through, be genuine, provide information, and stay on target with your message.

In our next post, we’ll cover ways to manage your blog so it doesn’t manage you.

Publishing, Avant-Garde continues with topic number two: BLOGS & ONLINE JOURNALS.

Assuming that you read any manner of blog or online journal—including this one—then you are more likely than not familiar with the concept. However, for the less initiated, we’ll turn to the trustworthy Wikipedia for a complete definition:

A blog (a contraction of the term "web log") is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.

Popular hosts and providers of blogs and online journals include Blogger, WordPress, Typepad, LiveJournal, Movable Type and Blogware. Some are free, some paid, and each offers a different mixture of features, applications, widgets and communities. It’s a matter of preference that determines which provider you use.

The reason I want to spotlight blogs and online journals for writers is their twofold function: a place from which to build a platform as a writer, and a place in which to showcase your work.

As to platform—it has become expected, if not an unwritten rule, that a writer should continuously develop a web presence. This is an extremely important aspect of platform-building, especially as more and more people every year begin to rely upon the Internet as a source of information for all things, including entertainment. Which means books. Which means you.

You can find some great information about the basics of blogging (and specifically author blogging) here:

• wikiHow: How to Start a Blog, 8 Steps (with video)
• ABA Feature Comparison of Major Blog Providers
• Online Journalism’s Review: Are you using the right blogging tool?
• Petrona: An overlong post about blog providers
• Daily Blog Tips: Copyright Law, 12 Dos and Don’ts
• Lorelle on Blogging: Should Authors Blog?
• Marketing Tools for Authors, Writers, and Entrepreneurs: Why Should Authors Blog?
• suite 101: Blogging is a Marketing Tool for Writers
• Bob Baker’s Full-Time Author Blog

The focus of this article is the ‘showcasing your work’ aspect. This is as equally applicable to established authors as it is to beginners. What it means is that people can visit your blog and get a taste of your writing style, tone, background, genre. Essentially, they can get a feel for you.

I’ve visited author blogs that have posted writing across the gamut: excerpts of published novels, segments from drafts of unpublished ones, research for nonfiction works, character descriptions, story outlines, book trailers, audiobook links, e-books, and more. This is in addition to observations about writing, art, culture, the business of publishing, and posts on everyday life. In essence, blogs act as public journals of the creative process of writing.

A few examples of author blogs:

• The Temp, The Actress and the Writer (Adrienne Kress)
• Neil Gaiman’s Journal
• Laurell K. Hamilton
• Seth’s Blog (Seth Godin)
• Tess Gerritsen’s Blog
• Mad Woman in the Forest (Laurie Halse Anderson)
• A Writer’s Life (Lee Goldberg)

You can find more comprehensive lists at Technorati, Author Blogs (under construction as of December 2009), The Internet Writing Journal and The YA Book Blog Directory.

You may be wondering: Does ‘showcasing your work’ on a blog or journal mean that it is considered published?

The general consensus is that for legal purposes, publishing excerpts of your work online is not considered publishing in the traditional sense. While I would not recommend posting the entirety of your unpublished work on your blog (in the event that you do plan on submitting your work to publishers), there are other options for those who are considering a strictly self-publishing route—this includes downloadable or e-book content hosted on your blog. For published authors, it is best to check your publisher’s contract with you before posting to your heart’s content, but small segments to interest potential readers seems to be acceptable pretty much across the spectrum.

Having writing samples posted on your blog in addition to regular ‘blogging’ (the commentary, opinions, links and etc. mentioned above) also allows potential publishers and agents to peruse more examples of your work then you may have sent with a query letter, and lets them know that you are working hard on your platform. In this sense, it is crucial that your blog is active. This does not mean writing a research paper daily. You can segment pieces of your writing and set them to auto-update, or write several posts in advance and then spread them out over the course of a few days or weeks. Once you’ve explored a few approaches, you’ll find a natural rhythm—whether it’s short updates daily or longer pieces once or twice a week. The more you post, the more interesting the posts are, and the more you share, the more followers (and hopefully fans and readers) you will gain. And why say no to any extra chance to refine your writing skills?

In essence, blogs are an invaluable enhancement to your credentials—a portfolio that demonstrates your talents like any other artist, including those in visual and media arts. It’s a resume, a curriculum vitae both artistic and practical. It can be as intimate or business-like as you please. You can share as much or little as you want. The blog is the gift of the contemporary author, so use it to the best of your advantage.

Many individuals—myself included—have aspirations of writing a witty, fun, insightful personal blog and it becoming a wildly successful digital memoir. It’s a romantic idea, really: baring your soul to the world and the world eating it up with a spoon the way an enthusiastic child devours an ice cream sundae. One can only hope said metaphorical dessert of a blog has the success of, for instance, Neil Gaiman’s Journal, which recently won the 2008 Weblog Award for Best Literature Blog. Gaiman is a prolific author whose comic book series The Sandman and New York Times bestselling novels American Gods and Anansi Boys, among others, have created an obsessive cult following—and Hollywood has taken notice too. An avid reader of all things Gaiman, I was thrilled (though not surprised) to learn of yet another award in his impressive résumé. Gaiman’s success in creating and maintaining a fan base has allowed him to grow and thrive creatively, about which he could only say: “[L]et's put it this way: it's a very, very good thing for me that I am a bestselling author.”

I’d say it’s also a very, very good thing that you’re a blogger, Neil.

One of the first blogs I discovered and still follow to this day, Benjamin Rubenstein’s hilarious and deeply moving story of cancer survival, was his response to being told that a book about his struggles with cancer could not be published because no one knew or cared about his story, unlike, say, Lance Armstrong’s. Rubenstein’s response? A scathingly funny blog, which I've heard is set to be published sometime later this year. Take that, and that, and that.

For the aspiring or published author, blogging has become the cheapest and easiest method of self-promotion (and a little self-love along the way). A blog is a home on the web whereby visitors may knock upon your imaginary door and enter your mind, learning about you and, more importantly, your books. Cultivate a digital following and you have taken the first step toward success—or at least infamy.

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Auburn Rutledge works as a Publishing Assistant for Greenleaf Book Group, learning the ins and outs of the publishing industry one day at a time, and meanwhile labors at her own artistic endeavor: namely, the Great American Novel. Or something like it.