Looking for ways to get the word out about your new book? In this post we talked about the challenge of book publishing, and the importance of establishing an audience before you actually write the book. Yes it seems backwards, but it really does make sense if you think about it. If you ran a big publishing company, would you want to sign an author who was a complete unknown? Probably not. The key is to establish your audience, then write the book, then pitch it to the publisher.
But how do I develop an audience if I don’t have anything for them to read?
That’s a great question, with a very simple answer. Start a blog. Use your blog to establish an audience. Reach out to your readers and establish yourself as an authority (and an author) through a blog.
But what’s a blog, you ask?
A blog is simply a website containing a collection of articles (“posts”), usually arranged in reverse chronological order, with the most recent post at the top of the page. This site is a blog. Through a blog, readers can interact with the author and other readers by leaving comments.
But how will a blog help me get established as an author?
When you write regularly, you provide value to your readers. When you provide value, people tell their friends how great you are. Those friends will come read your blog, then tell their friends about it. Eventually, your audience will grow bigger and bigger. As your audience grows, you expand your reach around the world, and you establish yourself as an authority on your topic.
Ok, so how do I know what to write about?
You’ll want to decide on a niche before you get started. Choose a topic that you’re interested in and that you are comfortable writing about. If you’re looking to eventually get published, then the logical choice would be to write about something related to the topic of the book you plan to write. For example, if your book is about “Green Living in Modern Times”, you’re going to want to write around the topic of green products and sustainable living. You’re not going to want to write about breeding dogs – make sense?
I’m convinced. But how do I set up a blog?
There are a few ways to do this. The easiest way is to open a free account on Blogspot.com or WordPress.com. You can get up and running in less than an hour.
However, if you want to be taken seriously as a professional, you need to present yourself as such. Sure, free WordPress and Blogspot blogs are easy to set up, but they don’t give you a lot of flexibility, and you can’t choose your domain name – not so professional.
If you’re looking at blogging as a way to grow a business (which I assume you are, if you’re still reading this) I highly recommend setting up a self-hosted WordPress blog. A self-hosted blog will allow you to have your own domain (ex: www.yourawesomesite.com), you’ll also be able to sell products, have ads, etc. Those are things you just can’t do on a site that you don’t own.
What are the steps to get started?
First, you’ll need to register a domain name for your new blog. I recommend registering through Namecheap.com. Before you do that though, first take some time to brainstorm ideas – do you want your domain to be www.yourname.com, or www.yourbusiness.com, or www.yourbookname.com, or something completely different? Once you’ve got that set, you’ll need a place to put your blog on the web – you’ll need a hosting account. I use and highly recommend Hostgator. Then to spruce things up a bit, you’ll probably want to choose a nice theme – it doesn’t have to be fancy or cost anything. There are tons of beautiful themes that you can use that are free. You can find them at www.wordpress.org/extend/themes.
Once you’ve got your blog up and running, then you’re free to start writing, start engaging, and start building your readership. Provide information of real value, and you’ll be amazed at how quickly your audience grows!
What are you doing to get well-known as an author?
Lisa Wood designs custom themes for WordPress using the Thesis framework, and teaches small businesses and entrepreneurs how to use social media to get noticed on the web. Find her at www.PerformanceWebSolutions.com and on twitter @lisawood
PS. Thanks so much to Eugen Oprea for teaching me how to make the tweet meme button above work correctly.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Lisa, this is great information for book publishers, which will help them get started and build an online presence.
While reading the article I was thinking at Seth Godin, how he provides useful information to attract readers and then easily create buzz using the same blog.
Thanks for sharing that.
Eugen
PS: Thanks for the mention Carole. It’s always a pleasure to provide resources which can help others.
.-= Eugen Oprea´s last blog ..How to install TweetMeme and change the RT source =-.
Great advice, Lisa! Your post also brings up a question I’ve had about hosting for awhile.
What do you think about using a Wordpress.com blog with a redirect to your own domain name? For people just getting started, it’s much, much easier than self-hosting and it costs less than $10 per year.
To me this is a great compromise for people starting out. You still build the reputation of your own domain and can export your blog to a self-hosted site down after you build a following.
That having been said, I almost never hear this solution advocated so I wonder if I’m missing something. . . .
.-= Maureen Carruthers´s last blog ..Read less, Do more =-.
Hi Maureen! That’s definitely an option, but wordpress.com is so limiting that I don’t recommend it for anyone who is going to want To really grow their blog over time. It just complicates things a bit. A self-hosted wordpress.org blog will allow for much more flexibility in design, monetization, widgets, plugins, etc.
Hope that helps!
A blog is such a great way to test the market before plunging into the arduous task of writing a book.
I continue to be surprised at the number of people who want their name recognized, but don’t see the value of having their own domain name. It’s an important step in establishing any kind of professional creative practice.
.-= Stacey Cornelius´s last blog ..From your brain to your bones – set your priorities and sort your ideas =-.
Totally agree, Stacey. It’s that magical thinking of “If I build it, they will magically come” but we’ve got to actually build more than our book, we have to give people a way to find it, actually several ways to find it.
As someone who writes a blog that builds on my book, I wholeheartedly agree that having a blog is the way to go. It won’t get you “well known” overnight, but if your keep working at it, new opportunities you never could’ve anticipated will open wide up for you!
.-= Sherice Jacob´s last blog ..Share Your Favorite Bookmarks Visually with Toobla =-.
Very solid advice. Chris Guillebeau is an example of someone who did a fanstastic job at building an audience for his yet-to-be-published book through blogging.
The only piece I see missing here is networking. There are so many blogs out there that no matter how great your blog is and how much value it provides, it may never get the attention it deserves unless you actually make an effort to guest post and comment on other people’s blogs.
I read a hilarious expat blog and could totally see this guy getting a book deal, but he makes no effort to network and barely receives any comments on his blog. I don’t think that really matters to him, as it’s his personal blog, but I can’t help but wish he did more with it! I’d totally buy his book.
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