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51 Ways to Blog as a Novelist
We all know that blogging is one of the best ways to get attention in today's Internet world. A blog is a godsend to your website, bringing it traffic, fans, and more. But you have to post regularly.
Stuck for what to blog about? Here are some tips for novelists, but the same tips can apply to writers of nonfiction, memoirs, children's books, business books, and more.
- Review other novels, especially from other lesser-known novelists.
- Write a blog post using the voice of one of your main characters.
- Have that main character tell some side stories not included in the novel.
- Write about the setting - time and/or place. Use some of the research you did to ensure that your novel was accurate.
- Invite your readers to review your book. Feature their testimonials on your blog.
- Interview some of your readers: via Q&A text or via an Internet radio show or via a teleseminar.
- Podcast your book, one section at a time.
- Write about trends in your genre.
- Write about your favorite novelists, especially those that write in your genre. Include their photos and a sampling of their books.
For the rest of the 51 ways, see: http://blog.bookmarket.com/2011/06/45-ways-to-blog-as-novelist-tips-for.html
If you like this list, help me add more. Email: johnkremer@bookmarket.com.
Comment Wall
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Comment by Neil Ostroff on November 17, 2012 at 11:23am
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In a year
I’ve been working feverishly lately trying to finish IMAGINATION by November 30th, but alas, it doesn’t appear that is going to happen (I’m about a month from completion). Between the damage from Superstorm Sandy and my wife’s cancer, my priorities have changed a bit. Had I finished the book on time it would have been a year to the day that I wrote the first sentence. When I first conceive of the plot of IMAGINATION (What if everything we perceive, all that we experience, is just a figment of someone else’s imagination? And what if that someone is dying?) I had wanted to start it the first week of January 2012, but the call of the story was too great and I started it a month early. Now, nearly twelve months later, I’m doing the final edit and the story is complete. I’ve discovered that a lot can happen in real life in the time it takes to write a novel. A lot has changed in my life since I started the book and a lot has changed in my writing career since then. Last year I was selling a few dozen books a month and now that number has grown substantially, though my sales have dropped off lately because I’ve been spending more time finishing the new novel than I have marketing and promoting my others. I know I’ve missed a few great opportunities because I’ve wanted to write original material rather than sell my existing stuff. But sometimes, that’s just how it goes when you’re an artist. As I’ve mentioned, I do have three holiday promotions coming up on Kindle Nation Daily and Kindle Fire Department. Hopefully, that will get some buzz going again. I plan on a six-month promotion blitz when IMAGINATION is complete and have begun to budget for a slew of ads. Watch for them in the future.
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Superstorm
I finally received the insurance check to fix the damage left by superstorm Sandy. Though, I count myself among those lucky enough to still have their home, the storm did a bit of damage to the roof, gutters, and some interior stuff. A power surge blew my computer, erasing countless scraps of ideas and phrases. I know I should have backed them up, but I had so many I thought I take a full day to do it. That day won’t happen now. I also lost more than two weeks of marketing online, which as I’ve proven again and again, that much time away from writer’s groups can really affect sales. And it did. I’m way down for this month. There were also a few other promotional opportunities that I missed because of the power outages and disrupted services. But, now I’m back promoting and finishing up on my latest novel which stress from the storm has delayed. I’ve got roofer estimates coming out tomorrow and I’ve hooked up my laptop to my desktop system until I can get a new one. Okay world, I’m back!
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Books can save you
It’s been two weeks since my last post and I’m still at a loss over the destruction caused by hurricane Sandy. Though I was away on vacation at the time of impact, I had relatives that were evacuated from New Jersey staying at my house so they surveyed the damage for us. We sustained some minor roof and siding damage and lost power for five days, which resulted in us having to throw away all of our refrigerated food. We were lucky. Sometimes it takes something as powerful and tragic as a major weather event to realize how good society has it and how much technology rules our lives. When I asked my relatives what they did during the outage, they replied; we read. The answer seemed so simple, yet so profound. In this day of TV, and video games, ipads, ipods, Twitter, Facebook, etc. what my family and I’m sure thousands of families relied on to keep from going crazy was reading. A good story can temporarily take away all those other worldly distractions and the miserable plight some of you are in right now. I’m sure a few of my followers won’t be able to read this post because they still do not have power. But what they can read are books and hopefully find peace and acceptance amidst all this destruction.
http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com
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Comment by Patricia Gligor on November 9, 2012 at 7:11am
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Get to know NYT best selling mystery author Linda Castillo.
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Comment by Joy J. Kaimaparamban on October 31, 2012 at 7:59pm
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I am author from India, released my second novel based on Ayurveda, an ancient treatment system of India, under the title, 'The Ayurvedic Healer'. I have updated my website. Kindly check it and let me know your valuable comments.
http://www.kaimaparamban.com
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Halloween is just around the corner. Is the Westwood Strangler lurking there too?
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How to blog
When I first started blogging I wrote about the dumbest things. I wrote egotistical articles about how cool I was to write books and have people admire me; basic self-serving crap. Then I started into the indie revolution in book publishing and my content changed. I spent a few months blogging about the nuts and bolts of writing, editing, designing a cover, and publishing an ebook from scratch. And lo and behold, I started getting followers. As I continued to blog every other day about the indie publishing world I got even more followers and my hit meter started to fly off the charts. One post got over 14,000 hits. I began to realize what posts got the most reads. Posts that incorporated a bit of my personal life, mixed with the actuality of the book publishing market, and usually sprinkled with a little universal anecdote at the close. I’ve found that using your blog strictly as a marketing tool for your works isn’t enough. Readers bore quickly of the day to day self-promotion and want to LEARN something from the blog. I try to impart a bit of my twenty-five years plus experience of publishing stories, books, and poetry into each post to save writers from making the same (sometimes costly) mistakes that I have made in getting to the level of selling books on a daily basis. So my advice to new author-blog owners is to post from the heart about your writing and publishing experiences and don’t spend every word promoting your own material. If the articles you write are good, talent will come across on your posts and you will get resultant book sales. My blog is my web presence, my introduction of myself to my readers, and my way of telling the world about my life. Keep your content interesting and followers will come. The kinds of followers you want. The kind that are interested in you.
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Achieving what?
I’ve been doing the interview thing again and recently I was asked something that I hadn’t been asked before. The questioned posed to me was, “what do you hope to achieve with your writing?” Now, I had to think about that one for a bit before I could give a response. For you see, I’m actually not looking to achieve anything with my writing except to provide people with entertainment. I’m not looking to win any big awards (though I’m not opposed). I don’t think I’m going to get rich from this (though that would be nice, too). And I’m not looking at my writing as a way to meet women (I’m married). So what exactly am I doing? Well, I describe my books as quick, exciting reads, without mind-numbingly boring character details, but memorable ones, and plots that are both absolutely unique and jarring at the same time. I don’t think my books will ever hit the mainstream market, but I could get a viral following of readers who want to experience a different kind of story. As one of my fans put it in an email to me, she said “I love your novels because I can read them in a few hours, which is good, because I can never put them down once I start one.” Such high praise makes me blush. But seriously, the freedom of writer’s these days is crazy. I will NEVER have a publisher or agent tell me to rewrite a novel again! In the early days, I had several publishers tell me to take out the best parts of my novels because they felt it wouldn’t sell to the mainstream public. Well, guess what? I don’t want to sell to the mainstream public. I want to sell to people who are interested in reading something they’ve never read before. No boring, conventional, formulaic, mainstream stories here. Check them out.
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Long Night
I generally feel the urge to blog about every two or three days, but for the last several days I’ve been silent. There’s a reason. It started with my wife having sharp pains in her side. She, being a tough woman, tried to ignore it and refused to go to the doctor even at my urging. Finally, on Monday she went. To make a long story short, three hours later she was getting prepped for surgery for an emergency appendectomy and I was sitting in the critical care unit waiting room. It was late and I was the only one there. In the course of her surgery, visiting hours also had ended so the hallways went vacant. I picked up a magazine and started reading, quickly discovering the magazine was from 2008. It had been sitting in this waiting room for more than four years. That got my writer mind going, thinking about all the people who had thumbed through these pages while their loved ones were being operated on and possibly fighting for their lives. It intrigued me in a slightly morbid way that my worries and fears for my own wife’s safety were universal, as if I was connected to thousands of people who had sat in this very chair during moments of crisis. As I looked about the empty, silent waiting area I could imagine the stress and tension. I could almost feel the sorrow of those who would learn that their loved ones did not make it. At that moment, I was in the loneliest place on Earth. About an hour later, a nurse cheerily popped her head in to tell me that my wife was fine and the surgery a complete success. My elation at the news momentarily cleared my writer’s mind and my full attention immediately focused on wanting to see her. As the nurse led me down the Critical Care Unit hallway my mind switched back once again to writer mode. The reason; I passed the rooms of those who would soon be deceased. The rooms that had the dreaded ‘no longer feed’ sign attached to their files. The doors were open and I was able to see their faces, drooped in the death mask, their skin so pale it reflected the hallway light. Some were conscious and their eyes shifted and followed me as I passed. But most were mere containers, waiting for their soul to be released. It creeped me out, yet fascinated me at the same time, wondering what these people were thinking, knowing their lives were coming to an end. I tried to capture that feeling when I wrote DROP OUT, but to see it for real left a powerful impression. When I finally reached the room my wife was in I was happily surprised that she was awake, in good spirits, and no longer in pain. Now, a few days later, she’s on the road to recovery. I told her about my walk, and the thoughts I had during, and she just looked at me and said in that sarcastic, snarky, tone that I love; “Maybe I’ll have Gall bladder issues and you can get a book out this.” I would have hugged her but I was afraid I might rip the stitches.
http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com
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Are you getting in the "spirit" of Halloween? Maybe this short video will help.
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