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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 January 8, 2013 at 11:59am
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How to sell books!
I’m nearing the end of my sponsorship blitz, but I’m at the point where I can start posting my views on the whole ebook selling phenomenon. First of all, unless you’re already famous, have a strong following, or the most amazing title and cover art ever, don’t bother with expensive sponsorships. My results have been pretty much the same in extra sales whether the sponsorship I ran was $10 or $300. If you’re going to place a sponsorship, I recommend the Kindle Fire Department.com, though they’ve grown quite a lot in popularity lately and may not have the same niche effect. I’ve had my best results with them than any other site, and I’ve promoted nine separate books on about two dozen sites. KND and Kindle Boards have become very popular and you get lost in a sea of ads. Same with Pixel of Ink. Blogads.com, my latest venture, did see a small jump in sales but not enough to recoup the cost of advertising on eleven different blogs. I am running another weeklong blitz at the end of this month so we’ll see if there are any significant changes. I do have fresh advice that does seem to be working quite well for me. Here’s the secret; put samples of your books on every writer’s site that accepts them. Even if the site doesn’t allow links you can still say at the end of the sample to google your name on Amazon to download the rest of the book. I recently put up samples on Wattpad.com, who give links to buy automatically. I noticed a jump in sales about two hours after I did this. The key is to update the samples regularly so they rise higher on the new stories list. It’s the same with Authors Den.com and a lot of other sites. My advice to book and ebook writers is to spend a small amount on niche sponsorships just to give you some internet exposure but post free sample chapters everywhere possible. And there are literally thousands of sites. A great cover and jazzy tagline will grab people’s attention, but nothing beats hooking them with four or five free chapters.
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Magical idea drawer
With my marketing efforts underway and my books uploaded on all the major writer’s sites, I am about ready to start my quest to write three novellas in the next year. I’m leaning toward the Dystopian genre, with a little sci-fi fantasy thrown in. I’m going to try and do a series, building on the plot book after book. I do have a few ideas that have been swimming around in my head for a few years and I recently pulled the “ideas” file from my cabinet. This file was thick with scraps of paper on which I’d written plots and story ideas of the last two decades. As I slowly read through each scrap I suddenly realized that I’ve already subconsciously incorporated most of these ideas into existing novels. In these notes, I saw the birth of IMAGINATION and DROP OUT and several others and realized I couldn’t repeat these ideas. As I filled my wastebasket with stales concepts, I suddenly came upon something fresh. An idea I’d penned on a beverage napkin about six years ago. The idea intrigued me. I sat for a few moments re-reading the two sentence tagline over and over, and then the small, haphazardly written summary of the plot. It was as if a curtain opened in my mind revealing a full stage of characters and plot twists. I could immediately foresee the future of these characters and how they would grow through the series. I could picture myself writing frantically through this winter as the temperature falls and the ground freezes solid. I realized right then, I have my next project.
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Comment by Brenda Wynn on December 16, 2012 at 12:02pm
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I'm asking for reviewers of my first fantasy novel, Silverdream & Bloodfire. If interested after clicking the link (http://www.amazon.com/The-Chronicles-Elydir-Silverdream-Bloodfire/d...), let me know.
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Feeling disconnected
Once again, I’ve reach the elusive milestone of finishing a book. My latest novel (my eleventh to date) is now complete and awaiting the formatting process. The novel took exactly 374 days from first sentence until the final read. A lot has happened in the past year and a lot of changes have taken place both in my life and the world. So, as I sit here on this first day of non-novel writing I find myself feeling quite odd and at a loss of how I should spend my morning. I could market and promote, but that is usually an afternoon activity done after my mind already squeezed out the creative juices for the day. I could answer emails. Again, something I usually do later. This lack of focus always happens to me when I’m not working on a book, a feeling of disconnectedness. Without a few hours writing and living in my imagination, the day takes on an oddity of unfinishness (artistic license with this word) like not having brushed your teeth in the morning. I know I stated that I wouldn’t start another book for at least three months so I could concentrate on promoting the ones I have out, but I’m finding it difficult to go even a few hours without working on a story. It seems I’ve forgotten the trick to having a normal morning. My latest, IMAGINATION will be out in a week or so and my next one after that… perhaps in 374 days.
http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com
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Promotion is always good!
Fellow/author and fan from the U.K. is promoting me on her blog. Please check it out and also check out her books.
http://amymahvampire.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/neil-ostroff-drop-out-d...
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Results!
I’m posting the results for my Kindle Boards book of the day sponsorship. One sale of SILENT INVASION. Yep, that’s right. One sale. But, all is not lost. Strangely enough, sales of my other books went up. I even sold a few copies of PULP, my ultra-noir thriller. I also got invited to promote SILENT INVASION for free on a few blogs and two websites. So, that’s good. I have another Kindle Boards sponsorship tomorrow for AFTER so we’ll see how that goes. All in all, the Kindle Boards sponsorship was way less effective than the Kindle Fire Department which has proven for me to draw the most sales. I do believe that Kindle Boards was worth it for the added exposure, but I’m not expecting any great results from my next sponsorship tomorrow. As for my latest, IMAGINATION, the cover is complete and I’m finishing the last and final edit. I’m excited to see how far this book goes, since I am preparing a massive publicity assault. I believe it is my best book to date and expect pretty solid sales considering the following of readers that I’ve developed over the years, which includes nearing the 250,000 hit mark on my blog. All I need is a good back-jacket blurb and I’m ready to go. One more thing, I’ve noticed my foreign sales have plummeted for absolutely no reason. A few months back I had more sales in the U.K. than in the U.S. and now plooey. Don’t know what that’s all about, but as I’ve mentioned before, this new year 2013 is my year to market and I’ll be spending plenty of time promoting on Amazon U.K. and other foreign book sites.
http://www.neilostroff.blogspot.com
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Comment by James Ross on December 6, 2012 at 7:43pm
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A story with INNOCENCE (special needs teens) - GREED (an unethical lawyer) - CORRUPTION (a dishonest court) and SEX (Internet dating) as well as a few laughs and several surprises.
Mark Your Calendar for the PABBY'S SCORE Blitz on 12/12/12 at Amazon online
Amazon - (paperback and Kindle format)
Your participation is greatly appreciated!
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The ‘ah ha’ moment!
If you read my blog you know I’ve been dealing with some family health issues related to the dreaded C. Doing my final read for IMAGINATION has helped ease the boredom of fifteen-hour hospital room waits. Of course, waiting is nothing compared to what the patient must endure. It was during one of these interminable waits that I had my sudden, ‘ah ha’ moment. I realized, as my wrist and fingers grew sore from typing on my laptop sitting literally on my lap, that I’ve spent my life writing novels which have gotten great reviews and moderate sales, but I have put forth minimal effort to really hit it big. I’ve done all the free promotion sites you can think of and even purchased a few sponsorships (the last yielding fairly good results) but I’ve never taken the gut-tossing risk that is so necessary for an individual to rise above the crowd and get noticed. I’ve never gone to a book signing, or given a speech at a school assembly, or rented a booth at a book convention; I’ve never gotten aggressive in selling my books. That’s all about to change! Sitting in that hospital waiting room hour after hour I realized that life is too short. I want my books to get read! I want to get noticed! I’ve decided the time has come to risk nearly everything on my talent. Therefore, I dedicate 2013 as my year to hit it big. I’ve already booked two full weeks of sponsorships with KND and Kindle Boards for various books and I plan on booking several more once I get out of this waiting room and can figure a schedule to promote the sponsorships. And once IMAGINATION hits the world in a few weeks, I plan a huge budget on that one. Am I going to risk my life savings? No. But I am going to give promoting my books everything I’ve got for one solid year. No more wasting time idly waiting for it to happen. Time is too precious.
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Sponsorship success!
Now that my Kindle Fire Department.com sponsorship has officially ended I can now look back on it as a success. I sold enough copies of DROP OUT to break even but what most important is that so many new people have now been exposed to my stuff. It also got my ranking down below 10,000 which according to the Amazon algorithms, means that the site will give me a little more promotion than a book that hasn’t sold so well. As of this post I’m still below the 20,000 rank. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m raising the price of my books on Jan 1st to $2.99. At that price I can take advantage of Amazon’s 70% royalty program. If the results of my sponsorship were the same at that price I would have nearly doubled my investment. I plan on devoting the entire month of January to marketing my newest novel and booking sponsorships galore, most with KFD.com. I’ve done a few with Kindle Nation Daily and Kindle Boards, but none has achieved the result of this last sponsorship. Here’s the link again so prospective authors can see what KFD does for the money. http://fireapps.blogspot.com/2012/11/drop-out-kindle-book-of-day-11... Besides this page, KFD also blast the link out to Facebook, Twitter, and various other social media. I also think KFD is a good site for sponsorship because the Kindle Fire ereader was the most searched item on the internet on Black Friday, which means millions of new Kindle owners; that’s gold to us indie authors. DROP OUT is also garnering attention because of promotion provided by fans of the book. Here’s another link to free promotion. http://www.rickiwilson.com/4/post/2012/11/indie-spotlight-on-drop-o... Thanks to all who purchased the book and maybe next time I can get my ranking under 1,000.
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Absolute fun!
I’m at the absolute most fun time in the novel writing process for me. The plot of IMAGINATION is complete and tight and coherent. The characters have all been fleshed out and the settings are all detailed. Now, I spend the next few days reading fast and tweaking the tiniest details. Once that is complete I give one final, very quick read and send it off to my editor/formatter. I just contacted my cover artist and we are about to begin the process of designing a cover. I have a tagline for the book and now just need a pitch. I’ll be working on that next week. If everything works out the book should be available nationwide by Christmas. Then I’m going to take a few months break, maybe rewrite my previous novel WASTED, but mostly concentrate on marketing and promoting. Up until the last two months my sales were steadily increasing every week and I was getting a lot of attention on blogs and writer’s sites, but ever since I became “obsessed” with finishing my latest book, my sales have dropped for the others. I must admit it is hard to see the numbers go down, but alas, I know that it is my own fault for not keeping up with the level of self-promotion that I had maintained the last eighteen months. It’s always tough as a writer to juggle the joy of creating with the drudgery of promoting. Don’t get me wrong, some people love the limelight and all the attention thrown upon them when promoting. I personally like nothing better than curling up in front of my computer on a day when Mother Nature intended for us to stay indoors and live in the worlds I create in my mind. But that’s just me.
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