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February 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

With my blogged book edited and designed and ready for printing, the forewords and blurbs all in, and everything basically in the hands of the publisher, you might think I’m just sitting around twiddling my thumbs. Not.

I am gearing up for the busiest period in the life of my book yet. March and April represent my big pre-promotion months. I’ll be doing all the planning for the “big launch,” which happens in May. The book will finally be ready for shipping in late April, which means I’ll actually have them in my hands for the first time when I go to Southern California to speak at the end of that month. The three-to-six month period beginning May 1 serves as my window for promoting the book, with the first three months representing an opportunity to make the biggest push.

What will I be doing? Right now I’m going through the Writer’s Digest Books list of pre-release activities. These include things like:

  • Creating a business card with the cover of my book on one side
  • Creating a book launch event
  • Introducing myself to a local independent bookseller and to local libraries
  • Preparing a press release

I’m also going through the promotion plan I created in my book proposal, which included pre-publication items and post publication items. I’ve also been increasing awareness of the book and driving presales with my 4-part “Blog Your Way to a Book Deal” teleclass.

I’m also reading Dana Lynn Smith’s book How to Get Your Book Reviewed: Sell More Books with Reviews, Testimonials and Endorsements. And I’m gearing up to send out the latest PDF galley of the book to reviewers.

Plus, I’m beginning to put into place the post publication launch pieces. For instance, I am:

  • Taking a blog tour course offered by John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books: For Authors and Publishers. As part of this course, I’ve begun to set up my blog tour, which I hope will include 20-30 “stops” with what John calls SuperStar bloggers. This will take place in May. In June, I am planning what John calls a BlogPalooza, much like what I do during Write Nonfiction in November. I will bring in superb guest bloggers during that month to drive traffic to my blog.
  • Planning a radio tour for the month of June (and possibly May).
  • Developing events for an actually launch day at the end of April, which will include a teleseminars, a book giveaway, a coaching session giveaway, and some other things.
  • Looking for speaking engagements during the six months after the launch of the book and, actually for a whole year after the book is published.
  • Updating my websites, social networks and blogs so the book can be sold easily from there.

Additionally, Writer’s Digest has a post-publication to-do list:

  • Take a signed copy to the local library.
  • Contact the press for features.
  • Contact local book stores wherever I go.

If this sounds like a lot of work, well…It doesn’t just sound it, it is. I’ll be honest; I’m struggling to get all of this done and to keep up with my blogs (4 of them) and my client work. Forget about getting much other writing done or working on the other book proposals my agent would like on her desk (yesterday).

How will I get it all done? I can’t keep staying up until 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. I’m about to hire an intern to help, and I’m looking at spending some of my advance for a virtual assistant instead. (That might be a better use of the money than almost anything else, including some of the items on my promotion plan.)

I have a long to-do list, and I’m chunking away at it day by day. That’s the best I can do.

If any of you have launched a book and have other ideas for how to successfully get one off the ground—or to manage the time needed to do so, I’d love to hear them (and I’m sure my readers would, too). Please leave me a comment.

Filed Under: Promoting Your Book, What to Do When You Complete Your Blogged Book
February 16, 2012 By 4 Comments

In addition to getting an expert to write a foreword for your blogged book, you will want to have authorities, authors, thought leaders, and other well-known people in your field and in related fields offer short reviews, called testimonials or blurbs, for the front and/or back cover of your book or the inside of your book. You can also use these blurbs on your website or blog and on sites like Amazon.com to help promote your book. This stamp of approval from experts helps sell books. Getting them early in the process can also help drive readers to your blog.

As I mentioned in my last post, this promotional task is one you can undertake prior to the completion of your book. I managed to get four or five testimonials with only the overview from my book proposal, the table of contents, two sample chapters, and a link to the blog.  I garnered many more—15 all counted to date—once I had a full manuscript to show. I did show the first and second draft to some people. With others, those I felt needed to see a more polished manuscript, I waited until the publisher and I had a final or almost final version.

Obtaining blurbs follows the same basic format as obtain a foreword. You will seek out those experts whose endorsement would help sell your book. Remember, their testimonial about your book is just that—an endorsement of you and of your work intended to help sell copies to readers. Ask yourself who would be a good choice to provide such an endorsement? Who are the most respected people in your field or industry? If you are writing fiction, who are well known novelists or other well-read authors in your niche? Who else writes romance or thrillers, for instance? If you write nonfiction book about business, who are the leading business experts? And if you write about a specific type of business, like real estate, who specializes in that business area? Seek out those experts. Send them an email or a letter with information about our book and ask if they might be willing to provide a testimonial.

Offer to write a testimonial for them if they like. They’ll tell you if they prefer to write one on their own or to edit something you create. Once you have one or two testimonials in hand, when you contact a new expert, you can list the names of those who have already given you blurbs. Write something like, “Here’s what some people have already said about my book.” Then list a few of the testimonials you’ve received.

Don’t forget to tell the people you contact what you will do for them! You will put their name, the name of their book, business or website (whatever they prefer) on your book, website, blog, etc., with a live link. In other words, you will become their promotional partner. Tell them you would be happy to help them promote their book, assuming they have one, in return (if you are, indeed, willing to do so). In other words, seek out the types of people with whom you would like to partner up.

Granted, some of these people will think you are some peon and realize they can do way more for you than you can do for them. It’s okay. Offer anyway.

And don’t be put off by well-known experts. You never know who might endorse you. I have a friend whose book was endorsed by Guy Kawasaki. She contacted him through LinkedIn, he agreed to look at the book, and Viola! A blurb came back that gave her book instant credibility.

And what’s the worst that can happen if you ask for Someone Really Important’s endorsement? He or she says, “No.” Want to know what? I only received two knows out of the 17 people I asked to blurb How to Blog a Book. And now I’m looking for people to actually do reviews! (That’s another subject…)

By the way, I was only able to put 10 of my blurbs in How to Blog a Book. None are going on the back cover that I know of. They will all be used (and have been used) on my website and blog. This is because the publisher only gave me two pages for testimonials. You might have more room, though. I was really bummed about this. It’s hard work getting them in, and you really want to be able to use them all.

I’ll conclude by acknowledging that some people say blurbs don’t matter. I admit that your blogged book must actually be worth endorsing. However, for some potential readers, it makes a difference that people they perceive as trustworthy have endorsed your book. Knowing that could make them purchase your book rather than one with no endorsements.

That’s why I bothered to get them. And I suggest you do, too. In fact, I suggest you get at least one or two really early on and post them prominently on your blog, so readers who show up their know your blogged book, although still being written, has gotten the stamp of approval from an expert. (You can also include these in your book proposal, if you choose to write one. Include the names of people you plan to contact for a foreword, too.)

Doing so surely can’t hurt, and it will likely help.

Filed Under: Promoting Your Book, Promotion, What to Do When You Complete Your Blogged Book
February 14, 2012 By 1 Comment

There are lots of ways to promote your book. Some of them happen long before you book is published as a print or ebook. Since my book is two or three months away from release, I’m currently gearing up for full-force promotion, which will begin in May.

Typically, promotion begins about three months before release, gets a big push for three months after release and continues for another three-to-six months after that. Of course, promotion never stops. It continues for the life of the book.

For the next two posts I’m going to discuss two important tasks you might consider undertaking prior to finishing your book: asking someone to write a foreword and getting testimonials, or cover blurbs, about your book. Today, I will discuss forewords. (Check back on Thursday to read about blurbs.)

Not every book has a foreword, but obtaining one offers your book a little extra prestige or clout, especially if it’s written by someone with a recognizable name or title in a field connected with the subject of your book. It’s a vote of confidence from a person respected by potential readers. Your foreword writer basically will tell people via his or her contribution to your book why it is an important contribution to the field and why someone should read it. You can then tell everyone this person wrote a foreword for your book! By telling the world you book has this type of endorsement, you create a buzz and build credibility for the book. Hopefully, this person also will help promote the book as well.

So, how do you get someone to agree to write you foreword? You can contact anyone you feel holds the kind of position I describe above. Call them or email them and tell them about your book. If you are still writing your book, provide them with the overview of your book and include your pitch and any additional information you feel necessary in your email. (See the category on the left called “Proposal” for more information.)

You may also offer to help the person by writing a draft of the foreword yourself; this demonstrates the type of content you desire. They might totally rewrite it or scrap it, or they may just say, “Fine! Print it.” I know that sounds weird, but experts are busy. Sometimes it’s easier for them to simply edit a piece of writing than to create one from scratch. You can also offer bullet points with points you’d like them to make or benefits of the book you’d like them to feature. Not ever authority will read your whole book (or any of it) prior to writing the foreword. In fact, sometimes they will write the foreword without the book actually being complete. Having a foreword in hand when you approach a publisher can be quite helpful actually.

So, how did I get my forewords and why does How to Blog a Book: Write, Publish, and Promote Your Work One Post at a Time, have two, which is a nontraditional approach? I actually received an offer from a particular author for the foreword who had good sales numbers for his book, which was going into its third printing. He was well-known in the publishing industry. He had a book with Writer’s Digest Books as well. My agent and I thought this would help get the book sold, so we said, “Okay,” and preceded.

The publisher, however, later suggested I pursue a second foreword, this time from someone much more notable: Julie Powell of Julie & Julia fame. (That book began as a blog.)  Why? Her name on the cover would help sell books. Well…after several months of pursuing that option, she said “no.”

I, however, decided that the idea of a second foreword from someone in the blogging world appealed to me. After all, my book straddled the world of blogging and writing/publishing. Thus, I began to look for a really great authority on blogging for a second foreword. I did a lot of waiting…and wondering if this foreword would come through. But in the end, in December Chris Garrett agreed. He is the co-author of ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income, the book, and founder of AuthorityBlogger.com, and he works with many authors and bloggers. I was thrilled to team up with him, because he understands the concep of my book, why the book will benefit bloggers, and the work he is doing aligns well with what I teach. Plus, he has way, way more expertise in blogging than I do. In fact, I have purchased his blogging products and am one of his newsletter subscribers and blog subscribers.

Along the way, as sometimes happens, things did not work out with my first foreword writer. So, I began looking for another. My agent, my editor, my publisher, and I put our heads together and came up with a list of possibilities. This time I had the opportunity to carefully choose who I thought would be the best person for the book—someone aligned with its concept and with me and my work as well as someone whom I thought would be a good promotional partner. I choose Christina Katz, author of Get Known Before The Book Deal: Use Your Personal Strengths To Grow An Author Platform and The Writer’s Workout: 366 Tips, Tasks, & Techniques From Your Writing Career Coach. And she agreed quickly on Christmas Day. I was thrilled! Christina and I do very similar work in the world, and I love her books.

You know what else? I really like both Chris and Christina. I had the opportunity to meet both of them in person, and I really like them as people. Overall, it makes me truly happy to have them affiliated with my book.

By the time these experts agreed to write the forewords, my book was in its final editing stages. I was able to give both experts a copy of the manuscript in PDF form to read. I also provided them with an overview. Chris asked me for a little bit of direction as to the points I might want him to make. Christina just went ahead and wrote her foreword with no input from me at all.

Why would these people agree to help me? When made my request, I had met Chris just once and I had never met Christina. Why would an expert take time out of his or her busy day to write a foreword for your book? Simple: First, it’s an honor to be asked. Second, it’s good promotion for them, too. They hope that by having their name on your book their their expert status will increase even more, their business will grow and they will sell more of their own books. Therefore, you have to promote them in the process as well. That’s why I always link to their books when I mention them. You can even do something like this (below) in your posts. (But put it at the end of your post.)

There you have it! That’s how How to Blog a Book ended up with two great forewords! Now, go out and get yourself at least one superb expert foreword for your blogged book.

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Landing an Angent or Traditional Publisher, Overview, Promoting Your Book, Promotion, Selling Books and Information Products Tagged With: , , ,
February 9, 2012 By 1 Comment

I am now in the last stages of my blog-to-book process. I recently got my first view of the interior design of the book, and several months ago I received a copy of the cover design. You might wonder if I had any say over either of these things. No.

When I first saw the cover, I thought, “Hey! Pretty nice!” This was followed by, “Why is the cover light blue? Is it supposed to look like WordPress blue? It doesn’t stand out…It’s kind of muted, not bright and eye catching.” Then I thought, “What the heck is that? A computer screen?”

I sent an email to my editor asking some of these questions. The response came back that the color choice was made consciously because most other books about how to write a book or get published are, indeed, brightly colored. They wanted mine to stand out from the pack because of its calm, muted color.  They wanted it to be clean and simple as well.

Okay, I could buy all that. That left the question of the actual illustration. One of my experts said, “That is not a picture of a blog on the cover…not a WordPress screen, for sure. Looks kind of like the Safari browser.”

No one ever really told me what it was and I’ve never used Safari, but it is some sort of browser. I know that because my blog website address sits right there in the search box on the cover. And I stopped wondering and worrying about it when I saw the interior design and realized that on the top of every chapter the same search box appears with my blog address in it again! What could be better than that for driving traffic to a website? So, no complaints from me on the interior design, and no further complaints on the cover design.

We did have some issues on space. If you recall, when I signed the contract the publisher asked me to write more words than I proposed. And I did…and then some. Then the editor asked me to elaborate on some points and add resources, etc., as I explained in this post. While no one ever complained about the book’s length, as the book’s final design was completed, I started to hear about page constraints.

I managed had managed to garner 15 pre-press testimonials, or blurbs, for the book. (I’ll write about how I did this next week.) I was super excited about this fact, but we ended up only being able to use 10 because the design only accommodated two pages of them. Also, I landed two forewords for the book—yes, this is nontraditional (and I’ll write about this next week, too)—and these ended up needing to be edited down to one page each to make them fit. They were supposed to be blog-post sized, but still…I also had to edit my acknowledgements and dedication once or twice for space.

I’m unclear if I’ll get another chance to see the book before print. Sometimes authors do get another read through. I know the book will still go through a proofreader and an indexer.

You might notice that the cover does not yet reflect the names of the writers of my two forewords.

I understand from several other Writer’s Digest Book authors that there were little thing they didn’t realize about their book design until they saw the actual physical books. So, I’m excited to hold one in my hand. This won’t happen until April. In fact, they may show up at a conference bookstore in Reno, NV, where I’m speaking before I even get one, but I hope that isn’t the case.

Filed Under: Blogs Turned Into Books, How This Blog Became a Book, News About How to Blog a Book Tagged With: , ,
February 7, 2012 By 3 Comments

I have to admit that when I began writing my blogged book and creating a manuscript I kinda winged it. I had my ideas about how it should be done, and I followed them. I wrote about them as I did so. However, I didn’t have a model to follow. No one was writing or blogging about blogging books or booking blogs—not until I was done with my first draft. And even then, the information was sparse. I learned as I went by trial and error; later I gleaned what I could by those who were repurposing blogs into books.

If I were to do it again, I’d do it differently. In fact, I’ve even learned some things since my final draft went off to Writer’s Digest Books. (How soon can you do your 2nd edition?) So, today I’d like to offer you some tips that you can use when creating your blogged book manuscript. There’s no reason for you to wing it when someone has gone before you.

  1. Plan out your book’s content in advance. Have a table of contents, a chapter-by-chapter synopsis or summary of each chapter and subheadings for each chapter mapped out prior to beginning your book. The subheadings work as blog post titles; thus, you should have quite a few per chapter.
  2. Create an actual manuscript. As I’ve said before, as you post “installments” of your book on line in the form of blog posts, you want to write them in an actual word processing document. In this way you will create a manuscript you can later revise and edit for the printed book or ebook. Set this up in advance by chapter with your chapter summaries on the first page of each chapter and each of your subtitles (the titles of your blog posts) listed below. This will make it easy for you to compose your posts each day. You can add additional posts if you think of subjects you missed in the planning stage of your book.
  3. Create categories that correspond with chapters or primary subject areas. I made the mistake of not doing this in advance, and my blog could probably be more organized. Don’t use chapter titles for your categories, though, because they are not good search engine terms. Set these up in your blog program in advance.
  4. Create a list of tags. I didn’t do this either, and I wish I had. This will make it much easier for you to search out posts if you ever need to do so. (For those booking a blog or planning to simply blog and then later book your blog, well thought out tags will help you find posts to place in chapters at a late date.) You can add tags, but it’s nice to have lists of tags to choose from. You might even have them grouped by subject matter so you can easily copy and past them into your posts.
  5. Organize your posts in your blog software. Although you will be blogging your book page by page, which means just as a readers would read the book, someone showing up at your blog when you are halfway through writing the book will not be able to easily begin reading on the first page. (Blogs feature the last post first at all times.) If you, first, take a lot of care to organize your posts into the appropriate categories—by chapter subject (and/or other category subjects) and, second, into a separate page that allows readers to click through from page to page, they will be able to follow your book more easily. Let me explain this last point: Create a page in your blog where you have links to each post in chronological order. Have each page open in a new browser window. In this way, readers can click through from post to post and read your book without leaving your blog, basically turning one “page” at a time. (If someone can think of a more elegant solution let me know; I’d love to hear it. I’ve tried providing “page #1,” but even if you search out the first page and provide a link it does not allow a reader to move forward from that point. This is the best solution I can come up with.)
  6. Put your manuscript in a binder and see your blogged book as an actual book from the very start. There’s something really inspiring about seeing a book take shape. If you print out the pages you write—post by post—and put them in a binder, you get to watch your book take shape. And when you blog your book, the book take shapes quickly because you are writing every day. Get a binder and some dividers; place the pages described in #2 in the binder, and then start filling in the outline you created. This way you can also add in readers’ comments and additional posts you write later when the actual book is finished, should you choose to include them in the book.

By taking these tips into account, you’ll create a more satisfying writing and reading experience for yourself and your blogged book readers. You’ll also be in better shape to edit and revise your manuscript when you are done writing your blogged book. And your blogged book will flow better, have less gaps and repetition, and generally come together more swiftly.

If you are blogging your book, or you have booked a blog, and you have some tips to share, please leave them in a comment. I’d like to learn from you!

Don’t forget! Today is the last day to register for: “Blog Your Way to a Book Deal: How to Write, Publish and Promote Your Manuscripts on the Internet” because it begins today at 5 p.m.  If you pre-order a copy of How to Blog a Book, you will receive a discounted rate ($30 off).

Here are the details on this 4-part teleclass:
Tuesday, February 7, 14, 21, 28 @ 5-6 p.m. PST
Cost: $99
For more information: http://bit.ly/CWCteleseminars
To get the discount (and pay just $69), order your copy here: http://amzn.to/HTBAB

This teleclass is geared primarily towards nonfiction writers, but fiction writers also will find most of the tools offered applicable. It focuses upon blogging a book from scratch but will touch on repurposing existing blog posts into a book. How to set up a blog will not be covered in any type of technical detail. 

The teleclass covers:

  • How to evaluate your book idea for cyber and print writing and publishing
  • How to write blog posts to attract readers and create a manuscript concurrently
  • How to set up your blog for book blogging ease
  • How to promote using social media 
  • What to do when you finish your manuscript
  • What to tell agents and publishers about your blog and blogged book


Filed Under: categories and tags, Create Your Blog, How to Begin Blogging a Book Tagged With: , , ,
February 2, 2012 By 7 Comments

This month’s focus is on going from blog to book. After all, that’s what this blog is all about—helping you take your book idea and turn it into a book. However, I know some readers are also trying to book their blogs (repurpose posts into a book), and I hope to write about that this month as well. I’m at the tail end of turning my blog—this one—into a book, so I’m going to share some of my experiences with you and tell you what I learned. I’m going to ask some blog-to-book authors to share their experiences as well.

I’m going to start the month off  by discussing the editing and revising process. For your blogged book to become an ebook or printed book–and to succeed, it needs editing and lots of it. And it needs professional editing, not just a look see from your favorite English teacher or family member who is a grammar buff or a good writer. I wrote one post about beginning to edit my blogged book a while ago. You can read it here. Let me pick up where that one left off.

Once I had finished my revisions and edits and sent my manuscript off to the publisher to meet the deadline, which was part of my contract, the developmental editor at Writer’s Digest Books got her hands on my work. She went through the manuscript with a fine tooth comb looking for any way we could improve the book.  When I got the manuscript back, there were notes from her asking me to make changes and to do things like:

  • Add resources
  • Add tips and tools
  • Add examples
  • Elaborate on certain topics, sentences, etc.
  • Cut or move copy

This is pretty typical stuff as far as developmental editing goes. I found it interesting given that I am normally doing this work for other writers. I also found that I agreed with most of what she asked me to do and thought the suggestions made the book better.

In the process of adding the resources, the need for resources at the back of the book was eliminated. I had told the publisher this would be a source of backmatter.

One thing we really struggled with in the editing process, however, was repetition. I’m pointing that out so those of you blogging your books can watch for it already as you write. I’m not sure, however, that there is a good way to get rid of this issue as you blog. By being aware of the fact that it may be a problem in the printed book, though, you can pinpoint repetition and redundancies in the manuscript you are creating off line from the get go, I think. Let me explain.

As I edited and revised initially, I struggled to find all the places I had repeated information. Since a blog reader can show up at your blog at any given point in the book (unlike in a book where a readers starts at the beginning reads through to the end in most cases), often you do have to repeat information as you compose posts. Another way to handle this is to send the reader to another post with a link, but sometimes that’s not effective. In any case, it became blatantly apparent to me that repetition was an issue, and I didn’t think I’d eliminated it totally on my own. So, I alerted the editor prior to the developmental editing stage. I noticed that this remained a problem as I worked on the developmental edits, and I mentioned it again when I turned in my changes.

When I got the manuscript back after then next round of editing, which was line editing (for grammar, punctuation, sentence strength, etc.), I thought there were still repetition and redundancy issues. To be honest, though, I’d read the book so many times, it all sounded like repetition to me! So, I had to be really careful in  my read through and ask the editors and proofreaders at Writer’s Digest Books once again to keep their eyes open for this.

Okay…on to the line edits. I got these back as a hard copy. I was a bit freaked out by this, since my handwriting pretty much is a sloppy mess even my family can’t read. The developmental edits were completed on the computer using Microsoft Word’s Track Changes function, which is what I use for all editing with my clients – developmental and line. The line edits showed up as made in Track Changes but I had to respond to them on the hard copy. This means that I had to write down any changes I had, and I had to do it neatly enough for someone to understand. This turned out to mean that in some cases I had to type out my changes. What a pain in the rear end.

I agreed with most of these changes, but the line editor and I did have some differences in opinion on comma usage and other such things. It’s tough to work as an editor and then have your work edited. I’m not really too attached to my writing, but I am attached to having my writing well edited and end up reading well.

At that point, I sent off the hard copy by snail mail. And I didn’t see it again. Until this week, when I got my first glimpse of the actual book as a PDF all designed and everything! (And I immediately found a mistake…) I believe it will still go through proofreading at this point and indexing; and I think the indexer also does a bit of proofing along the way. I have not heard if I get one last read through or not.

So, that was my experience of the editing process, and the one BIG issue that came up. If you’ve got anything to add from your own experience, please do! What issues have you encountered while editing your blogged book? Or what issues are you currently having as you edit your manuscript?

And if you aren’t at the editing stage yet, here’ s my advice: It’s never too early to get out the dreaded red pen and start the self-editing process–or ask a critique group to take a stab at your manuscript. You might also consider getting an editor or writing coach to help you out early on so you have a polished manuscript to turn into an agent or publisher when the time comes.

Filed Under: Editing Your Manuscript Tagged With: , , ,
January 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment

As my last interview in January, a month focused on how to build a better blog so you and your blogged book could more easily get noticed by readers and publishers, I interviewed Julien Smith, a New York Times bestselling author of two books, Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust and The Flinch. He discussed how blogging and publishing allow risk-taking writers ready to genuinely and candidly reveal themselves an opportunity to create change. Julian’s blog is a must read, as is his latest book, The Flinch, which he published as an ebook with Seth Godin’s Domino Project.

While some people who come to this blog wonder about the concept of blogging a book and giving away all that precious content for free, obviously, Julien supports the idea of giving away content. You can learn more about his free ebook and about his thoughts on writing tomorrow in another part of this interview, which will appear on Write Nonfiction NOW! Today, you’re going to find out what he has to say about doing so with a blog—and making an impact while you do so.

Julien is a consultant and speaker who has been involved in online communities for over fifteen years, from early BBSs and flash mobs to social web as we know it today. He also was one of the first Twitter users and one of the first people to podcast in 2004 (which is impressive to me since I’ve just struggled to get my first podcast up). He has worked with numerous media publications, such as Sirius Satellite Radio, GQ, CBS, Cosmopolitan, and more.

All Julian’s accomplishments simply give you an inkling of the fact that he has a lot to say, and what he has to say is extremely insightful. It’s no wonder, therefore, that what he writes gets attention—like his latest book. I interviewed him just after reading The Flinch.  I would describe it as a book about moving through fear, but he says it’s “about our pathological lack of courage as individuals…really it’s a book about how to break out of bad habits and break into good ones.”

Thus, it’s a book about creating change—about asking people to change, compelling them to change. In that way, Julien is a change agent. And I think any blogger or aspiring author blogging their book also has the opportunity to be a change agent. Thus, we discussed that topic during our conversation, which you’ll find below. I hope you’ll check out the rest of the conversation here tomorrow. And I’ll have a third part of our conversation, this one on moving through fear and being a change agent, published on my other blog (Yes, I have yet another.), As the Spirit Moves Me, on Friday or Saturday.

Books, such as your book, The Flinch, are published and affect a lot of people. They affect change. Can you do the same with a blog? Can you be a change agent?

Absolutely. My blog has reached many people. Some of the articles that I’ve written have been read hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of times. Some of them have been repurposed into Cosmopolitan magazine, for example, to millions of readers. When I look at that, I feel like ‘free’ is the space in which someone plays and experiments with risk in their writing. And there is almost no downside. You can publish something, and the worst is thing that happens is obscurity. The worst thing that happens is that nobody reads it. If you’re at the beginning of your career, no one’s reading you anyway. But the upside is massive if you create something cool. So that requires risk, and a blog is the place in which you play with that.

How can a blogger or writer be the kind of a change agent, that kind of a thought leader, that impacts change via a blog?

No matter how different you think you may be, there’s probably a field of people that blog in the same space as you are. There’s this amazing book about the idea of differentiation, which is called Blue Ocean Strategy—very good book, over two million copies have been sold—and it’s about how to differentiate yourself from your competitors and create what’s called a ‘blue ocean’ instead of a red ocean. The red ocean, the metaphor is that’s where the sharks are, and there’s lots of blood and lots of competition for the same food. But a blue ocean has no sharks and, therefore, you can eat as much as you like, right? The blue ocean is created through vast differentiation and sort of radically removing a certain section of what it is that your competitors might do but that you do not.

Cirque du Soleil is a great example of this that they use in the book actually. Most traditional circuses involve smelly animals and clowns and other things like that. The price of a circus is cheap and so on. [Cirque du Soleil] says, ‘Well, how can we call ourselves a circus but remove the things that we consider not significant, and then turn it into a kind of theatre? It’s still a circus, but it kind of redefines what a circus is.’ From that point on, it creates a blue ocean.

Then comes the process of other people trying to compete and trying to copy them, and enlarging that space.

Can you offer a tip you use to create the type of blog posts that get the readership you talked about earlier?

One of the most influential, powerful things is to actually be candid. You have a bunch of interior walls, and you don’t even know that you have them…Some of my friends at Harvard Business Review created a trust equation one time, which we wrote about in Trust Agents. One of the most powerful aspects of the trust equation is intimacy, how close someone feels to you. While you have these walls up, people do not feel close to you, they may not know why. Then all of a sudden if you break them down, they immediately feel like, ‘Oh, this guy is something different, something special.’

One of the best examples of this currently going on is this guy called James Altucher, and he sold a company recently called StockPickr.com, and he went on to be in blogging. He just blogs his face off, like his entire life is in view, and the amount of audience it picks up as a result of that is amazing. It’s also because he’s good and smart and insightful and all these things. But it requires differentiation through making the audience feel like they’re close to you, and that’s what he does.

So basically, get really personal.

That’s a simplification of what I’m trying to express. More than that it’s really that you need to figure out what it is that people truly want to hear from you, and then actually give it to them. Lots of people feel like they anticipate what the audience needs, or they do things like that. They’re like, ‘Oh, my stuff isn’t working.’ Genuinely when something comes from a truly deep place, it tends to hit people in a deep place as well. Then when you try to artificially create something like that, and say, ‘Well, why isn’t this working?’ it isn’t effective because it isn’t actually true.

So it’s making that emotional connection.

Right.

Writers in general, not necessarily bloggers, then have a unique position to become change agents, wouldn’t you say?

People read more than they ever have in the history of mankind right now, you know? They read on mobile devices sixteen hours a day, or on computers for their entire waking hours. To me, yeah, it’s the best time to be a writer ever because what you do affects more people than it ever could have.

What tips could you offer to aspiring authors who may be blogging to build platform or blogging their books that would help them get noticed in the blogosphere.

I think that writing and getting noticed are two separate things, but I would say largely it’s a matter of refining ideas. You can go and talk about your anxiety or whatever, but it’s another thing entirely to call it ‘the flinch,’ to give something a name, for example, or to refine the idea to the point where it’s like, metaphorically sharp and it can just insert itself like a sword right into the person’s mind.

And then there’s the idea of platform, which is to sort of work on a platform and build the reach.

Then, finally, there’s the idea of the network, which is what happens behind the scenes—being able to connect to the right people in order to be able to get your work out there.

I would say that these three ideas, the idea itself, the platform and the network, are probably the three things that anyone should be working on who has any kind of media they want to be putting out, whether it’s writing or videos or whatever. If they’re not working on those three things at any given time, then they’re wasting their time.

I’m not sure most writers or bloggers focus on the differentiation offered by Julian in this last answer. It’s an important point for success as any type of author.

Check back tomorrow here for more of my interview with Julien. Learn the value of “free,” get insight into his writing practice and more. Check in here, later in the week for a discussion about The Flinch, fear and creating change.

What do you think about what Julien had to say? Are you ready to differentiate yourself in the blogosphere or be a change agent? are you ready to move through your defenses and write on a new level? Leave your comments and thoughts below!

Don’t forget about my upcoming “Blog Your Way to a Book Deal” 4-part Teleclass starting next week!  Preorder a copy of How to Blog a Book and SAVE $30 on the registration fee! Get all the details here: http://bit.ly/BlogaBookTeleclassOffer


Filed Under: Building a Better Blog Tagged With: , , ,
January 26, 2012 By 1 Comment

Yesterday I published a blog post on my other blog, Write Nonfiction NOW!, based on a very interesting interview I conducted with Jonathan Fields. In that post, Jonathan and I discussed what it takes to create a bestselling book: author’s platform, a business model, hard work, great release strategies, and a great book. (You can read the post here.) Today on this blog, I’ve published the remainder of our conversation, which covered tips for bringing in blog traffic, getting blog readers to subscribe to your blog and creating a better blog.

Jonathan is the author of  Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love, which was named a Top 10 Small Biz Book by Small Business Trends, and Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance, his latest book, which has generated extraordinary praise for its provocative, science-meets-art approach to embracing uncertainty as a catalyst for innovation and action. It’s a must read for authors—yes, even authors of blogged books! I wrote a short review yesterday, but it bears repeating for those of you blogging with the hope that your book will be discovered in the process. All writers feel uncertainty, and that can stop us in our tracks. When you have no readers—or few readers—to your blog, when you aren’t sure if what you are writing makes sense, has meaning, is touching anyone—or ever will be purchased by a publisher or readers, it’s hard to keep moving forward. That’s why you want to read Jonathan’s book, Uncertainty. There you will find advice on how to make the uncertainty we all feel at times less unpleasant and to use it as a way to fuel your creative process.

Jonathan, a dad, husband, author, speaker and serial-entrepreneur, blogs at JonathanFields.com. Check out his blog if you want  a taste of a successful blog. He’s been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, FastCompany, Inc., Entrepreneur, Forbes, USA Today, People, CNBC, FoxBusiness, Vogue, Elle, Self, Fitness, Outside, O Magazine and thousands of other places. He also runs a book marketing educational venture TribalAuthor.com, where he shares what he has learned about marketing his books and becoming a successful author. (He shared a ton of great info on this topic in yesterday’s post.)

What follows is our conversation on blogging. Enjoy and learn!

For those authors who are beginning to blog, blogging a book or wanting to improve their blogs, can you offer a few tips for bringing in more traffic?

Bringing in more traffic…that’s an interesting question, because a lot of traffic is moving away from blogs these days and towards social media. There’s so much attention getting split. I would say leverage Twitter to build relationships. Where you can, share links to your blog. Make sure that when you share links, it’s both a much smaller part of everything else that you do, so you should be 90 percent other-serving, and 10 percent or less self-serving. Same thing with Facebook, but when you do it in Facebook, you can have more of a conversation. So share a link to a post, but then you can also put in content. Share a paragraph or two from the post, and then ask a question that will inspire a conversation in the comments on Facebook. Sometimes this defeats the comments in your blog, but…

Other ways to drive traffic are to create what we call “flagship content.” Create a major thought piece that’s provocative and establishes a position and a strong voice and builds leadership that people will want to share. It can be a series. It can be a long blog post. It can be a manifesto. We actually used a manifesto to launch Career Renegade.

It was called The Firefly Manifesto and was a PDF.

And once the readers show up, how do we get them to actually subscribe to the blog?

One, offer them something in exchange for their e-mail. That may be a mini-course or an eBook or a teaser chapter from a book. Feature the call to action to subscribe boldly, either at the top of your blog, the top right, or underneath your blog posts.

Second, ask them at the end of your blog post to subscribe. Throw in a sentence that says, “If you’ve enjoyed this…” or some variation of “if you’ve enjoyed this post, sign up for the weekly updates,” or whatever works for your format.

Any other tips you might want to add on blogging well?

I can go way down the rabbit hole with this. Just because you know how to use the technology doesn’t mean you have something to say. Blog because you have something to say, not because you have a place to say it.

One of the questions I get all the time is, “I’ve been blogging for six months, and nobody’s listening.” And I’ll look at the blog, and I’ll realize It’s because the person’s not saying anything. It’s like white-washed content, or there’s no voice, no position, no story, no value. If you’re going to put in the effort, have something to say, offer real value, tell great stories, be provocative (if that’s in your nature), have a voice. Give people something to say “yes” or “no” to. If you don’t, nobody will care.

Take Jonathan’s last comment to heart. It is especially true for book bloggers. Why would anyone want to read your blogged book if you have no voice, nothing to say, aren’t adding any value to anyone’s life, have no story to tell that touches people in some important or deep way? Write a book, blog a book, that matters–that’s worth reading.

Comments or questions about this post? Leave them below! I’d love to hear what you have to say.

Don’t forget about my upcoming “Blog Your Way to a Book Deal” 4-part Teleclass starting next week!  Preorder a copy of How to Blog a Book and SAVE $30 on registration fee! Get all the details here: http://bit.ly/BlogaBookTeleclassOffer

 

Filed Under: Building a Better Blog, Increasing Traffic, Publicizing Your Blog Tagged With: , , ,
January 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Writers like to write. They don’t like to promote or build platform. That’s why I encourage them to blog and to blog their books. As they blog, they actually promote themselves and their work—and build platform. Why? Because they are producing content.

Search engines love content. And readers want content—especially content that solves their problems, adds value to their lives, touches them emotionally, or makes them think. When search engines and readers find content on your blog, your blog—or your blogged book—gains traffic. If you get enough traffic, and enough people talking about your content and sharing it, before long you and your blog or blogged book get noticed—by more readers and possibly by an agent or publisher. That’s why they say “content is king.” Great content produced regularly gets you noticed.

No one knows this better than C.C. Chapman. I met C.C., the co-author of Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business, at BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2011 this past November.  C.C. is a recognized leader in the online and social media marketing space. He is a digital lifestyle writer with a passion for travel, photography, food, and music, as well as an author, speaker, entrepreneur, and father. He writes a blog, which you can read here.

C.C.’s book, Content Rules, is a must have for authors wanting to use their writing skills to engage readers, build author platform and build a business around their books—and for those of you blogging books. It’s filled with case studies, tips, and advice on how to do everything from writing a blog post to producing a video or podcast.

I interviewed C.C. while at BlogWorld Expo. We covered a lot of different topics related to content marketing and how it applies to social networking, making money and fitting this activity into a writer’s daily writing schedule, which I included in a post on my other blog, Write Nonfiction NOW! (You can read that post here.) However, I told C.C. about my book, How to Blog a Book, and we discussed that and blogging as well.

In a conversation we had later, C.C. admitted he didn’t agree on the total concept of blogging a book. In fact, he said, “I think your approach (and the book) is a very valid one, but it worries me a bit that it reads as if anyone can just start blogging and it will end up in a book. It felt a bit like anyone could do it, and I don’t agree that they can. What I mean is that anyone can be a blogger, but not everyone can be a book author. It takes a lot more.”

C.C. is right. Not everyone who sets out to blog a book will succeed, nor will every blogged book get discovered. Nor does every book idea, blogged book or blog deserve to become a book or to be “discovered.” That’s why aspiring authors should first look at their ideas through the lens of a book proposal using what I call the “proposal process”; this helps you decide if your idea has what it takes to become a book. Additionally, some writers/bloggers with good, marketable ideas will have to shop their book around to agents and publishers using a proposal and some will have to self-publish in some form. Not every good idea finds a home with a traditional publisher.

All that said, here’s the great information on blogging that came out of my conversation with C.C. And take a peak at the longer post on my other blog, too.

Do you think blogging a book is a good way to attract readers and possibly a publisher?

Blogging, or blogging a book, will definitely help attract attention, because you can definitely point to your blog and say, “You can read my writing here,” when you meet that agent or publisher. If you are going to rely only on your blog to get noticed, you are going to have to be really good and really, really lucky. More happens if you go to events and meet a publisher. Relying on the blog to get you the book contract is short sighted. It’s a piece of the publishing puzzle, for sure. I think it will help you in the long run.

I’ve written blog post that turned into chapters in a book. I put the idea out there to see how people would react. That’s a great way to test your audience. But I think there is so much more than the writing piece when it comes to getting published.

I don’t disagree with the idea of blogging a book, but there is more to it than just blogging. You also need to do the legwork…meeting publishers, writing the book proposal. It’s rare that publishers line up and say, “Please, please let us publish your book.” It does happen. But it doesn’t happen overnight. And you have to be a good writer.

And writing a book is extremely different from writing a blog.

How is writing a book different from writing a blog?

Just the scale of blog post versus writing a book is not even comparable. I’m not just talking about the number of pages. Having a coherent thought for a blog post is much easier than having a coherent thought for 200 pages in a book. That’s very, very difficult. I’ve heard lots of people say, “I’m a blogger. I can write a book.” I don’t think it’s one and the same.

To blog a book, I suggest writers start by evaluating their book ideas through the lens of a book proposal, creating platform and promoting the blogged book (the blog) on line and off. I tell them they should work toward being “discovered” by writing posts regularly as well, but they should be prepared to self-publish or to approach a publisher or agent with a proposal once they’ve finished writing the book. What do you think of this concept?

I think it’s an interesting and different approach. It reminds me of artists pages, where you are saying they should every day focus on a piece of the project.

I tell people, “If you want to write a book, writing the proposal is the hardest part.” It’s harder than anybody every imagined. To do it right takes a long time. Breaking it down and thinking about it through a proposal is a strategic and smart idea. If you can’t put together a book proposal, you’re never going to be able to put together a book. Ever. A proposal really focuses your thoughts. It makes sure you don’t just have an idea but that you have a book. There is a difference. There are all these great ideas that sound like they might work as a book, but can you really dedicate 20,000 or 40,000 words to that simple idea? Can you break it down in your process and really write the proposal?

Now, if you want to just blog, I don’t think you need to do this sort of strategic research. I believe you start a blog because you are passionate about a subject. Unless, of course, you want to make money. Then it makes sense to go through this process with your blog.

If you are blogging a book, you need both passion and a strategic business process. You’ll be blogging about this topic for a long time to come–long after you finish the book. And you need a business plan for the book and the blog–especially if you’d like to make money with your book and your blog.

Two short pieces of business today: Please remember to pre-order a copy of How to Blog a Book to get your $30 discount off the upcoming “Blog Your Way to a Book Deal 4-part teleclass.” For more information, click here.

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Filed Under: How to Begin Blogging a Book, How to Decide if You Should Blog a Book Tagged With: , , ,
January 19, 2012 By 3 Comments

Engagement. That’s what every blogger seeks—or should seek. If your blog readers comment on your posts, it means they not only read but get involved in what you write—involved enough to actually have a conversation with you. The blog stops being a one way broadcast, like a printed book, and becomes a conversation. Most bloggers would say that’s a true blog, one that engages the reader to do more than simply read what you wrote.

As a book blogger, you also want your readers to comment. Your blog represents a test marketed version of your book. Every time you publish a post, the comments your readers leave offer you valuable feedback you can use to improve your manuscript and make it more readable and marketable. Your blog readers serve as the best critique group you could ever find because they are the actual people who will buy your book. You want to engage them.

Assuming you have blog readers, how do you do you get them to comment? I asked Liz Strauss, the Queen of Comments, that question at BlogWorld & New Media Expo in November 2011.  At that time, Liz, who is a strategist, CEO and founder of  SOBCon, and keynote speaker, had over 94,000 comments on her three blogs. Wow. Wow. Liz, the author of The Secret to Writing a Successful and Outstanding Blog: An Insider’s Guide to How Conversation Is Changing the Way that Business Works, has been named among the The Top Influencers Alive: 10 Breakout Influencers of 2011, and was on Forbes list of Top 10 Women Social Media Influencers in the same week. She writes her popular Successful Blog  as well as what she calls her “writing blog” and the Liz Strauss blog.

If you don’t know Liz, she also was named Top 100 Social Media & Internet Marketing Bloggers, Top 100 Most Influential Marketers of 2008 and 2009,  50 of the Most Powerful and Influential Women of Social Media, NxE’s Fifty Most Influential ‘Female’ Bloggers and her blog is listed on Alltop Social Media and Alltop Twitterati. Liz is a social web strategist and community builder who works with businesses, universities, and individuals to help them understand how text, words, and images work in the culture of the social web. Learn more about Liz here.

As I said in my last post, Liz knows more than a thing or two both about blogging and publishing. And she knows a lot about how to get readers engaged on a blog. We have differing opinions about how comments can or should be used when blogging a book (as noted in my last post), but if anyone knows how to get readers engaged, it’s Liz. Here’s what she had to say when I asked her about getting readers to comment on blog posts.

You have 4,300+ posts on your Successful Blog and 600+ on your writing blog and several hundred on the Liz Strauss blog. Even more impressive to me, you have 94,000 comments on your blogs. How do you get that kind of engagement from your readers?

Blogging experience. Blogging experience. Information is all over the internet, but your experience of the information is not. A great example of that is movie critics. If every movie critic only blogged the information about a movie, we’d only need one movie critic. That’s critical. Don’t try to tie everything up in a bow. A blog is about conversation, not presentation.

What I just did [here at BWE] was presentation, so I’m quite happy with the idea that maybe nobody had any Q&A because it was about me presenting information. But I’ve actually gone back in and undone pieces of blog posts because I’ve tied it up too completely. Don’t tie everything up like you did with your essays. It doesn’t leave me as a reader anything to say but “great blog post.”

In other words, leave people with something to think about?

I call it, “Be complete but not thorough.” Don’t put the finishing touches on the painting, so to speak. It actually makes the post easier to write.

Along that same line, if you go reaching for a list of “how many things,” make a bulleted list without a number in mind. You can put the ordered list down, and let it number itself. Don’t go for seven or ten, just go for however many you think of. Then, after that write, “That’s how many I thought of,” because if you go reaching to fill out to ten, once again, you’re not leaving me any room. Stop and just say, “I thought of five. I bet you can think of more.” First of all, that’s truthful. Second of all, you leave me room to add something.

And that’s when you get the comments?

Right. Conversation is about me having an idea, and then it’s your turn to talk. A blog post, a true blog post, is really about one idea.

The most important parts of a blog post are the title and the question at the end. People write, “So, what do you think?” and that’s the right thing to do. “What do I think about the Vietnam War?” Ask a question that you or they can answer. And actually consider how someone might answer the question.

Sometimes I actually model the answer. I have a series of blog posts that are just questions, called “Questions to Get Closer to You.” Literally, they are just questions, like “What are three words that describe you and your business?” and then to help you out, I’ll answer the first one. I went into the comment box when I published it and wrote my answer, because sometimes people don’t want to comment because they don’t know what to write.

If you’re constantly thinking about your readers and their experience of what you’re doing, you might think, “Oh, I might be afraid to answer this because I wouldn’t know what kind of answer people are looking for. I’m such a weird thinker that I’ll end up being the one who’s way off in left field.”

What are the kinds of questions you ask readers at the end of posts?

Often the question I ask at the end becomes the title of the blog post. There’s one I’m working on right now that I know the question at the end is going to become the title of the blog post, and I haven’t even written it yet. It’s called “Are You Using Your Time Promiscuously?” I know where I’m going, but I haven’t gotten there yet. So, they’re pretty straightforward.

I wrote a blog post about CFD, a syndrome I named called “Can’t Follow Directions,” and it was called, “Has a CFD experience harmed your business?” That’s the question at the end. I explain how I did this thing where I invited people to give me five bits of information, and eighty percent of the two-hundred-some people who sent in the information couldn’t give me all five bits of information. This is the reason why CFD can really hurt your business, and it can hurt your business whether you’re the one who’s not following directions or someone else you’re working with can’t follow directions.

I offer a lot of information on my blogs and don’t get a lot of responses. I guess don’t always ask good questions at the end of my posts.

You have to be thinking about “What would I say back to myself after I read this?”

When I first began blogging, I learned that if I was about to put a sub-head in, I would cut the blog post and move that to Tuesday. What actually happened for a while was the blog post that I thought on Monday was going to be one blog post would end up running all week.  Tuesday I would start writing the post with that sub-head, and I would end up breaking that up again and again.

I find two things: If you’re trying too hard to make a sentence, that’s may be trying to be a good writer or maybe the sentence doesn’t belong there. If the blog post is getting long, you probably have two blog posts there. You want to hit it with a nice, killer bump at the end. We’re all reluctant readers. With lots of sub-heads, you’re going to have lots of type and turn people off.

Many  writers who are blogging books or promoting their books approach their topics as experts. They offer information. I see and read many blogs like this as well. These bloggers don’t tend to get as many reader comments. Can you discuss the different types of blogs and role comments play on these blogs?

What makes a blog a blog is that people are commenting on the posts. Obviously I’m being a purist here. Do you want to talk about the kind of blogs that The New York Times does, and The Harvard Business Review? If so, then you’re talking about a magazine with comments, and that’s not what I’m talking about. On these, basically people are just saying, “Yeah, I really like what you wrote,” or “Good job.”

I have a blog post from probably 2007, “Humility,” where the conversation goes on for about a hundred and three comments, where through that conversation I had ideas change; I found out why I do not like the sentence, “your humble servant.” I always knew I didn’t like it, but I found out why. Somebody had said something like, “You have to accept thing. Humility is about accepting anything,” and in the conversation ideas were actually changing, thoughts were changing. A conversation and discussion was actually happening.

I’ve had it happen more than once that I put a blog post out there and I thought I know what it was about and someone took it in a totally different direction.  It’s like when you’re sitting in a bar with four friends, and you put an idea out there and they take the conversation in an entirely different direction than you ever expected. That’s what the genre is about, and that’s why people call it “the conversation.”

Liz had a few more things to say about comments on blogged books in a previous post based on my BlogWorld interview with her. You can read them here.

With Liz’s last words in mind, let me ask you, my blog readers, a question: What have you done to garner comments on your blogs or blogged books? What has worked best to engage your readers?

Filed Under: Building a Better Blog Tagged With: , , , ,
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