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C.C. Chapman on Blogging vs. Blogging a Book

January 24, 2012 By 2 Comments

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: , , ,

Why You Need Passion to Succeed at Blogging Your Book

January 4, 2011 By 3 Comments

Most bloggers find themselves concerned with search engine optimization (SEO). Anyone writing for or on the Internet knows they want their writing easily found by search engines—and, therefore, by Internet users looking for the information in their blogs.

However, Duane Forrester of Microsoft says most bloggers can use basic SEO skills and find some success if they work at their blog long and hard. Notice the last two words: long and hard.

Forrester, senior manager of SEO/social, adds that many bloggers fail because they lack one critical component: passion. Without passion, he says, they may quit blogging or “run out of steam” before their blog gains a large number of readers. In other words, the passion keeps them going until they succeed and beyond that point.

Thus, as I’ve written about before, it’s imperative to choose a blog topic or a topic about which to blog a book that you feel passionate about. Better yet, pick a topic you feel passionate about because you also feel it’s your purpose to write about this topic. Purpose plus passion equates to inspiration. When you feel inspired, you easily will find yourself able to sustain the energy to write about your topic for a long time.

The mistake, Forrester says, comes when writers choose to blog on a topic merely because they think it will become lucrative. In other words, don’t just blog for money.

And remember, blogging success doesn’t happen over night. It takes hard work and time to see results. So, you better be passionate about what you do.

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Filed Under: How to Begin Blogging a Book, How to Decide if You Should Blog a Book, What Subjects to Blog About Tagged With: , , ,

9 Reasons to Write a Book through Blogging

October 4, 2010 By 5 Comments

I have devoted a whole blog to the subject of why aspiring authors should consider blogging a book rather than writing a book. I suggest that taking this approach offers a quick and easy way to get your book written. It’s also a great way to gain readers in the process, thus accomplishing your pre-publication promotion without too much effort. Additionally, you can use your material in more than one form—blog posts and book pages.

I don’t know anyone who has done a better job of this than Rebecca Morgan, bestselling author, consultant and speaker. She turned her blog into 17 different books in one year! For that reason, I asked her to send me a guest post about why she thinks blogging a book represents a good way to write a book. Here’s what she had to say.

 

9 Reasons to Write a Book through Blogging
By Rebecca Morgan

I’m the author of 25 non-fiction books, 17 of them from blog postings. Previously, I had authored four books and coauthored four others. Two of my books have become bestsellers, having sold more than 200,000 copies each and been translated into nine languages. One landed me on Oprah, 60 Minutes, NPR, and in USA Today.

I will never write the traditional way–me and my keyboard for hours at a stretch–again.

Why is writing a book through a blog better? Here are nine reasons.

  1. It establishes credibility and high search engine rankings before your book is published. With frequent content embedded with your keywords, your blog rises to the first page of Google listings. Then when your book is ready to sell, you are already at the top of the search engine results.
  2. You can see what attracts people to your topic, and then write to those issues or subjects. Watch your analytics to see what search engine phrases people use to find your blog. If they fall within your target area, write more of those.
  3. You can note what topics are most popular. See which ones stay in your top 10 list, and write more to those topics, as people obviously are interested in them.
  4. You can build a community among those who write comments, subscribe via RSS and Feedblitz. Capture the email addresses in Feedblitz so you can send special mailings to them, offering special deals on your book and future related products.
  5. You get feedback on your postings through comments. Entice people to comment through thought-provoking questions. See which ones create the most buzz.
  6. You can show your writing style. If you are wanting a major publisher for your book, your agent and/or editor can easily see your writing style beyond what you put in the proposal, which fast tracks your book.
  7. You can generate media coverage before the book comes out with an online presence beforehand. I was contacted by radio, TV and national newspapers (the Wall Street Journal, for example) before the books were released because of my blog.
  8. You can create cross traffic from other related blogs by swapping “blog love” (getting on each other’s blogroll). Those blogs will send more readers to your site.
  9. You can search by your blog name and/or URL to find those who list you on their blog roll. Offer them your affiliate program so they earn money from sales made to their readers. Ask if they’ll do a book review. Offer to be on their podcasts to discuss your “blook.” Offer to give five free books to their readers for a contest.

It was easy to assemble 17 books ranging from100 to 238 pages in length from my blog postings since the writing was already done. However, I began one blog with the intention of writing a book through it, so in that case I started to write from an outline as I had with previous books. Then I’d interject postings on events that happened that I wanted to share. I committed to writing every day and did so for 18 months; I then cut to 3-4 times a week. When I started to compile my writings into a book, I realized I had 2,000 pages! So I divided them into separate books.

If you write 750 words (approximately three pages in the finished book) each day, you could have the writing of a 120-page book done in 40 days. You would still need to have an editor go through it and have the cover and inside designed and laid out, so add another 2-6 weeks to the process. You could have a book ready to go to press in three months!

So start now. Perhaps look at past postings to see if you have the guts of a book, then flesh out what is needed.

About the Author

Rebecca Morgan is an international keynote speaker, trainer and consultant, the author of 25 books—two have sold over 200,000 copies each and are translated into nine languages, the creator of over 400 audio products (MP3s, CDs), webinars, teleseminars, and transcripts, the sole writer of two award-winning and money-making syndicated blogs, and the writer and/or editor of two ezines. Additionally, she is the principal/partner in three companies and one not-for-profit. In 2009, she released 17 books and revised two others. In the last 10 years, she’s interviewed 300 industry experts in her teleseminars.

To learn more on the nuts and bolts of how to create revenue from your non-fiction content, attend Rebecca’s 6-part webinar series, “Making Money In Your Jammies: Create Revenue from Blogs, Teleseminars, Webinars and Related Products” starting Oct. 26. But hurry, as there is a 40 percent discount if you register by Oct. 20.

Making Money in Jammies

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Filed Under: Blogs Turned Into Books, How to Decide if You Should Blog a Book, Why Blog a Book Tagged With: , , , ,

Why You Shouldn’t–or Should–Blog a Book

July 28, 2010 By 2 Comments

I came across an interesting blog post not long ago and bookmarked it. I also left a comment. If you are considering blogging a book, you might want to read it–just to get a different perspective than mine. It’s written by Joel Friedlander, the proprietor of Marin Bookworks, in San Rafael, CA. Joel is a book designer, a self-published author, and blogs at TheBookDesigner.com. He has been a guest blogger for me on Write Nonfiction NOW!

He offers five reasons why you shouldn’t blog a book, including:

  1. Blogging is specialized writing
  2. Blogging needs lots of formatting
  3. Blogs are mostly written in either a commercial or a journalistic style
  4. Blogs are about communication
  5. Blogs need a schedule

You can read read his post here.

Joel brought up some good arguments in his post. However, I would say that if you go through the nonfiction book proposal process first to see if your book is worthy of being blogged, and then you set out with the intention of blogging a book to create an audience and attract attention and get that book written, you’ve negated many of his reasons for not blogging a book. Plus, if you edit your manuscript to rid it of blog-like formatting and overly blog-like style–and then hire a professional editor to polish it up, you’ll have a manuscript that reads well enough for a traditional publisher or for you to independently publish without fear of turning away readers.

So, I say, keep on blogging those books. But take Joel’s words of caution to heart.

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Are You Willing to Approach Your Blogged Book Like a Business Person?

February 6, 2010 By 2 Comments

Are you willing to wear a business person's hat or only a writer's hat?

If you want to blog a book, though, I suggest you approach this endeavor like any other book project. This means putting aside your writer’s hat and putting on your business person’s hat before you begin your book project. This allows you to look at the big picture of both your blog and your book, which I will now refer to as your blogged book.  Only when you do this can you decide if it is a viable business proposition.

So, ask yourself this question: Are you willing to approach your blogged book like a business person or only like a writer?

If you answered, “Like a writer,” maybe you should consider you blog as your daily writing practice instead of as a book project. If you said, “As a business person,” congratulations. You’ve joined the ranks of the most successful nonfiction writers because in this day and age successful nonfiction writer must also be savvy business people.

Later in this blogged book (which is what I will now also call my writing project), we’ll delve deeper into the business side of your blogged book. For right now, just consider these questions:

  • Is my topic unique?
  • Does what I have to say add value?
  • Is there a market for this book?
  • Who are my readers?
  • What is my competition?
  • How will I position myself in the market?
  • What will I include in my blogged book?
  • How will I organize the book (and, thereby, my blog)?

Are you really willing to delve into these questions and find the answers? If so, then, you are ready to consider blogging a book.

In my next post, we’ll discuss the advantages of blogging a book rather than writing one traditionally. After all, if you are going to have to go to this much effort just to blog a book—a writing purportedly easy schmeazy to do, maybe you want to write a traditional book after all…or maybe not.

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Who can Blog? Who can Blog a Book?

February 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Anyone can blog or become a blogger. No one and nothing stops you from opening a free (Yes, free.) account with a site like WordPress.com or Blogger.com a beginning to blog.

For the purposes of this blogged book, here’s the more important question: Who can blog a book? Not just anyone.

To blog a whole book you must have the ability to write a whole book. This entails being able to conceptualize a complete book, organize the book and carry out the concept from start to finish—in this case in short, targeted posts written—and published on the Internet—on a regular basis.

Anyone who can write and has writing worth reading can blog. (Actually, lots of people who have little to write about and no writing worth reading have blogs, blog and call themselves bloggers.)  However, the same rules apply to blogging a book as do to writing any other nonfiction book (or work of fiction for that matter). After all, even though you are composing your book post by post in cyberspace, you still are writing a book. Therefore, you must have a great, saleable idea with a big enough market to make it worth writing. You also need to know you have enough information to fill a book (a minimum of 20,000-30,000 words, which equates to an 80-100-page book) rather than enough to fill an article. Additionally, you need to be—or to become—the expert on your topic. (In some cases, this can be done simply by blogging and blogging well.) Plus, your blog/book must offer value to readers, or no one will show up more than once to read it.

If you and your subject matter meet all these criteria, you are ready and able to blog a book. If you don’t, you can still blog. You just may not want to blog a book. Nothing stops anyone, however, from blogging or from blogging a book. Anyone can register a blog and begin blogging with the intention of eventually completing a book manuscript.

That leads me to the next question: What subjects can (or should) you blog about?

(Check back here to discover the answer!)

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