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Promotion: Getting Ready for the Launch

February 21, 2012 By 4 Comments

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.

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Filed Under: Promoting Your Book, What to Do When You Complete Your Blogged Book

Promotion: How to Get Blurbs for Your Blogged Book

February 16, 2012 By 5 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.

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Filed Under: Promoting Your Book, Promotion, What to Do When You Complete Your Blogged Book

Promotion: Getting A Foreword for Your Blogged Book

February 14, 2012 By 2 Comments

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.

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Filed Under: Landing an Angent or Traditional Publisher, Overview, Promoting Your Book, Promotion, Selling Books and Information Products Tagged With: , , ,

Editing and Revising a Blogged Book Before Publication

February 2, 2012 By 8 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.

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Filed Under: Editing Your Manuscript Tagged With: , , ,

Chris Garrett on How to Blog a Book or Book a Blog

January 5, 2012 By 4 Comments

 

My last post featured the first part of my interview with Chris Garrett, co-author of ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income, in which he discussed how to convert blog readers into book buyers using attraction, retention, conversion, and referrals. Today, in part two of the interview, which I conducted at BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Los Angeles, CA, in early November 2011, Chris speaks more specifically to aspiring authors, writers blogging books and bloggers who might want to book a blog, or repurpose their material into a book.

I was quite honored to spend time speaking with Chris, who is an online business consultant, teacher, coach, new media industry commentator, writer, speaker, and all-round web geek. He has been involved in several start ups and has written for some of the web’s best-loved blogs as well as co-authoring four other traditionally published print books and many ebooks. (See the end of this post for a full bio.) He definitely knows how to look at the idea of blogging a book and apply all he knows about blogging, writing books and new media to this endeavor and offer relevant tips and advice. Below, find my questions, and Chris’ answers, in part two of this two-part blog post:

I tell people who want to begin blogging a book to go through a full evaluation process to make sure their book has a chance of succeeding both in the blogosphere and in the online and brick-and-mortar book stores. What are your thoughts on getting started blogging or writing a book?

A lot of people say they have a book in them, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a book somebody would want to read. You are going to save a lot of pain, heartache and effort if you work out if the book you want to write is one the market is going to accept. Plus, there’s a confidence that comes in doing your homework. The more confident you are the more likely you are to carry on, because writing a book is not easy.  It may be simple, but it doesn’t mean it’s easy. The most important thing to know is that if you do your research you understand the audience you’re speaking to; I think that’s vital because you can have great content but miss the mark.

I know you haven’t actually blogged a book, but if you were going to give advice to writers doing so, what is the most important tip might you offer them to help them build their readership?

It’s the point I made earlier: You don’t drive traffic. It’s not like being a cowboy. It’s not getting on horse with a Stetson and driving people to your blog. They have to come of their own free will. You’ve got to attract rather than drive. You have to go where people are, and meet them where they hang out. You’ve got to find what they want and need, what’s going to get their attention and deliver that. You might have to give ¾ of what you know away to get that attention and to get people to know and respect you enough to trust you with their money. Because at the end of the day if they are going to take action by investing time and money in what you have to offer they have got to be sure about you.

Do you work with work with any aspiring authors, and, if so, what do you recommend to them as far as their books?

A lot of my friends are authors—some of them New York Times bestselling authors—and a lot of my clients are authors or prospective authors.

The first thing I recommend is probably the most important:  Look at what successful people have done before them and what is working right now. Things that have worked two years ago will not necessarily translate to now. So you have to look at both. And also look at what people have done that have gone terribly wrong, especially in their specific market or niche.

The second thing I tell them is to have a plan. Someone was telling me that they thought they were going to be able to retire early because they got a book deal, and most people know that is crazy talk. Unless you are JK Rowling, you aren’t going to retire early. This writer had no plans for what would happen once their book hit the shelves. They were so focused on writing and launching that they never thought, “What’s next?” They had no back-up plan, no follow-up plan. Basically, they thought their life was going to be transformed once their book went on sale.

Also, authors need to be realistic. Unfortunately, today the publisher can only do so much to help you and your book succeed; you have to do a lot more. And the best book tour is not going to make your book a best seller without a lot of marketing, a very, very good subject, a well-defined audience, and a lot of effort. Even then it doesn’t mean you are going to be able to live off it the money from your book sales. But people see Amazon Kindle sales are making a million dollars a year and think, “This is for me.” They believe once you get to Barnes & Noble you are a millionaire, but it just doesn’t work that way.

Writers and authors need to need to research what is working, plan and be realistic.

Lots of long-time bloggers would like to turn their blogs into books—or “book a blog.”  What would you tell these bloggers about repurposing their posts into an ebook or printed book?

I’ve found that there are certain markets where there are readers who are very receptive to the idea of you putting a book out, and there are markets that are very resistant to any sort of monetization at all, any sort of business influence. The strangest niches I would have never expected have worked super well. A lady told me the other day that she has a blog where she writes about a hairstyle of the day. All the content was on her site, and she packaged it up into a PDF. It sold really well. It blew me away because I never thought people would pay for an ebook full of photographs of hairstyles. She had a receptive market that really loved it and told all their friends.

At the same time, I’ve seen people in tech fields who are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a workshop but won’t buy an ebook. They will buy a textbook off the shelf, but they won’t buy an ebook. They are technical people who should be okay with it.

Market research is very, very important. But if you’ve been blogging for a while, you have an audience; you have a really good focus group. They are going to tell you what they want, what they don’t like, what they are struggling with. You just have to open your ears to it. If you deliver what people want and need, you’ve got a lot better chance of success.

You can put the content out there and see what your readers’ reaction is, what they share, what their comments are, what they tell you about, or the follow up questions they ask. That’s the first test. This action lets you know you have an audience. You know if the audience wants that stuff. Then you have to find out what they are willing to pay for, which is sometimes a different thing.

Does pricing come down to trial and error or is there a better way to know what blog readers will pay for a book or other product?

Sometimes it’s trial and error. The more you know about your audience, the better.

If you know what else they are buying, that can work really well. You can either ask them, or you can be an affiliate. You can review items and tell your audience about things they could buy in return for a commission. Dollars and cents is the best feedback ever. If they are willing to tell you via buying something that they are interested in paying for something then you know there’s a market there.

More About Chris Garrett

Although Chris Garrett has been “online” since the 1980?s, it was in 1994 Chris first became addicted to the World Wide Web. Since then he has helped thousands of individuals, non-profits, small businesses and blue chips such as Heinz, Toshiba, Hugo Boss, Lacoste, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and Durex, amongst others, make the most of the internet.

In 2005 Chris left the advertising agency world and founded a company to help smaller businesses and solo-entrepreneurs profit from their skills, knowledge and experience, achieve more with Online Media, and grow audiences of people who know, like and trust them. See how your business could benefit from working with Chris on the services page here.

As well as coaching and training companies and individuals, Chris also regularly speaks at conferences around the world about internet salesmanship, writing compelling content, and social media for business. He has spoken at events such as BlogWorld and New Media Expo, the Successful Outstanding Bloggers conference in Chicago, Think Visibility, Affiliate Expo, Wishlist Member Live, WordCamp, the Netherlands Social Media Congres and the Institute of Fundraising, along with the dozens of webinars, teleseminars and virtual events he holds or contributes to annually.

Chris was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 1974. He lived in the UK for most of his life but now lives back in Calgary with his wife, daughter, cat, and a three-year-old Cocker Spaniel.

www.chrisg.com

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Filed Under: Booking a Blog (Repurposing Content into a Book), Create an E-Book, How to Begin Blogging a Book, Increasing Traffic, Publicizing Your Blog, Selling Books and Information Products, What to Do When You Complete Your Blogged Book Tagged With: , , , ,

New Year, New Look, New Goals

December 30, 2011 By 3 Comments

I’m proud to unveil How to Blog a Book’s new design! I hope you like it. It’s cleaner, brighter and aligns with the design of the new How to Blog a Book printed book (which is now available for presale). Plus, it takes the blog to a new level.

I have written about starting out with free or hosted blogs, and then moving up to self-hosted blogs, ones where you pay a hosting company and purchase a domain name of your own. There also comes a time when you want to move away from free themes and have a custom-designed header and other unique features on your blog. With my book coming out in late April or early May, for me that time was now.

Additionally, a new year offers an opportunity to consider new goals. For several months now I’ve been thinking about how to improve this blog. After all, I’ve finished blogging the book. What more can I offer you, my blog readers? I can offer you what I myself want: tips and tools for creating a better blog. Why? Because the best way to blog a book and get noticed is to create a great blog that attracts lots of readers. That, of course, means creating great blog content. When you do that, everything falls into place. You can land a book deal or self-publish a successful book, and you can monetize your blog in a variety of ways–including with all types of information products, including printed and digital books, coaching products, teleseminars, etc.

To achieve this goal, I’ll be introducing a variety new features to the blog, including expert interviews, guest blog posts, and podcasts. While I will continue to offer tons of information on how to blog a book, I’ll also discuss how to book  a blog (repurpose blog posts into information products) and create the best blog and blog posts possible. I’ll also provide information on publishing as it pertains to blogging a book and landing a traditional book deal or self-publishing your book.

Oh…and I’d love to hear more from you this year as well. You can start by letting me know what you think of the new design and giving me ideas for topics you’d like to discuss over the next 12 months. Leave me a comment here!

Happy New Year!

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Filed Under: Building a Better Blog, What to Do When You Complete Your Blogged Book Tagged With: , , , ,

How to Revise Your Blogged Book Manuscript (Like I Did!)

August 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Just over a week ago, I turned in my revised blogged book manuscript to my editor at Writer’s Digest Books. If you recall, I landed a book deal for this blogged book, How to Blog a Book. I promised to discuss how to revise your blogged book manuscript. Now that I’ve finished doing so, I can tell you about my process, and you can glean some information from my experience.

In the process of my revision, my blogged book went from approximately 26,000 words to approximately 44,000 words. And I wrote those extra words in just three week’s time.  As I revised, I added, elaborated, expanded, and explained. I also added a whole chapter. In fact, I still need to add another chapter; that’s the only thing unfinished on my end.

Where did all this extra copy come from? I discovered areas in my original manuscript where my concepts where a bit too sketchy, and I really meant to be more detailed or in depth. I actually did this in some important places, such as how to actually write your blogged book and blog posts. So the chapter in the book that covers writing your blogged book contains much more information on that than you will find here in this blog. I realized while revising that as I was blogging the book I actually thought I had covered this topic pretty well and that I had made sense and been clear. When I came back later, I realized I hadn’t said enough and had left out important details. It’s so important to edit! (You can come back and add to your blogged book right on line; remember that.)

Additional copy came from techy experts I asked to review the chapters on creating a blog and promoting a blog. While I know a lot about these topics, before I committed this information to print with a publisher, I wanted to have my facts checked. This was done by several experts who helped me also see where I needed to expand on subjects. They also added some information. Thus, these two chapters got a bit longer. (And I realized, again, I’d left out some important topics.)

When you blog a book you are not creating the final version of your manuscript. I’d say you are creating something better than a first draft–maybe a second draft, but your manuscript will still need work. And you’ll want to add some special features as well to make the print version different from the blogged version.

You also have to edit it just like any other manuscript. I’m a professional nonfiction editor, so I dug into my manuscript like I would if it were one of my client’s manuscripts. I edited for content and for grammar, punctuation and sentence strength. In other words, I did developmental and line editing. My writing is pretty clean, but I found plenty to correct and improve upon as I went through the manuscript once, twice, and in some cases three or four times. I cut and moved copy. I rewrote passive sentences. I cut words. I added or deleted commas. I put in transitions. I rewrote. I reread. I reread again. And again.

Then I sent it off to the editor at Writer’s Digest Books. Now we’ll see what changes he asks me to make.

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Filed Under: News About How to Blog a Book, What to Do When You Complete Your Blogged Book, Writing Posts/Chapters Tagged With: , , ,

What the hoohah about e-books means for bloggers

March 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I recently published several posts about indie e-book publishing here, here, and here. Seems lots of authors–mostly novelists–are making big money selling e-books cheaply (99 cents and $2.99).

What’s that got to do with blogging a book? If you don’t get noticed by a publisher while blogging your book but you do gain readers, this proves you have a market. Thus, you should find you have readers in the e-book market as well.

I suggest you take your blogged book over to Smashwords.com and produce an e-book that can be distributed in a variety of e-book formats. Take it over to CreateSpace.com and produce a POD book and a Kindle book, too. (In the near future, Smashwords will allow you to produce a Kindle book there as well.)

Then keep posting to your blog to keep readers interested–and buying the e-book or POD book.

Rinse and repeat. In other words, start a new blogged book.

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Filed Under: Create an E-Book, What to Do When You Complete Your Blogged Book Tagged With: , , , ,

What to do if you didn’t plan to blog a book?

February 14, 2011 By 1 Comment

Most bloggers don’t set out to blog a book. They don’t even intend to write a book–ever. However, many bloggers discover after many, many posts on one topic that they have enough material–possibly too much material–for a book. Thus, they move out of Cyberspace and into the real world of physically published material. Or maybe they opt for an e-book.

Bloggers produce an enormous amount of copy. Believe me, I know. I have five blogs. That’s one of the reasons why I decided my physical book on how to blog a book would include information on repurposing or recycling blog posts into books and other information products. Someone who does this is Rebecca Morgan, who wrote this blog post for me a while ago. I’ve done this, too, with special reports, like the one you get for free when you sign up for my mailing list here; it began as a series of blog posts.

However, Joel Friedlander, a self-published author and book designer, currently is writing an interesting series of blog posts on how he is “booking” his blog. In other words, he is creating a book our of existing blog posts. He includes some interesting information about his process in these most current posts, since he thinks about it a bit differently as a designer.

It’s well worth reading Friedlander’s posts about “booking his blog,” and they may inspire you to create a book out of your existing posts if you didn’t actually set out to blog a book.

His first post can be read here.

His second post can be read here.

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Filed Under: Blogs Turned Into Books, What to Do When You Complete Your Blogged Book Tagged With: , , , ,

Turning Your Blog Into a Book

December 17, 2010 By 1 Comment

Have you finished blogging a book? If so, there are lots of programs available these days that can turn your blog into a book. Many of them, however, produce a book that looks exactly like your blog. In other words, each page looks like a blog post.

Personally, that’s not what I want my physical book to look like. I want it to look like a book not a blog.

If you haven’t produced a manuscript in some other form other than on your blog–by which I mean in Microsoft Word or some other word processing program–then you have two choices. You need to either start copying and pasting those posts into a word processing program or you need to find a program that will turn your blogged book into something that looks like a real book.

Check out Fastpencil.com. This program claims to do just that–turn a blog into a book that looks like a book. Plus, it’s not overly expensive for a service that produces a print on demand book and ebooks in a variety of formats at the same time. You also could choose to compose your manuscript in the program and copy and paste into your blog. I haven’t tried doing this, though, so I don’t know if this would create any html errors. If it doesn’t you could easily use this reverse process and then produce your book and ebook with Fastpencil.com.

That said, if you have created a manuscript as you write your blogged book, you can choose any number of printing options.

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Filed Under: Create a POD Book, Create an E-Book, What to Do When You Complete Your Blogged Book Tagged With: , , ,
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