Before we begin the real “business” of blogging a book—or deciding if you have a book to blog, let’s take a look at the advantages of blogging a book rather than simply writing a book. Of course, if you write a book you have two options: You can self-publish it in some form, which includes producing an e-book, or you can try to get it published traditionally.
I see several major reasons to blog a book:
You Can Publish As You Write
Each time you write a blog post and hit the “publish” button, you have, indeed, published your copy. You have sent it out to the World Wide Web for anyone and everyone to read. You have become a publisher. You have self-published your work.
Therefore, blogging a book gives you the opportunity to actually publish your book as you write it instead of waiting until you complete your manuscript.
This does not mean you have to give up on traditional or self-publishing routes. In fact, you can send editors and publishers to your blog to read your writing.
One disadvantage to this option may exist. If you discover somewhere along the line that you have gotten off track, left something out, need to change, add or delete copy, you do this for all of Cyberspace to see (assuming you do, indeed, have blog readers). So, you make your mistakes and foibles in public.
Now, if you don’t make too many mistakes or foibles, this isn’t a problem. You can avoid this issue for the most part by planning out your book well and working on your blog copy off-line prior to publishing posts. (We’ll discuss this in upcoming posts, so no need to worry about his now.) Blogging software also makes it easy to go back and edit posts and to insert new posts into the “stream” of your book. Thus, I don’t see this as much of a deterrent to blogging a book.
Some writers may not want to “give away” their whole nonfiction book on line. If you feel this way, you can pick and choose how much of your book to blog. Keep some of your information for your self-published or traditionally published version. That’s fine.
In the meantime, you’ll be able to call yourself a published writer. You can call yourself a blogger. And your work will be available for the world to read.
Isn’t that what all writers really want anyway—for their writing to be available for readers to read?
Who will tell me if I do indeed have a book to write, in the form of a blog or otherwise? This is all new to me, and I need direction. I have a story to tell, and it is fascinating indeed. The opening line will capture anyone’s imagination, I assure you of that.
Here it is: “Thirty years I was shot and killed while working as an undercover Covert Spy, it is not time to write about it.”
I just don’t know how to go about it, and I am not at all computer-friendly or Internet knowledgable.
My Memoirs will be titled “Dirty-Hands Op-573. Shot at and missed: Shit at and hit.
I need to know how to start? How can I get that information without spending a fortune I don’t have.
Check out my other site, http://www.writenonfictionnow.com or the Nonfiction Writers’ University.