Gaining readers to your blogged book represents the keys to success. Whether you plan on self-publishing your blogged book or want to be discovered by an agent or publisher, you must have a successful blog–one with many unique visitors. (If you don’t understand that term, read this post.) That’s your author platform or fan base, which ensures that you sell lots of books. It’s also what makes you and your blog attractive to traditional publishers. A blog with lots of readers, as I’ve mentioned before, is seen as a positive test marketing exercise in the eyes of a publisher. As a self-publisher, it’s your proof that your book is viable as well.
So how do you gain readers? Let me count the ways…No really. One way to gain readers involves having your blog featured on another blog so the readers of that blog, which may have more readers than yours, can follow the link over to your site. If those readers like your blog, they may come back day after day, thus becoming regular readers.
To help you gain some extra readers, or unique visitors, I’d like to give you an opportunity to share your blogged books here on my blog. To do so, I’ve created a list to which you can add your blogged book. I’ve started the list with two books being blogged by Brian Cormack Carr. He mentioned that he was inspired to blog not one but two books after reading my book. Here’s the list:
Are you a late-blooming adult? Do you feel that life has passed you by? Not so! At my blog LaterBloomer.com, I write about people who followed their dreams at midlife and beyond.
Most are over age 50. Some are famous, some are not. Did you know that Bram Stoker, Jules Verne, John Muir, Charles Darwin, and Julia Child all began their pursuits later in life?
I've collected more than 180 lives and the first 35 are available on Kindle. I started blogging at age 50 myself. In the garden of life, a “late"-blooming flower blossoms right on time!
Olympics blasted for giving vast adverts to fast food joints. That's their legacy - but what will yours be? Fake foods - or the real thing?
how to find or create your dream job
Jiltaroo
I have decided to write a memoir. I have taken myself on some fantastic journeys that I really wanted to write about. However, when I tried to start the only place that seemed logical was the sexual abuse I suffered as a child. Don't worry, I move on.
You are invited to join me as I unveil and reveal 11 magical sets of words that will inspire you to create a life of love, happiness and well-being.
Pilgrims at Penney Farm
Our model for learning about Nature firsthand
When Lynn became the birth coach for a drug addict, little did she know it would result in two daughters...
"A Slice to Faith" is a new blog that recounts dramatic moments from the author's life and offers positive reflections on how faith helped the author move on.
Do What You Love with the help of a tested 28-day program. Find out what you really love and start living your dream lifestyle from now on. Blogged book by Mary Eve Boudreault, sociologist and author of Do What You Love Journey website. Starting doing what we love under a month is amazingly possible; this book, the 1st draft written in a month with the Write Non-Fiction Month challenge, is a sure proof of it. Enjoy!
Jillian Godsil became divorced. Her ex husband became bankrupt and she was left with a million euro mortgage on a house worth half that. This is her story about being in the middle.
My autobiographical novel Orgasmo chronicles my disastrous attempt to quit writing forever and pursue the American Dream.
Are you one of those crafters who would like to move into original work, but weren't sure how? This book offers a creative process to start you off, with hints and tips on designing your own projects. Written by award-winning fiber artist Tien Chiu.
Slug Opera
Book two in the Space Slugs series is currently being blogged. Book one was also a blog serial and can be found in the blog tabs. 😉
Reconciliation
Somaya is living in a World of Poverty but in order for her to survive she has to leave all she knows behind and thats her Family! The Life she was chosen into. She is the chosen few who gets an offer from the Governor to work and fight for their country a chance to create a stability for everyone mainly for her. This is not something her husband Artie is happy with and he doesn't want her to go and leave him and their two children behind. This is a Chance of Somaya's lifetime a Dream she always longed for! If she follows her Heart will it be fulfilling to where she would want this Life forever? Or When she comes back will her family still be there? Somaya's Life is on the Line.
Company loyalty turns into idolatry when the company is prioritized above everything else in your life, including the things you hold most dear.
Simultaneous loss of both parents, memory by memory
Southern hospitality is centered around the kitchen. We decorate it, cook and eat in it, and entertain.
A blogged book: Growing up with undiagnosed autism.
A how to for those who came to parenting later. Parenting essays and resources.
A year-long course on how novelists can write the heart of your story. Running as individual blog posts/lessons from January to December
just a story
A middle grade fiction novel for all ages. Join the elf on his quest through the crack in the wall.
(real title tba)
A humorous but confronting insight into a young woman's thoughts on her personal relationships and life, due to child abuse.
This blog isn't so much a discussion of why one should memorize music as it is a discussion of how one can memorize.
Please add only blogged books in progress! But please do add your blogged books! And, of course, share this post on all your social networks (again and again and again) so you and other blogged book authors gain more exposure–and readers–for your blogged books.
Photo courtesy of imagerymajestic.
Nina, I have read and am impressed with your book, How to Blog a Book. I’d love to list mine here but after looking at Brian’s two books, I’m not sure I’m on the right track with setting up my blog. Take a look at http://www.ltrstomama.wordpress.com. It is a seed of an idea grown out of the need to heal from the past. I’m writing publicly to my now deceased mother of the pain of my childhood with her. Also, on the same blog, I’m posting excerpts from a draft I’m writing. I don’t know if this is an appropriate way to do what you suggest in your book. Before listing my book blog here, I’d like your approval. Many thanks for your ideas and the concept of blogging a book!
I think your letters to your mom are different…but I haven’t read the memoir. Maybe they could be interspersed throughout the memoir? There are better ways to set up the blog–a table of contents would help. But you are blogging a book, and you can list it. Read the book again, or at least the part about setting up your blog, and consider how you might set it up. Create a table of contents and links from installment to installment. This will make it easier for people to read as time goes on. Good luck!
Nina:
Thank you for your generous offer. I have recently written about the concept of blogging a book on my own blog. That original blog post appears here: http://socciwriter.blogspot.com/2012/08/blog-first-then-write-book.html
At the end of that blog post are 14 separate links which are blog posts to my blog on faith. Eventually, I plan to convert those 14 blog posts plus much more material into a full-fledged book.
I know for a fact that you have a huge following and readership, so I’m truly grateful for his opportunity to showcase my writing and tell your readers about my blogged-book-in-progress, “A Slice of Faith.”
Nina, thank you so much for featuring me in this post, I appreciate it! It’s also great to see what others are doing with the blog-a-book process. Sherrey, Amanda, Shannon – thanks for sharing your blogs 🙂
I’m definitely going to be interspersing my book posts (I’m adding the Table Of Contents for both books this week) with some more “generic” posts about the topics at hand, which may or may not find their way into the finished book.
I hope that’s going achieve a couple of things: it’ll keep the topics on the blog varied for readers, and it’ll make the blogging process more interesting for me, because I’ll be able to take the occasional break from writing posts for the book. And of course, those generic posts may well find their way into a later draft of the book anyway.
Perhaps the biggest lesson I can share from what I’ve done so far is that it’s important to have a defined niche for the blogs/books, which Nina goes into in detail in ‘How To Blog A Book’. My first blog (cormackcarr.com) was set up in 2009 to promote my coaching work, and I initially wrote on a whole range of topics including the two I’m now writing about on my new “blogbooks”. The problem was, that made it very unfocused and I soon lost momentum. Now that I’ve retooled that into more of an author site and a depository for my writing across the web, it feels much better and easier to manage. And the clear definition of the other sites makes me feel much more confident that I can build an audience.
Good luck everyone!
Nina, thanks for your input. Back to the book I go — this was the piece I was struggling with, organization of the blog. It was worse on Blogger, I think, because it lacked the flexibility that would provide the indexing capabilities. It is my plan to intersperse the letters in the book, and perhaps I should start doing that now. More to ponder. Thanks so much for your book and your time.
Great insights, Brian! Focus is so important, especially when creating a niche for your blog, your book and your business.
Amanda,
I know you have started blogging your book, and little by little it will expand. Keep going. I encourage you to blog at least one post per week on the book.
Sherrey,
I have taken yours down for the moment. When you actually begin blogging it as a book, please put it back up. I think it looks like a great idea, but since you aren’t blogging a book at the moment, I can’t have it on the list; I’m sorry. :~(. I hope you will get it organized and start blogging a book very soon! I’m glad my suggestions were helpful.
Nina, completely understand!
Hi, Nina. I just found you through Writer’s Digest and I’m encouraged by your posts! I don’t think my blog counts: I’m not actually blogging the content of my historical novel, but I write about history (the “expert” idea) and the things I find as I research the novel and the real-life people in it.
No, you aren’t blogging a book, but you are building expert status and blogging to promote your book. Good for you! Keep up the good work.
Thank you for this opportunity Nina. I am actually working on focusing my site down to two ideas I have currently and I love both of them so much I am having a hard time deciding. I have gotten some great advice from your site and I so don’t want to waste it.
Aaron
I’m looking forward to seeing what you decide and watching your book take shape once you get going, Aaron.
Hi Nina. Thank you Beth Saunders for guiding me here.
I have different themes for the days that I post.
Memoir Mondays help me find the threads of memoir pieces and also think about the makings of a memoir. What aspects of my personal story would be relevant to readers?
Tourist Tuesdays, Writerly Wednesdays, Kuleana Thursdays, and Aloha Fridays are all a part of the grand experiment of finding my writers voice and exploring my life in Honolulu.
While I have an eye on reworking most of my posts into other incarnations, I would most like to apply your book blogging to Mondays. Your book just moved a jump and a leap ahead on my to-read pile.
Mahalo
Hi Nina
You are very generous with your encouragement and support. Thank you. I appreciate your experience and wisdom gained through blogging your book. I also learned many helpful practical steps in your course based on your book.
Keep inspiring us!
Warmly
Jenn
Thanks for the sweet comment, Jenn. I hope you are doing well. Stop by again!
Dear Nina:
Thank you for the opportunity to list my current project, 99 Questions to Ask Before Writing and Self-publishing a Brand-building Book.
Thank you, also, for the information and guidance you share in this blog and in your How to Blog a Book which is a goldmine of practical information.
Roger
Thanks for you note, Roger, and I’m happy to have your blog listed. I’ll be featuring your guest post, soon!
Nina:
I was doing research for something and recently found out that this woman wrote blog posts and eventually turned those blog posts into a book. I think you mentioned that you’d be writing a follow-up book containing real-life examples of book authors who both blogged a book and booked a blog.
FYI~
http://ezinearticles.com/?Adding-Emotion-to-Your-Non-Fiction-Writing:-I-Do-It-and-You-Can-Do-It&id=6665876
Nina, I found your book very useful and I’ve just finished blogging my book on my own website. Last year, I had tried looking for an agent but I was unsuccessful and gave up. But when I read your book, I was re-energized and my hopes rose up high again. I plan to epublish it soon. Now I have a question: how do I post it in your blog-list with all the others you have there? I tried a few times and couldn’t figure it out. Thank you.
Luciano
Just hit the “Add to List” tab at the top. You have to join listly.
With a memoir of a life lived in twenty-eight weeks, I am leaning into a blind curve, taking the chance to see what’s around the bend one blog at a time.
Well, that sounds like a good topic but you’ll need to stretch those 28 weeks out into more than 28 posts!
Hi Nina! I am working on a blogged book for the ordinary gardener like myself who loves the beauty of nature, but not the back breaking work that CAN go along with it. So I’ve begun to put together wonderful strategies busy people can use to make beautiful spaces wherever they live.
Love your site and your book!
The UNgardener
What a great idea! I love it…and a great idea for an ongoing blog. Hope you listed your blogged book on the List above. And keep me posted on how it goes!
I am writing about grief, losing a child, and I’m telling it with the humor as well as the pain.
Pregnancy is not for the weak, and laughing when possible helps make everything easier.
Have you listed your book?
I hope I have listed it properly, yes!
Your book has been a driving force for developing a platform for my book. Thank you so much!
I noticed that during the listing process my static page title ended up as my book title in the list. I did not see an option for editing this. My book title is in the header of by blog. I thought it would be a good idea to explain ” How to read this blog” right up front but the title of my book is – Quality IS – Exposing the DNA and Meaning of Quality.
Thanks,
Patrick
Patrick,
I went ahead and changed the title of your book! Hope I got it right.
Nina
Hi Nina, I just LOVE this encouraging community you are fostering, and was SO inspired by your book. One question, The “Listly” app won’t allow me to post my site to the blogging-a-book list. Not sure if it has anything to do with being in rural Wisconsin? I’m kind of joking, but our internet out here can be troublesome. Thank you again for all you are doing!
-Khaiti
Thanks for your nice comment, Khaiti! Glad you stopped by and commented. Please try to list again…it shouldn’t have anything to do with your internet. I had lousy rural internet for a long time. Or stop into a Starbucks and try!
Hi Nina,
We recently had the pleasure of listening to you speak at the Writer’s of Kern Spring Workshop. Thank you! We took so much away from that experience (including two of your publications, “The Author Training Manual” and “How to Blog a Book”.)
Your input has given us so much confidence and I’ve really enjoyed receiving your emails on the “Author Training Series”.
Thank you for reaching out to fellow writers, like us, and sharing your experiences!
– Shawny Lou Miller (Novelist) and Mikie DeLong Pyle (Screenwriter)
“Two Writers. One Spirit … One Inspired Moment”
Thanks so much for your kind words! I enjoyed coming to Bakersfield to speak. I hope you find the books useful and continue to find value in my emails and blogs. Please do leave a review on Amazon!
You have given me the courage to keep going with my website (( http://www.TalesOfRomance.com )) — a collection of romance/erotic short stories. I look forward to opening my e-mail everyday to see what posts of your’s I get to read. Thank you! I do have a question, however. While my website is live, I haven’t officially “launched” it yet. I was thinking about starting a campaign at Kickstarter — not to ask for money, but to ask people to help me spread the word about my website/blog. In you opinion, would something like that be a valuable tool in my marketing toolbox? Or, should I just stick to social media, etc…? I appreciate your feedback. Thanks again!!!
I’ve never heard of a Kickstarter to get people to promote. I would try something like Triberr. It’s a blog traffic multiplier. Join a tribe of likeminded bloggers and they will spread the word.
I am actually blocking my first novel. After I read over your blog about how it might be good to go ahead and post it I started my first Romance. The title of it is bound by a Duke’s Timeless love and as you suggested I put about 700 up to 1100 words and night. My question is how do I get a fanbase to read it?
*blogging my first novel
Awesome! Let me know how it goes.
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