Expertise and Life Experiences Make Good Book Fodder

If you are still sitting on the fence about whether or not blogging your way to a book deal is a good idea. Consider this. You don’t necessarily have to blog your whole book to get a book deal. (I still, say, “Why not if you are already going to the trouble of blogging every day or several times a week? Why not put that time to good use?”) You don’t even have to do any of the things I’ve suggested; many bloggers have gotten book deals without even trying. (But my methodology will surely help.)

Think about blogging about your expertise (with a book in the back of your mind—or not). For instance, www.Blogher.com Contributing Editor Susan Getgood’s book deal was the result of her social media expertise, which she blogged about for many years and quit often. She also built a platform speaking about this topic. She is the author of the forthcoming Professional Blogging for Dummies. Her book, Professional Blogging for Dummies was released by Wiley in July 2010.

Consider simply going back to blogging’s early roots and blogging in a unique way about your life or some aspect of it that interests other people. Less current maybe but worth a visit to the blog even now is Zoe McCarthy’s My Boyfriend is a Twat, which got a book deal back in 2007. She calls the book, with the same name as her blog, “[A] glorious celebration of living with a complete twat of a boyfriend. Sensibly categorized and filled with observations and recommendations, this is the ultimate field guide to that most irritating of the species, the Twat.”

McCarthy simply wrote about her annoying (actually rather average) boyfriend—after he dared her to do so—and her life raising children and working as an office manager. Her online diary, written from her home in Brussels, became cult reading for thousands of frustrated wives and girlfriends—and now book readers.

With millions of hits and several European Bloggies, her book deal was a natural progression from her blog. Billed as “an affectionate guide to spotting, dealing and living with a twat, aka the average English bloke,” My Boyfriend is a Twat was published by the Friday Project.

By the way, the boyfriend, Andy Carling, was happy about the blog and the book deal. McCarthy, the daughter of a diplomat, is twice divorced and has three children. She met Carling, a conservationist, in 2001.

Ready her blog. You might get inspired. Or read her list of donations (Gimmie, Gimmie, Gimmie)…or anything else on her site…like her bio…just for fun. Read it if you decide not to write your blog; it will give you something interesting to do. She’s a hoot.

There are more…I’ll write about them next time. In the meantime. Consider blogging your book—or at least start blogging and building a readership.

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