There are plenty of reasons to become a blogger and writer. From giving yourself a platform for your voice to be heard to opening new doors, bloggers and writers can receive many opportunities from their blog or content. However, if you are a blogger or writer with limited negotiation skills, you may not get all the fruits of your blogging labors.
Your blog or blog to book platform may have started out as just something fun to do. Like a hobby or sport, you began blogging it to express yourself, share a passion or provide information. Your site may even be a place to build your communication skills and network.
However, what if your blog or blog to book begins picking up followers and trending? Will your current negotiating skills be enough to get you and your blog or blog to book to the place you envision?
Let’s examine some key negotiating skills bloggers, writers, and people blogging books need to survive in the industry. And believe it or not, negotiation skills are absolutely essential for bloggers and writers.
Get Familiar with Industry Rates to Enhance Negotiation Skills
As a blogger, writer, or someone blogging books, you certainly are not sailing into uncharted waters. There have been thousands of successful bloggers prior to the inception of your blog, and there will be more after you retire. With this in mind, know that industry rates for ads and posts and articles on your topic are most likely in place.
Do your research and join as many blogger forums as possible. If you have a LinkedIn account, which you certainly should, you can join writers groups on that platform as well. This will help you get feedback on a project, prospective client, blog tour venue, or publisher offer prior to accepting anything.
Negotiation Tip: Plan and prepare before walking into any negotiation. One of the biggest mistakes many bloggers and writers make is failure to plan ahead and do a bit of research. Knowing what you want and what you can get is also imperative. Identify your goals, base priorities within them, and predict where the other party may take the negotiation.
People Blogging Books Need Powerful Negotiation Skills
Your blog may be a series of hilarious tales, detailed information on how to do something, or even deeply personal content. No matter what you blog about, the day may come when a publisher comes calling. If this happens, the visit could result in your digital ramblings turning into a printed paperback. Landing that deal, however, relies solely on your negotiation skills.
From the famed Julia & Julia, people blogging books have a real shot at having their weekly words turn up on bookshelves around the world. Negotiating a blog-to-book deal can be thrilling and horrifying.
Do your homework about the publisher and know how large a royalty they pay prior to your first meeting. If you are informed, you could throw out numbers and percentages that deter the acquisitions editor from offering a contract lowball. If you are stressed about your blog becoming a book, don’t worry, because there are plenty of literary agents ready to take clients with pending book deals already in motion.
Negotiation Tip: Harness your emotions and know when to let them loose in the negotiation. If you have been blogging a book, and a publisher has shown interest, your emotions may take over. This is can be a positive or a negative. Selling your words is indeed an emotional ordeal, and many negotiation pros say let them out. If you try to keep them at bay for too long, they could be counterintuitive for your book deal, according to Harvard Business Review.
Blog Book Tours Offer a Variety of Negotiation Moments
If you’re blogging and writing efforts have paid off, you may be on your way to a virtual book tour. These book tours are a fantastic way for you to be exposed to a different audience every week or even every few days. However, negotiation is necessary to get your book tour rolling.
Chances are, your publisher will not set these types of book tours up for you. You may need a publicist, or you can always DIY your blog book tour as well. The key is to promote you and your book on sites similar to your blog and book. And as the saying goes, “there are no free lunches.”
It’s possible that you will need to negotiate prices for having your work promoted on someone else’s blog, although many bloggers welcome guest posts. If you have a lot of traffic to offer, you may have the upper hand. Giving away free copies and doing a blogging exchange is always a great negotiation tactic, too.
Negotiation Tip: Know your strengths and know your weaknesses better. When planning your blog book tour, or anything blogging or writing related, knowing your strengths and weaknesses gives you power and helps you have continued success. Map out your strengths and weaknesses as they relate to a coming negotiation.
Negotiation skills for bloggers, writers, and people blogging books are invaluable. A time will come when your fantastic blog gains momentum and the attention begins to attract contracts form publishers. This is a wonderful moment for any blogger. Without key negotiation skills, though, it could prove overwhelming. That’s why it’s essential to make your negotiation skills as powerful as possible.
About the Author
Dividing his time between Los Angeles and Chicago, Nick Rojas channels his experience consulting for startups into insightful solutions for many publications, such as Entrepreneur, TechCrunch, and Yahoo. He waxes poetically on topics such as technology, marketing, and social media. Connect with him on Twitter @nickarojas.
Featured photos courtesy of Shutterstock.com.
It is important for everyone to have some sort of negotiating skills as it is a very beneficial life skill. Great tips and information, thanks for sharing!
Negotiation skills are very important, no matter what job or hobby you perform. This article is very interesting for everyone, not only for bloggers.