A lot of people ask me whether they should include everything in their blogged book. They are afraid to “give it all away.” In fact, no need exists to include all your content if you don’t want to do so.
Actually, agents and acquisitions editors like it if you hold back a bit of content so they have some new material to include in the actual printed version of your blogged book—should you wind up with an actual publishing contract. So not showing all your cards, so to speak, can offer you an advantage in the form of added value for a publisher. They don’t want to reduce the value of what’s available on line, but they do want to add value to what will be available in a printed book.
On the other hand, should you decide to take your blogged book and self-publish it, you might want to keep the same thing principle in mind. From this perspective, you could consider your blogged book a skeleton of the complete book. You might be providing most but not all of the material and going back later to fill in the gaps. You can use it as a way to write “full steam ahead” without stopping to worry about the missing pieces, only going back to handle those when you get ready to do your second and more-complete version.
For many writers, this feels much less stressful and overwhelming. Therefore, blogging a book becomes an easier and more pleasant way to write a book.
I’ve given you 10 good reasons to blog a book. Now it’s time to look at the nitty-gritty process of actually blogging a book. Come back next week when I begin…
Hey, this is interesting. (And I won’t bore you with the circuitous route I used to find it.) I might be going in the other direction from what you are talking about. I started blogging in order to build platform. That was 3 years ago. I’m on my 200th blogged essay about memoir reading and writing and am trying to work out what next. Maybe this will help. Thanks for this interesting material. I’m subscribing.
Best,
Jerry
Memory Writers Network
Thanks! By the way, we’re “friends” on Facebook, I believe. Could have sworn we knew each other from somewhere else… Anyway, thanks for subscribing, and I’d love it if you’d put this blog on your blog roll or tell your readers. Also, you should check out the National Association of Memoir Writers, if you haven’t already. My friend Linda Joy runs it. Tell her I sent you. She just published a great new book that might interest you. Thanks for following! Happy writing.
That’s it! We met through Linda Joy. I’m teaching several teleseminars with National Association of Memoir Writers and am already reviewing her book. So this blog is all about blogging a book? That’s a fascinating niche. Are you also going to work in tips for blogging platforms etc? And stuff about self-publishing, services to writers?
You have so many projects going. I love this hyper-creativity. Good work!
Jerry
I wrote about how blogging develops a platform for writers–one of the reasons to blog a book. I’m not saying much about self-publishing. Blogging a book is self-publishing. I will tell authors they can self-publish their books after they’ve finished blogging it. They can add a bit more original material. I’m writing in MS Word and creating a manuscript that way. I’ll edit it and add to it a bit and then publish it as an e-book and a self-published book when I’m done. I’ll leave the blog up as well. I already offer services to writers–editing, writing coaching, consulting on proposals and queries and manuscripts, ghostwriting. I also speak on writing, publishing, blogging, writing for publication, etc.
So glad you are hooked up with Lind Joy. She’s great. I did a teleseminar with her a while ago.
Thanks again for reading!