7 reasons all writers should have a blog

When I talk to authors about promoting their books, I am often met with resistance when I suggest blogging as an important element in building their author platform. Not only is blogging useful for providing your website with fresh content—potentially giving your site a higher ranking in search engines (Google, for instance, loves websites that are updated frequently)–but there are other reasons you should have one as well. Let’s go over seven of them:

1. Blogging can help you stand out in the Internet crowd without spending thousands on a fancy website. 
2. Blogging gives you a place to develop content.
3. Blogging will help define you as an author and will help you refine your message.
4. Blogging will help you build credibility. 
5. Blogging gives you a “home base” for your social media activities.
6. If you intend to pitch other bloggers about reviewing your book or perhaps providing a guest post, you need to be a blogger first.
7. If you intend to be a leader within your industry, a blog will give you a voice even more so than a book will.

Keep in mind that while it is important to update your blog frequently, posts do not have to be long (this post, for instance, is about 220 words). Good luck…and good blogging!

11 publishing strategies for success

As publishing continues to go mainstream and lose its stigma, more and more authors are taking the plunge and going indie. Success, however, is certainly not guaranteed. By following the tips below, you’ll avoid many of the pitfalls and enhance your chances of flourishing.

1. Educate yourself. Publishing is a business and needs to be treated as such. There are books, blogs, websites, and associations devoted to publishing. Failing to learn all you can about it can mean wasting thousands of dollars by blundering along without knowledge or a plan.

2. Study the competition. Be sure your topic hasn’t been overdone. Check the library, your local bookstore, and Amazon.com. But don’t stop there: Check Books in Print Subject Guide and Forthcoming Books in Print Subject Guide. Then make sure yours is better than what is already out there.

3. Write what other people want. Catering to one’s own personal desires often makes for a blah book nobody buys. Face the facts: Personal journals and impassioned tirades are best saved for family and friends, not foisted upon the general public.

4. Think “marketing” from the start. The time to start generating marketing ideas is before you even write the manuscript. Identify your market. How can you reach them? Start folders of ideas. What catalogs might be interested? Which associations reach your potential readers? Can you sell the book as a premium to companies that would give it away as a gift to entice new customers or use it internally for training? Think about who else reaches your potential customer and how you can partner with them. Do you have contacts who have national name recognition and might write an advance endorsement?

5. Get professional editing. You cannot edit your own work. You cannot.

6. Create a catchy title. The right title can make a book. Short is best. Clever is fine but don’t sacrifice clarity. Include a subtitle for nonfiction books as it gives you extra mileage in ensuring readers know what the book is about.

7. Include all the vital components. Depending on whether your book is paper or electronic, you will need an ISBN, LCCN, EAN scanning code, subject category on the back cover, the title displayed boldly on the spine, and so forth.

8. Have a dynamite cover. Get it designed by a professional who knows book cover design, not just someone who does nice logos or brochures. There is a lot of competition out there; this is your opportunity to stand out from the crowd.

9. Make the interior inviting. Study the insides of books that look clean and user-friendly; use these as your model. The production values of your book must meet the competition to be acceptable in the trade. It is not advisable to do your book layout in Word, so if you are not budgeting for the steep price tag and learning curve of a program such as InDesign, hire a pro.

10. Price properly. Books that are much more costly than the competition—or even sometimes a lot cheaper—can meet resistance. Figure out a per-unit cost that still offers you a margin for profit and enables you to offer booksellers a discount—and that keeps you in line with your competition.

11. Publicize, promote, publicize, promote. Eat, sleep, and talk your books. Ongoing, enthusiastic marketing is the real key to success. Never quit. Always be on the alert for new opportunities; marketing is forever and your efforts today can yield results way down the road.

Publishers Taking Risks

We've heard so often the complaint that publishers never take risks, that agents never take risks, and of course there are some who will say those are the reasons we're seeing the "downfall of publishing" today. I don't necessarily believe that. I think given how many new authors are published each year and how many of those succeed as well as how many fail shows that publishers take risks every day. Every book is a risk, whether it's a debut or not. No matter how much experience we all have we're never quite sure what's going to grab the attention of the reader.

I can't begin to tell you how often I've offered representation to an author for a book that I honestly thought would be a challenge to sell, but one I was excited about. And before all of my clients get worried, upon making the offer I've always been up front with the author about my belief that the book might be a long shot, but one that I thought was worth the risk. Some have sold, others have not, but either way I've never regretted taking the chance.

One caveat to all of this is that, as a writer, if you have an agent or publisher taking a chance on your book you still want to make sure it's a place that has some knowledge of where they're taking the chance to. In other words, you probably don't want me to take a chance on your illustrated children's book since that's so outside of my knowledge base that it just wouldn't be a smart move. I wouldn't even begin to know where to sell it to. You probably wouldn't want a business publisher taking a chance on your romance novel. Again, do they have the sales force available to even talk to the right buyers?

Target Marketing for Authors

One common mistake that authors make is thinking that their book is for "everyone." Sure, some books appeal to a wider group of people than others, but all books have a niche.

Few of us have the resources to market to the world at large, and it's much easier to sell a book to people who already have an interest in the subject or genre. 

But who exactly is your target market? Most books actually have several target markets, but each is still a niche market.

Your primary market is the ideal customer that your book was written for. Then you have secondary markets of other people who have an interest in the book's topic or genre, or who buy books like yours to give to others.