The Benefits of Blogging - article

One of the important responsibilities that comes with being an author is marketing your book. Good publicity can be garnered through book signings, TV interviews, and book reviews. However, it is just as important to market yourself as an author as it is to promote your book. A great way to promote yourself is through a blog. A blog allows you to write a short commentary to your audience on a web site.

To your readers and fans, your life will be worth following!

Benefits of the diary

Authors can use blogs in many different ways to further their writing career. For instance, an author can use a blog as a diary. Keeping up a daily blog about your everyday life may seem selfish and uninteresting, however, people in this day and age are drawn to celebrities. To your readers and fans, your life will be worth following! Authors with diary-style blogs update daily or at least once a week. Diary-style blogs are very successful because they keep authors fresh in the readers' minds. If a reader is attracted to your writing style, blogs are a good way to keep them interested in your work until you can publish your next book.

Generally, authors of fiction books use diary-style blogs. Authors of nonfiction books take a stricter approach.

Issue-oriented bloggers provide facts and news about their area of interest and keep readers updated with current events.

Benefits of the issue-oriented blog

Nonfiction writers with a certain topic of interest are perfect candidates for writing an issue-oriented blog. This type of blog displays that you are knowledgeable about your topic and provides you with even further credibility. Issue-oriented bloggers provide facts and news about their area of interest and keep readers updated with current events.

The most important aspect of the issue-oriented blog is the opinion of the writer. Typically, the more controversial your blog, the more interest it will get. This gets a discussion with your readers started and ensures that they're engaged. Encourage all opinions and back yours up with facts.

The blogging decision

The decision to blog is often a hard one for authors to make. Generally, well-written and interesting author blogs grow the author's fan base and book sales. Creating an author blog takes time and thought, but it is an excellent way to take advantage of the internet's marketing capabilities, as well as highlight who you are and your expertise.

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  • I enjoy reading blogs about the topic or interests I have. I have always kept a diary/journal, and find that when I write, it is very much like writing in a diary about other people's lives. I would love to join a blog for first time authors!
  • This is very good and it encourages me to want to do this later when my book gets published. I really don't know where to start at when it comes to blogging.
  • Are there samples of author blogs that you can give so I can see how others do this? After that . . . well, uhm, I really don't know how to blog so I'll need pointers in how to get started!
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  • I started blogging to keep my friends up to date on the progress of my new book, but I also blog to let other new writers know what I am going through. My blog follows the progression of writing, through choosing to self publish, and follows from there. I also include quips from a few realizations from a new author's perspective. Wordpress.com offers free blogs and it is amazing how many connections can be made. I'm at www.newauthorpublishing.wordpress.com Check it out. Blogging is so easy, so addicting, and builds a following.