With the recent flurry of blogs turned into books, aspiring writers might want to consider blogging their books into existence. Lots of good reasons exist for doing so—only one of which involves being discovered by an agent or publisher and landing a big advance.
Not sure if blogging a book would work for you? Consider the following 10 reason why you should do so:
- You can publish as you write.
- You get exposure and build “platform.”
- It can give you expert status.
- Your writing gets read.
- You can test market your idea.
- It’s a daily writing commitment.
- You get feedback on your writing.
- It provides a method to make sure you complete your manuscript.
- To show what you’ve got…but not all you’ve got
- You and your blog might get discovered!
I created a blog, called How to Blog a Book, as a way to demonstrate the ease with which a writer can blog a nonfiction book. Fiction writers can use many of the same principles to blog novels as well; however, my expertise lies in writing, editing and publishing nonfiction books.
I started the first week in February. The book is almost complete. Well…I have a “secret” element I plan to add to the print version.
The posts in the blog offer readers information on how they can write their own book via a blog. By reading the blog, you can follow me along as I blog my own book–a book about how to blog a book. The posts offer information based on my knowledge as a freelance nonfiction book editor, writing coach and publishing mentor.
In How to Blog a Book, I recommends that nonfiction writers who choose to blog a book go through what I call the proposal process to evaluate their blogged book idea.
This is outlined in the blog, as are a variety of other necessary tools and tips for blogging.
Check out the blog here.
Hi Nina,
I did already ask you about if i publish my work on line, doesn’t this conflict with publish right?
Thanks,
Carina
Carina,
I was sure I’d answered that question. I know I did on one of my other blogs! Anyway, from what I understand, copyright is not a problem. Each time you hit the “publish” button on your blog, you do, indeed, publish your work. As a blogger, you are a publisher and hold the copyright to your work. You can also grant others the copyright, such as a publisher…or another blogger. It is your property. I have seen little stealing of blog copy. In most cases, I see people attribute and link back to the original blog post when they use a bit of it in their own blog, and that’s exactly what you want to have happen. When a publisher picks up your blogged book, you can add a bit of new copy–some special features–to make the book fresh. I hope that answers your question.