20 Things Aspiring and Published Authors Can Blog About

As a follow up to my Writer’s Digest Conference session on “How to Blog a Book” and as a precursor to my upcoming session on “How to Blog Your Way to a Book Deal,” which I’ll be offering next month at the San Francisco Writer’s Conference, today I’m writing about how aspiring and published authors can use a blog to promote their work. A blog is a great way to promote your forthcoming or published book even if you don’t want to blog a book. However, many writers have no idea what to blog about to actually get readers interested in their blog and their work.

Several people asked me about this topic after my session this past weekend, and its actually a question I get asked frequently. Writers have a book–fiction or non-fiction–and they want to know how to use their blog to promote it. They realize they have to keep blogging on a daily or weekly basis. They need content regularly, but they are at a loss about what content to include in their posts.

I previously wrote a post related to this topic here, but today I’d like to offer this list of 20 blog post idea for both fiction and nonfiction writers. It should give you plenty of blogging ideas. My list is by no means exhaustive. Add to the list by leaving your ideas in a comment: What else can writers blog about to help promote their books?

If you write fiction, you can blog about:

1. How you decided on your characters.
2. How you decided on your setting.
3. If you book contains any personal elements, you can write about these.
4. Your writing practice–how you write.
5. Recipes related to the place where your book takes place (ex. Italian foods).
6. Information on the location where you book takes place (ex. France in the 18th century).
7. Issues related to those in your book or with which your characters are concerned (ex. divorce, suicide, sex, suicide).
8. The benefits your book offers readers (ex. If your book illustrates that parents don’t have to be perfect, discuss what it means to be a perfect parent or offer tips and tools).
9. Certain passages in the book.
10. The publishing process.

If you write nonfiction, you can blog about:

1. Tips related to your topic.
2. News related to your topic.
3. Trends related to your topic.
4. New research related to your topic.
5. Your writing practice–how you write.
6. The publishing process.
7. The benefits your book offers readers.
8. Your personal experience with this topic.
9. Elaborations on sections, quotes or parts of your book.
10. New personal teachings, insights or exercises related to your topic.

By the way, I’m offering a 4-part teleclass in February on “How to Blog Your Way to a Book Deal.” You can find the details and information on how to save $30 on the cost here.