Blogging is an excellent way to reach readers. Over the years, promotional blogs have evolved to encompass more than personal opinions and essays. The promotional blog is an efficient platform for contests, book reviews, interviews, workshops and other creative methods for dispersing information that benefits both blogger and reader.
Consider the different types of blogs an author might use to promote new and upcoming books.
Group Blogs Increase Traffic
A group of like-minded authors can share blog space while sharing readers as they take turns posting on assigned days. Blog topics may be writing-related, book-related, or deal with issues surrounding the writer's life. It's an opportunity to promote each others' books without putting all the burden of blogging on one author.
Creative ways to use a group blog involve interviews of each other or authors outside the group and may include editors, agents, and other publishing industry professionals. Use contests to give books away to visitors who leave comments. Some blog posts may be written from the perspective of book characters, or have one character interview a character created by one of the other authors.
Personal Blogs Build Readership
Going solo is an option while working toward building a readership. One of the challenges of a personal blog is keeping up with it on a regular basis. People can get addicted to reading a blog daily and may become annoyed if there's nothing new to discover on subsequent visits. The key to a good blog is keeping it fresh.
Like group blogs, it's important to be creative by posting contests, interviews, workshops, book reviews, and short teasers taken from published books. Give readers a reason to return, and to tell friends and family about the blog and the author's books.
Bookseller Blogs Make Good Promotional Tools
Some commercial websites reserve blog space for authors. Amazon.com has their AuthorCentral program, which is geared toward helping authors reach more readers. It helps cross sell an authors' books by setting up a profile page linked to a book's details on Amazon. A personal author's blog is one of the profile features.
Guest Blogging Initiates Cross Promotion
Book stores, publishing companies and other authors will often provide a platform for guest blogging authors. Similar to the group blog, visitors are attracted by the variety of authors involved.
Guest blogging takes the interview format one step further by giving the author space to express his or herself in a blog post. Visitors address the blogger directly in the comments section, and the guest has an opportunity to directly answer questions as well.
Blogging is a commitment, and to meet book promotion goals it must be done consistently and contain fresh material on a regular basis. Promoting books through blogging can be a valuable tool in every author's marketing toolbox.
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