Yesterday, we talked about how authors of nonfiction books can come up with ideas for a blog. Today, let’s talk about how to maintain an active blog when you write fiction.
Certainly, it is more of a challenge to contribute meaningful posts to a blog based on your novel or fiction-writing in general.
A good start would be to determine the purpose of your blog and the direction you want to take it. Of course, your primary purpose is to get exposure for your book(s)—to generate sales. But it isn’t practical to write every post about your book. You’d soon reveal your entire story and there would be no need for anyone to purchase your book. So what could you write about that would be of interest to your audience and offer an infinite array of post topics?
• If you have the knowledge to do so, write about fiction writing—character-building tips, how to handle dialog, how to choose a setting, what goes into creating a plot and moving it forward strategically, how to work lessons into your story, the importance of consistency in your writing, writing style, grammar, etc. You could continue in this theme for years by bringing in other books to use as examples, interviewing other fiction authors, discussing the writing advice of other fiction experts and so forth.
• Blog about fiction in general—review novels, describe some of your writing sessions—your challenges, post excerpts from your book from time to time, write about your experiences in critique groups, report on sessions at conferences you attend and discuss the style of other novelists. If you are creative and observant, you should get many miles from this type of blog.
• Create a blog site devoted to publishing fiction. Interview publishers of fiction. Talk to authors and marketing experts about book promotion for novels. Post sources for getting fiction published. Write about author’s experiences publishing through certain avenues. Provide resources for promoting fiction. This could be a very helpful blog for authors who aspire to be published and need some guidance specific to fiction.
• Become a fiction-writer’s go-to person. Write about the various fiction genres, who’s writing in which genres and subgenres, how to determine your genre, how to choose which genre to write in—which genres/subgenres are selling best, which publishers are publishing certain genres, which bookstores are carrying and selling books in specific genres. Answer questions about publishing contracts for fiction authors, how to determine which publishing option is best for you and your project, and so forth.
Visit the blogs of other fiction authors to discover how they handle their posts—what do they offer their followers? This will provide you with numerous ideas for your own fiction blog. What aspect of fiction-writing or publishing is most fascinating to you—do you understand most fully? Consider creating your blog around your abilities, skill and interests.
Some of you might have additional ideas. We’d love to hear them.
In the meantime, fiction must be promoted just like nonfiction if you want it to sell. Blogging is, of course, one way to promote your novel. I include at least 120 other book promotion ideas specifically for fiction authors in my book, Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author. Actually, pretty much all 250 ideas are suitable for promoting your fiction book, but you’ll find 120 places where I tell novelists specifically how to use this idea to promote his or her book. Order your copy of this valuable book today: http://www.matilijapress.com/PromoteYourBook.html
Thanks for this, it’s very timely for me!
As always, some fabulous ideas, especially when we (bloggers) hit blog fatigue. THANKS!
There’s also the angle of promoting the blog itself. Indie writers need to get some nice contact cards that can double as bookmarks for promotion. I gave quite a few out at a talk I gave last night at a book festival, and make a point of inserting them into each print copy in case people want to follow me later – but at the very least it is an attractive freebie bookmark! The post is at http://karldrinkwater.blogspot.com/2011/11/promotion-with-business-cards.html if of interest. Thanks!