What Can Nonfiction Authors Blog About?

4 ideas for blog
Nonfiction authors recognize the importance of blogging as part of their book marketing efforts but don’t know what to blog about. Here are a few ideas:
  1. Write a series of blog posts based on the chapters in your book. They can be direct excerpts from the book or additional information you gathered when writing your book that didn’t get included in the published manuscript.
  2. Contact people you could interview on the topic of your book. It can be a written interview that, with their permission, you could post as a blog.
  3. Compile a list of other blogs that write about similar topics and write a sentence or two about each one and why your readers should check those blogs out too.
  4. Share your favorite books in your niche written by other authors and why you recommend them.
Your blog posts don’t always have to be about you, your book, your business. Share information about other people, their books, and business. Your readers will appreciate your insights and keep coming back for more.

Grow Your Nonfiction Author Business in January

Each month this year we’ll provide a short tip to help you grow your nonfiction author business.

This month’s tip: Write a blog post.

Blogging builds your expertise in your field as well as your reputation for generosity. Being known as a generous expert will result in referrals and more business. And search engines love fresh content. The best SEO is a steady stream of fresh content.

What’s your expertise? Share it in the comments with a link to your blog so I can share it.

The Series

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

By the Time You Finish Reading This Post 15 More Books Will Be Published

That unwieldy title is the fact behind yesterday’s post about literary agents and your social media platform, and today’s follow-up.

Depending on who you ask or where you check, each year between 600,000 and 1,000,000 books are published. That’s more than one every minute, 24 hours a day.

If you only take away one thing from Sue’s post and today’s, this is it:

#1. If you don’t stand out, agents, publishers, and readers will choose someone who does.

When Sue posted some of her thoughts from that blog post on other social media platforms, there were always a few who quibbled about how agents don’t necessarily require this, that, and the other thing. Perhaps. However, see large note #1 above.

A second note which seems, still, to escape far too many authors:

#2: Publishers do not do marketing. Authors do marketing. If you won’t, they’ll find someone who will.

This shatters the dream of so many authors who, apparently, still hope they can simply write their book and have someone else do the hard work of earning the money for them. After all, writing a book is hard enough already; I know this well and understand the frustration of those who, having typed The End are dismayed to discover that it’s just The Beginning.

If you’re still secretly hoping someone else will make this easy for you, see large note #2 above.

A third note:

#3: Reputations are hard-earned currency. No one is going to lend you theirs without good reason.

Yesterday’s post touched on the quagmire of guest posting. The entire point of guest posting is to share reputations, to find mutual benefit.

If you have a brand new blog about entrepreneurship, having Richard Branson write a guest post is a great idea, right? Doesn’t hurt to ask, right?

What earthly reason would Sir Rich have to lend you his reputation?

Bringing it down to more realistic levels, what reason does mid-level blogger Jane Doe have to lend you their reputation, giving you access to their hard-earned network of fans? By writing a guest post for you, or allowing you to write a guest post for her, Jane is endorsing you, telling all and sundry “I trust and respect Billy Bo Bob Brain and you should, too.”

Why would they do that?

Flipside: why would you do that? If you have a worthwhile blog and a total stranger, entirely unknown, wants to post on your blog, why would you share your reputation with them? Do you really want to publicly endorse the views and ethics of a total stranger?

A final takeaway:

#4: If you intend to sell your book or use it to promote your business you are not just an author, you are an entrepreneur.

You may already be marketing your business. Your book is part of your business, and you have to invest the same marketing effort and savvy as you would any other new product or service launched.

A solid social media presence is vital to getting noticed as an author and should be in place long before your book is published.

5 Ways to Provide the Fresh Blog Content Your Fans Crave

We’ve all seen a teenager open the refrigerator for the thirteenth time hoping miraculously that a pizza has appeared where only broccoli lay before.

There’s a marvelous scene in one of the Crocodile Dundee movies where someone points out that his hotel room has a television. He turns it on saying, “I’ve seen television before.” As the I Love Lucy theme fades in he says, “Yup, that’s what was on”.

Can you imagine if the food in the fridge really never changed or if the show on television was actually always the same?

There are some activities in life which hinge on variety, newness, change, to keep our attention. Eating the same foods over and over again gets boring fast – even pizza.

The single greatest reason for potential fans (which means potential purchasers of your book) to visit your website is to find something new.

… more … “5 Ways to Provide the Fresh Blog Content Your Fans Crave”