Book marketing has become one of the non-negotiable aspects of an author’s life. Building a solid fan base is the key to success. One of the most effective methods for spreading the word and establishing credibility is via blogging.
Blogging makes you discoverable. It requires publishing new content regularly and consistently so that search engines have something new to crawl, index and rank. Readers, fans and potential buyers will be delighted to read your new posts too.
Here are a few ways in which you can use blog posts to promote your book:
Create a detailed plan
To begin with create a detailed plan about how you are going to promote your book using a blog. You will need to create book related content first. This could include excerpts from the book, your inspiration for the book, some factual details explaining some part of the book or shed more light on some of the characters in your book. Please note, if you’ll be querying literary agents publishing even part of your book on your website is not advisable. Instead, focus on writing advice, interviews with other authors or perhaps the inspiration or process behind your work.
Stay focused on your topic
It’s important that during the initial launch or promotion period, you stay focused on your book as the topic of discussion. But make sure that the topics you choose are unique. Talk about a variety of things that relate to your book.
Use keywords
Keywords are very important for blog posts. Keywords are a means by which search engines understand the content on the blog. Use of powerful keywords could make a difference to your overall discoverability over the internet.
Other blog sites
There are a number of popular article bases and blog sites on the internet. Participate in discussions; leave your comments and offer information if you know something about the topic being discussed on other blogs relevant to your book. The important part here is to leave a link back to your blog so that interested readers are redirected to your page but making sure not to leave generic messages which can be construed as spam.
Write for your readers and potential readers
Above all take into consideration the audience you are writing for. Understand that you need to define what kind of audience you want to attract to your blog and then decide what you want to write. Make sure that your blog posts are in line with the genre of your book. All of these factors are interlinked.
Create a FAQ post about your book
It’s a good idea to create a detailed FAQ post about your book. Most interested readers will want to know what’s in store. Some of the questions you can include could be about the benefits of pre-ordering, whether paperback option is available or when will the sequel be out.
Share book excerpts
People will be more inquisitive about your book when they read an excerpt from it. Provide them with little windows into the interesting parts of the plot without disclosing too much. Choose wisely – don’t give away too much of the plot – maintain an element of surprise.
Above all, ensure that your blog includes everything that is relevant to the book you are promoting!
