Anyone can simply begin blogging. Blogging a book, however, that’s a different story.
Blogging a book is a great way to write your book if you want to attract potential book buyers to a self-published book of if you want to get discovered by an agent or publisher online and get offered a publishing contract—which is how the book and movie Julie & Julia came into existence. It’s also a great tactic if you are an entrepreneur and want to boost your business with both a blog and a book, both of which will, indeed, increase your flow of new customers and clients.
However, to achieve these goals, you must approach the endeavor like you would any other book project you might undertake. To help you successfully blog a book, here’s a list of 6 things you need to do before you start blogging your book.
1. Choose a topic: You can choose just any old topic and start writing, but it’s better to choose a topic that attracts readers. You also can—and should—choose a topic that interests you and that interests a lot of people. If possible, choose a topic you feel passionate about.
2. Hone your subject: Get clear about what you are blogging about, why you are blogging a book, and how you are going to move forward both with your book and blog. You can do this by developing a “pitch,” or elevator speech, for your blogged book.
3. Map out your book’s content. You need to know what content will go in your book. The best way to discover this involves creating a “brain dump” of all the subjects you might cover in the book. This exercise most-commonly is called “mind mapping.”
4. Break your content into post-sized pieces. Blog posts are short—between 250 and 500 words. The related topics from #4 that you grouped into chapters each constitute one or more posts.
5. Create a business plan for your book. Every book needs a business plan of its own. Every author needs to function as a business person.
6. Set up a blog. You will, of course, need a blog. If you don’t know how to do the techy stuff yourself, get help. You can start with a free (hosted) blog, but I recommend a self-hosted one.
For more information visit http://www.copywrightcommunications.com/Workshops.html. I am the author of How to Blog a Book, Write, Publish and Promote Your Work One Post at a Time (Writer’s Digest Books).
