Clearly it should entertain and inform – preferably at the
same time. Some writers who are not yet published hesitate about creating a
blog or a web site as they do not yet have a book out there. But maybe the blog
doesn’t need to be just about books. It can be about the subject of your book,
your writing process, you, something else, or a mixture of all of these things.
As you can set them up for free, you can get started straight away. More about that
later.
All in one place or separate?
I personally like to keep separate blogs for separate
purposes. The one you’re reading right now is about what I see as a publisher.
I’ve recently posted here about marketing routines and now I’m looking in closer detail
at some items.
I have other blogs:
Gills
Recommended Reads is my reviewing
site where I share books that are so good they have taken me out of my editor’s
head.
Gill’s Sample
Fiction is exactly what it says it is. Here I publish extracts from my fiction.
The Creative Café
Project is all about my project identifying cafés that
facilitate creative practitioners meeting each other and their audiences.
The
House on Schellberg Street is all
about my Schellberg Cycle of books and also contains a lot of background material
to the books. It is designed to be a useful tool for anyone studying the Holocaust.
Unusually it gives quite a lot of the German perspective.
Writing
Teacher is all about my life as a teacher of creative writing and I’m currently
adding in some craft workshops.
Gill James Writer
is where I blog about writing and occasionally about my books. This and the Creative Café Project are the two
most popular.
Other people blog about a variety of topics in one place. See:
Allison
Symes Allison often takes you to a landing page where you can pick which of
her blogs you want to read. In effect, she uses a hybrid method.
So, all in one place or divided by topic?
Here’s a snapshot of the advantages and disadvantages of
each.
All in one place
You can probably blog every day. However, you might lose
your friends who are not writers or lose writing friends who are less
interested in you personally.
Diverse titles
You’re blogging less often but your blogs are more focussed.
I actually think both methods are valid and in the end it is
up to you to decide which one is better for you.
What can / should a writer blog about?
Well here are a couple of lists I’ve found useful:
Look at other blogs for even more ideas.
Where to host your blog
There are two providers that will host your blog for free. I
favour Blogger as this is what I’m used
to. However, Word Press is just as good.
Look at what you can achieve with Blogger: Words and Pictures This is an ezine
that is published almost daily.
You do have the option of attaching a custom domain name. I have
done this with Gill James Writer, The House on Schellberg Street and for The Creative
Café Project.
What we find in reviews
When we review our author’s blogs with our marketing hats on
we often notice a lack of a call to action. You need to make it irresistible
for your reader. Whoever comes to your post shouldn’t fail to follow you or
eventually buy your book.
Do have fun with this. Planning your blog can be almost as creative
as writing the book itself.
