Numerous blogs give advice to budding authors suggesting easy ways to use blogging to get a book deal. However, scratch beneath the surface and it’s not really that simple.
One blog gave the following advice,
Solve a problem. Non-fiction books define a problem and offer a solution. This is what makes the consumer buy the book. A blog can be a fun rant. A book needs to be more than that.
Do the ‘how to be’ test. Can you say, ‘My blog is about how to….’ And finish the sentence? You need to be able to do that to turn your blog into a nonfiction book.
For my book, I said I’m solving the problem that most career advice books are irrelevant to the current market. I did a they say / I say section. For example, they say report sexual harassment / I say don’t. They say don’t lie on your resume / I say be practical.
That sounds like advice on how to write your book, not how to get it published. I can’t see many fiction writers saying “great, thanks for the advice, I’ll just rewrite my book and turn into another self help guide or diet book, I know, I’ll call it how to lose weight by eating less food”. As advice on how to get a book published it’s absolutely useless. Unless you want to write a self help book
Another blog I read gave this stunningly confident nugget of wisdom,
Your book has thirteen chapters. Voila! That’s thirteen blog posts. One chapter per blog post. Put it online, and you’ll have a book offer within six months. Trust me.
Even someone who believes in the power of blogging as much as I do finds that one a little hard to swallow. After all, just putting something online doesn’t mean that people will see it. Without proper blogging techniques writing your book as a blog is no more use than standing on top of a mountain and narrating your story to the clouds.
Despite all the one size fits all advice swirling around the blogosphere I still believe it’s possible to use blogging to get a book deal or get published. It’s just a case of using your blog to attract attention to your work and making sure your blog readers enjoy what you write enough to compel them to buy your completed book. You could then sell the book direct or use the publicity to attract a publisher.
If you’re an author who currently uses blogging to promote your book, or have used a blog successfully to get published, and would like to have your work featured here on Upstart Blogger then please leave a comment below.
I’d suggest citing the blogs you quoted from. Even if you’re being critical, it’s still polite to credit the source.
I’d love to read more from that self-help guru. Don’t throw away a perfectly good job just because the boss is groping you. That kind of thing can ruin a resume.
…”standing on top of a mountain and narrating your story to the clouds”
beautiful!
(:
Andrew - I agree that it’s polite to cite but I have reason not to link to it. It’s so full of ads that it causes my browser to freeze while it loads numerous flashing boxes. I prefer not to link to things that may cause offense or damage to anyones eyes.
Alright then. Sounds fair to me.
Actually, I wrote something not long ago on “fiction blogs”. There is at least one case I know of where a fiction blog was picked up by a publisher and translated directly into a book.
As for the more “traditional” blog format; I agree that it should serve more to find a following than as a “first draft”. It’s not impossible to turn a blog into a book, but personally, I’d rather read a book that was intended to be just that.
Quick question that doesn’t relate to your post
I installed your Upstart theme on my blog and I was wondering if there was a way to get the whole entry to show, instead of the summer and […]? Please let me know. Thanks.