It’s Dunn Week at A. Victoria Mixon, Editor, with Judy Dunn of CatsEyeWriter. A fellow Top 10 Blogger for Writers, Judy teaches content marketing through her blog, coaching bloggers on how to get out there, stay out there and make it worth their while to be out there.
And she likes cats! The Grey Peril approves.
GUEST POST BY JUDY DUNN
I work with a number of aspiring authors, and the biggest fear they express is that this marketing thing—this author blog—will take over their lives.
That they will be left dazed and bleary-eyed, with no time, energy or clarity left for their most important creative work: their book.
I’ve worked with authors at every stage. Writers starting a blog in hopes of finding their book’s topic. Aspiring authors with works-in-progress. And self-published writers who realize too late that they should have been developing a reader base before their book came out.
Whether you are on the self-publishing track or you are looking for a traditional publisher, you need readers.
A blog gives you a home base.
A spot to illuminate your writing.
To shine a light on your best work.
To collect readers who grow to love you and your stuff and can’t wait to see more. (That would be your book.)
When writers come to me for help, I see the same mistakes being made over and over. But with a little thought and planning you can avoid these potholes. I’ve turned them into positives so you’ll know just what you should be doing.
- Understand your blog’s goal
It’s much easier to write your posts if you know your blog’s mission. Is it to develop your fan base? To teach other writers about the craft? To capture the attention of industry professionals? To try out ideas and book concepts to gauge reader interest?
Knowing your goal helps you to reach out to the right people and grow your community.
- Find your niche and your author brand
Knowing your focus helps you attract the right readers.
You are not looking for an audience of thousands. Just a core group of readers who love your stuff and can’t wait to tell their friends about you. So focus on your genre and niche audience and write about the things that will interest them.
Think about your brand as you create your blog. It’s simply the feeling you want your readers to experience when they see your name—the emotional connection you want them to feel with you as an author.
- Set aside a sacred blogging time
I know. You have a book to write. But if you just publish one post a week (see #4 below), you can allot 30-60 minutes, say, every Wednesday morning at 8 am, and there you go, your weekly post is taken care of.
If you want to get ahead of the game, choose a morning or afternoon and create an editorial calendar: plug in topics/themes, one a week for three months. That’s 12 general topics that you can refine and refocus as each weekly post comes due. It will save you from the dreaded BSS (Blank Screen Syndrome).
- Post consistently
If you remember the story of the tortoise and the hare, you know the ending. Slow and steady won the race. Instead of furious spurts followed by long patches of old stale content, pick a schedule and stay with it.
In my blogging workshops I say,” One kick-ass post a week is better than seven crappy ones.”
The advantages are huge: your readers know exactly when to expect a new post. You are cooperating with the Google gods if they stop by regularly (the day you publish) so they can index and post your fresh content. And, best of all, you are showing editors and agents that you can meet deadlines, even self-imposed ones.
- Let your readers in close
Your readers want more than anything to get a glimpse of this person who is writing a book. They want a ‘behind the velvet rope’ moment.
Think of yourself as a character. In addition to a compelling, authentic About page, consider a bio box on the sidebar of your home page with an engaging photo and a couple of lines about who you are, what you write and the things you care about.
- When you feel blocked, write more
It’s incredibly liberating to write right through a block. Seems counter-intuitive, but the more you write the easier you get back in the flow.
John Steinbeck once said, “Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.”
If you are struggling, start stepping up your posts. If you usually write one a week, write two. Ideas will spawn more ideas.
- Promote your posts with social media—but do it right
Social media doesn’t have to be a huge time suck.
For instance, if you are on Twitter, writing three tweets to promote your post in a ‘teaser’ format should take you no more than 15 minutes a week. In your tweet, shoot for curious or provocative or attention-grabbing, as you would do with any headline or chapter title.
On non-post days, just pop in once or twice with a short tweet about your life as a writer, an interesting fact, a quote or a scene you are working on.
- Blog with unbridled passion
Don’t hold back. Don’t avoid emotion. Blog like a first grader.
- Engage your readers in every post
In the business world, it’s called a call to action. For bloggers, it means asking your reader to do something at the end of every post. If you don’t, they might just think you wanted to share your thoughts.
When I started asking questions at the end of my posts, my comments doubled. Lots of readers don’t know that you want to hear from them unless you ask them.
- Make it super easy for your readers to leave a comment
There may be many reasons why your readers are not leaving comments. One of the biggest is that you make it too hard for them.
If you make them copy letters and numbers they can’t read—even in a sober state—recite the alphabet backwards to prove they’re not an evil robot or give you the name of their first-born child, sorry. The barrier to entry is just too high.
What about you?
Do you have an author blog?
Thanking about starting one?
What’s your biggest challenge?
Judy Dunn is a blogger and content marketing specialist. Her blog, CatsEyeWriter, is one of alltop.com’s ‘best of the best’ blogs and one of the 2011 Top 10 Blogs for Writers. She is also on the blogging team at For Bloggers, By Bloggers.
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Judy Dunn Reply:
March 23rd, 2011 at 3:18 pm
I say yes to that.
Schedule your weekly blog post in as you would any other writing project. Some bloggers block out a half day on the weekend and write several so they have a supply to fall back on. If they are ‘evergreen’ posts, they should work just fine. Thanks for sharing your thoughts here.