Whose Blog is it Anyway?
I promised to talk about guest blogs this week and it’s a good topic for writers. It is a good way to expand your platform by allowing you to reach new readers. Other writers’ fans can quickly become your fans too. You might also make some new and valuable friends in the writer community. And, it is a chance to actually write some cool, fun stuff.
Placing content in other people’s blogs is usually pretty easy. Most bloggers, like me, are happy to let someone else fill that space once in a while. But for it to be valuable to you, you need to select which blog you want to contribute to. Choosing targets should be easy. You want to be visible on the blogs your natural audience reads. That usually means two things: either blogs that review books and interview authors or the blogs of other writers whose work is similar to yours. A simple email to the blogger is usually all it takes.
But before you send that request you need to have something to offer, so build your guest blog package. The objective is to offer bloggers a variety content that will interest their readers – content designed to introduce strangers to your writing.
Start with a short bio and high resolution photo of yourself. Keep your bio to about 100 words, because this isn’t really about you. It’s all about your book, or if you have more than one published book, your most recent.
You’ll also want to include a hi-res picture of your cover, and a synopsis, which again should be short.
Almost everyone who accepts a guest blog will use the bio, cover and synopsis. Then you want to offer some stuff they can choose or not. I suggest a write-up of why you wrote this book, its theme or its major message. Interviews are good too. You do all the work by supplying both the questions and the answers. An interview of yourself can be fun. An interview of your protagonist, or even the villain in your book, can be even more fun. Or a short (400 words or less) article on your genre could be good.
Bloggers may choose one or more of these pieces, or none, depending on how their own blog generally runs. Options make your offer more appealing. They tempt the blogger to choose among the options, rather than choosing between yes and no. And if you are successful, your guest blogs won’t all be the same.
BTW, I’m one of those bloggers who welcomes guest posts from other authors. So if you want to find new readers and expand your platform – be my guest.
Placing content in other people’s blogs is usually pretty easy. Most bloggers, like me, are happy to let someone else fill that space once in a while. But for it to be valuable to you, you need to select which blog you want to contribute to. Choosing targets should be easy. You want to be visible on the blogs your natural audience reads. That usually means two things: either blogs that review books and interview authors or the blogs of other writers whose work is similar to yours. A simple email to the blogger is usually all it takes.
But before you send that request you need to have something to offer, so build your guest blog package. The objective is to offer bloggers a variety content that will interest their readers – content designed to introduce strangers to your writing.
Start with a short bio and high resolution photo of yourself. Keep your bio to about 100 words, because this isn’t really about you. It’s all about your book, or if you have more than one published book, your most recent.
You’ll also want to include a hi-res picture of your cover, and a synopsis, which again should be short.
Almost everyone who accepts a guest blog will use the bio, cover and synopsis. Then you want to offer some stuff they can choose or not. I suggest a write-up of why you wrote this book, its theme or its major message. Interviews are good too. You do all the work by supplying both the questions and the answers. An interview of yourself can be fun. An interview of your protagonist, or even the villain in your book, can be even more fun. Or a short (400 words or less) article on your genre could be good.
Bloggers may choose one or more of these pieces, or none, depending on how their own blog generally runs. Options make your offer more appealing. They tempt the blogger to choose among the options, rather than choosing between yes and no. And if you are successful, your guest blogs won’t all be the same.
BTW, I’m one of those bloggers who welcomes guest posts from other authors. So if you want to find new readers and expand your platform – be my guest.
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