Blogging is one of the easiest routes to self-publishing and is a terrific opportunity to get your feet wet in the publishing world.
Blog is short for Web-log. A web-log contains a series of short entries, or articles, that are posted to a site on the internet. Social network sites such as MySpace have a blog feature built in – other sites such as Blogspot and XANGA offer stand alone pages. Maintaining a blog can be a useful tool for any writer, new or established.
For new writers – Write an article about any subject you feel passionate about, post it to your site, and you have just self-published. The best tips about maintaining a blog is to keep it themed, post regularly and remember that this blog is representing YOU as a professional. Since your entries to the blog are not professionally edited before publication, by all means use Spell Check, read it over carefully and if possible have a friend quickly scan it. While an occasional mis-type can slip through almost any editing process, it becomes annoying to read constant misspellings and outrageous grammatical errors – a sure way to put off potential readers.
For established writers – Your blog is a way to communicate directly with your public and introduce the “author”. You can use it to promote your work but it is recommended that you include more than that on your blog. Choose a topic of interest, discuss it, and then tie it into your writings – such as your book may be a love story between a couple where one has gone off to war and returned several years later, maybe your town recently welcomed veterans returning and there was a huge amount of media coverage. Could you really ask for a better promo op?
If you have more than one topic that you would like to blog about, AND the time to maintain it, start a second blog. Maybe you have one blog about movies and you want to start a second to discuss sports – keep your blog “niche” constant because that is what your readers will come expecting to read. Post regularly, it doesn’t have to be every day, but your readers will expect regular updates. The best way to spread word about your blogs is to visit AND COMMENT on other folk’s blogs as well; also respond (kindly) to the comments left on your blogs.
Writing prompt: What topic/subject are you most passionate about?
Write a brief article (about 300 words) about that topic.
