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How To Pump Up Your Blog To Sell More Books
by Dorothy Thompson There are blogs and then, there are blogs. Some blogs are to entertain. Some are to inform. As an author who is looking to pump up her blog to sell more books, your blog needs to be a lot of both to makes sure you get those books sold. I cannot stress this more: EVERY AUTHOR NEEDS A BLOG. If you don't, you are missing out on one of the most VITAL elements in successful book promotion. If you don't, you will NOT see the sales you expect. If you don't, hop on over to www.blogger.com, or one of the other free blogging services, and set one up today because I am about to tell you some insider secrets on how you can turn your book blog into a money-making machine. Are you pumped up yet? Good! The first place to start is with a blog that is entirely devoted to pumping up your book. Save those everyday conversations (unless they're related exclusively to your book) for other blogs you might have. Today starts the first day you're going to pay careful attention to what goes up on your blog and how you can make your blog stand out from all those other blogs out there. What you will be doing is creating a powerful online presence, as well as pulling in that audience. After all, what's a book blog good for if it's not going to be noticed? Surely, you can't have that happen because pumping up your online book promotion is your main goal in successful book promotion any way you look at it. With that said, if you really want to draw in buyers, make sure you do have a blog pertaining to the subject of your book. Since most blogs are free, it's wise to have a separate blog for this so that the attention will be directed toward your book and not what you had for breakfast, so to speak. The point I'm trying to make is that in order to pump up your book promotion, you need to center yourself and figure out how you can turn your blog into a great promotional vehicle to sell your book without coming off as one big ad. What I would like to do is give you some examples of blogs that are directly, and intentionally, geared toward blogging about their books. Rachel Newstead's book is called “Orphan Toons: Relics of Animation’s Forgotten Past.” It's not published yet, but what she is doing is creating a platform even before the book sees the light of day. A fine example of pumping up your book promotion. If you go to her blog at http://rachel-and-kevin.blogspot.com, you can see what I mean. Another great example is Kathy Holmes’ blog at http://www.kathyholmes.net where she promotes one published book and another yet-to-be-published book, but she carries them both off very well without being obtrusive. Her published book is titled “Myths of the Fatherless” and I have to tell you, this woman is one of the best promoters I have seen as far as getting the word out about her book, without it looking like one big ad for her book. Her other book is with an agent looking for a home, but it's called “Real Women Wear Red” and she does an excellent job talking about what the main theme of the book is about. Even though it's fiction, it deals with women of a certain age which she blogs about quite often. Now this is a pumped up blog if I've ever seen one. While Rachelle uses her blog to create buzz for when her book becomes published and Kathy uses her blog to promote an already-published book, some authors even go outside of the box and create blogs for the characters in their books. Quite a neat idea, if you ask me. One such writer is Jamieson Wolf. I've read many of his other blogs on a daily basis and I have to admit, this guy is going places. If I can only write as much during one day as he does, I'd be set in books for life. What Jamieson has done is started a blog for one of his characters in his upcoming book, Hope Falls, which you can see for yourself at http://www.hidingfromhope.blogspot.com/. These authors know what it takes to create a buzz for their books, whether they're published or almost-published. Maybe they'll give you ideas on how you can pump up your own blog--or perhaps to start a new one exclusively devoted to your book--to create a powerful online presence not only for your book, but yourself, too. It's all in how much you want it. © Dorothy Thompson
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