6 Reasons Why Every Author Should Have a Blog

Today it is essential that an author have an online platform to market their book. Blogging is a natural way an author can introduce their writing style to their audience and increase readers.

1. Blogging connects you to people who think like you do. Blogging will open up a new way to connect to other authors, publishers and literary agents all over the world. By connecting with them you will establish a presence that you could not establish otherwise.
2. You can begin communicating with readers and build an audience. You can allow comments on your blogs and then respond to them. This will allow you to learn the likes and dislikes of your reading community. This interchange cannot be achieved on a website or by press releases. Blogging allows you to build an online platform of people who like (or dislike!) your work. The more discussion, the more attention you attract to your book.
3. You can market yourself as an author. Your blog can have information about you as the author, information on your current work as well as all your other works. You can offer readers other products such as e-books, tips or articles to help capture emails. You can provide media information such as press releases or schedules for book signings. Finally, you can list your book awards and other achievements.
4. You can sell your book on your blog.  If people follow your blog on a regular basis, they will likely be interested in purchasing your book and you may have a built in audience before you have your next work finished! You can have a special page just for the sale of your book on your blog. This is very helpful especially if you do not have a dedicated website for the sale of your book. It is easy to connect your blog site to Paypal so that you can easily accept payment. 
5. You can be found on the internet. Google loves blogs because you are constantly updating your content. This will increase your internet presence so that when people search for your name it will likely be found in the search.  The more you appear, the higher you rank!
6. Blogging is great for practicing writing. You can have a constant flow of ideas with little research for each post. These posts can often be combined to make an article and ultimately, a little book!

What are some of the ways you connect with your readers on your blog? If you follow someone’s blog would you buy their book? Why?

Comments

[Catarina Alexon]

Agree with you completely, Julia! It's amazing what you can do with a blog. Promotion online is the name of the game nowadays. Don't think I would be read in 84 countries otherwise?

[Julia Lindsey]

It is amazing how many people we can reach on the internet. Besides blogging what other social networking tools do you use to promote your business?