Book Marketing Tip # 16: Write a blog

NOTE:  In January 2018, an updated and expanded edition of The Smashwords Book Marketing Guide was released, offering 65 book marketing ideas and new "Deep Dives" sections exploring social media strategy, how to work with beta readers, and how to earn free press coverage. 

To download the new Smashwords Book Marketing Guide for free, here are the coordinates:

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
iBooks
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Smashwords

The new 2018 edition of The Smashwords Book Marketing Guide is also available as a serialized podcast on the SMART AUTHOR podcast, starting with Episode 10.

Click here to access all SMART AUTHOR podcast episodes.






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The information that follows on this page is from the 2013 edition of the Smashwords Book Marketing Guide, which will remain here for historical purposes only.


Book Marketing Tip # 16:  Write a blog

One secret to good marketing is to engage your prospective readers in conversation.  Share your thoughts, your insights, your opinions and of course your writing talent.  Expose yourself and you’ll attract a following of people who respect how you think, or who enjoy debating and discussing ideas with you.  With hard work and time, you'll eventually build a following of people who are more inclined to read your books, or help you spread the message about your books.  Starting a blog is easy.  Google’s Blogger (www.blogger.com) is a good free blog - it’s what I use for the Smashwords blog at http://blog.smashwords.com/.  If you want a more advanced blogging platform that gives you more control over the look and feel of your blog, take a look at Wordpress (www.wordpress.org).  Good blogging requires a commitment.  If you only do a few posts and forget about it, your blog will be a failure.  Try to do at least one post a week.  If you can’t commit to a blog, do Twitter instead.