Blogging Your Non-Fiction Book

Blogging is still a booming trend, and blogging about your non-fiction book could not only help increase your sales, but it might boost your fan base as well. Everyone likes to know more about a book before they invest their hard-earned dollars on a copy, so why not blog about your latest non-fiction book and give them what they want!

The first thing you need to do is set up a blog. One of my personal favorite blog hosts is Blogger. Blogger is simple to use, and you don't even have to have HTML experience.

After you get your blog set up, create a template that matches the cover of your book in some way - colors, design and/or etc. If you use Blogger, login and click on "template," then "pick new." From there you can select one of Blogger's set templates, or while in "template," you can click on "edit current," and edit the HTML code in the box below. I did say you don't need HTML experience, and that is true, but having some basic knowledge of HTML can be very beneficial to you, and it can help you build a template to match your book's cover. (See "more resources" below for links to Web sites that will help you learn HTML.)

Once you have your template, the next thing you want to do is edit your basic settings to tell visitors a little bit about your blog. To edit your basic settings using blogger, click on "settings," then click basic settings. Once there, choose a title for your blog; you may want this to be the same as your non-fiction book or similar. Since you're a writer, you should have no problem coming up with an eye-catching, brief description of what you're blog is about. In this case, your blog will be in relation to your non-fiction book. Continue setting your blog up by selecting your preferences. Blogger gives simple explanations of each choice in case you don't know exactly what it is.

As soon as you have set up your blog completely and edited your profile, you can start blogging about your non-fiction book. You will want to keep your blog updated on a regular basis - at least once a week if that's all you have time for. Some things you can blog about to keep visitors coming back for more are as follows:

News

Post any news connected to the non-fiction book your blogging about. Your fans will want to know about anything new. If you have a book-signing coming up, post the date, time and place, as well as directions for those visiting from out of town. Maybe your local paper has done a piece about your book, announce this, and if possible, add the clip to your blog or provide a link to the article. If you're going to be a chat guest on the Internet, post the information on the chat, because your fans just may want to drop in and chat with you too.

Special Offers

Everybody loves saving money, getting things free, and even entering contests! From time-to-time, offer some kind of savings, freebie or contest for your fans. The savings could be a discount of 5% or 10% off the normal price of your book. Don't want to offer a discount? An alternative is free shipping. Once a month, year, week, or etc. run a contest giving away a free copy of your book. Make your contest fun with some kind of trivia questions related to your book's topic, or even better, provide a link to an excerpt of your book. Tell those wanting to enter the contest to visit the link, read the excerpt and then return to your blog and send you the answers to the few trivia questions. Let them know all entries with the correct answers will be entered into the contest. Make sure the answers to the questions are in your excerpt, and let them know the answers are hidden in the excerpt. If you know how, you can edit your template and add a form to your blog making it easier for them to enter.

Other than free shipping, another freebie you can give your readers is free readings. Provide a link to two or three free chapters of your non-fiction book. This not only gives them something free, but it could boost your sales when they want to find out more. Make sure the two or three free chapters hook them enough to want to buy your non-fiction book.

Helpful Information

To prove to your fans you're an expert on the topic your non-fiction book is about, write and post a few short articles and/or tips about the topic you wrote in the book. For example, if your book is on the subject of parenting, write-up a few articles related to parenting.

Pictures

Many not only enjoy reading text, but they also love pictures. You don't have to add pictures with every single post, but do try to insert pictures with some of your posts. You could post a picture related to what your blogging about, or you can also add some pictures of the cover of your non-fiction book, and even a picture of the back cover.

The above are only a few of the many things you can blog about when blogging your non-fiction book. For more ideas, study other blogs about non-fiction books for ideas, and brainstorm some of your own ideas. Good luck and may God bless you with many sales!