The Post Pub

Does an Author-Blogger Need a Gimmick to Sell Books?

This is the question I raised on my personal blog.  Of course, every book needs a gimmick to sell. But in the case of bloggers who get book deals based on their online content -- will existing readers of a niche blog spend the money to buy a book derived from that blog?  If the book features some or all of the same content they can read online for free, what's the incentive for them to cough up cash for a print edition?

An interesting conversation is going on about this in the comments. Stop on by.

5 Ways to Add Value to a Personal Blog

These days, the buzz word for blogs is "value" -- for the reader. What experience are you, the blogger, offering your readers?  What compelling reason can you give to make someone subscribe to your feed, return to your site, or bookmark and share your content?

For niche bloggers, business bloggers, and non-fiction author-experts, the answer is easy -- they have specific subjects they cover from specific angles, for specific audiences. The content almost writes itself, and the audience is always hungry.

For personal bloggers, however, the concept of value is a little less clear.  I'll get into that in a moment. But first...

What is a personal blogger?

A personal blogger can be described as anyone who blogs about personal matters or daily life. Usually these bloggers write whenever the spirit moves them. Posts vary widely in subject matter, but are unified by the blogger's voice.  Fans return over time because they get to know the blogger and like seeing the world through his or her eyes.

Personal blogs vary in tone, topic and approach, so in some ways it's easier to say what a personal blog is not. 

Most personal blogs do not have a readily identifiable gimmick (e.g. "anonymous blogging from Capitol Hill"), nor a specified time constraint ("a year in the life of a stripper").  They talk about anything, and they continue indefinitely.

Why should a personal blog offer value?

If you're blogging to keep a chronicle of your life and you don't care about the number of site visits or RSS readers you have, then no, you don't need worry about value.

But in reality, most bloggers keep a public journal because they appreciate having a public.

And if you're blogging in support of your personal brand -- e.g., as a novelist or journalist -- the reason you should care about offering value is obvious. You are trying to sell something -- yourself. And nothing is more depressing than selling to an empty room.

Assuming you are a personal blogger who wants more readers, here are 5 ways to add value to your blog, drawing upon examples of personal blogs I subscribe to and read regularly.

Tip #1. Hybridize Your Identity

This suggestion comes from Shawna Benson of Shouting into the Wind.

If you post about daily life and that alone isn't roping in the readers, give your blog a handle that's easier to grasp -- a thesis statement of sorts, but one that leaves room for personal wanderings and observations.  The focus gives your blog an RSS Factor -- an info-driven reason for people to return. Your personal posts give your blog a Human Factor -- a glimpse at the personality behind the curtain.

Examples of Hybrid Personal Blogs:

Shouting into the Wind
Shawna's blog is about episodic television.  She keeps track of network cancellations and renewals so that aspiring TV writers know what shows are safe to spec.  But she also blogs about her personal life:  her writing projects, her experiences with networking, and occasionally her passions, like American Idol or wine tasting.

• The RSS Factor:  Shawna's TV Watch List breaks TV news to her readers, faster than a newspaper subscription would.
• The Human Factor:  Her off-topic posts keep her blog from becoming too predictable; the glimpses of her personality and non-TV interests inspire loyalty among her readers

Tim Ferriss's Blog
Tim's blog, which supports his non-fiction book, The 4-Hour Work Week, is about lifestyle design -- how to live better by leaving the office, working less, and outsourcing.  But Tim also shares his personal preoccupations, repackaged in the form of productivity tips and hacks: wine tasting, speed dating, tango dancing, dieting.  His blog is an example of one that adds value through both hybridization and style -- more on that next.

• The RSS Factor:  New and varied how-to and instructional content readers can act upon
• The Human Factor:  Tim draws upon his own experiences, and often inserts himself in his blog -- via multimedia, such as photos and video.

Tip #2. Style Yourself

If you're familiar with CSS, you've heard of style.  In CSS, if you style an HTML tag, its look is forever changed.  If I style my post titles to be red, they will always be red.

The same principle applies to styling your personal blog.  Your subject matter will vary -- that's the nature of a personal blog.  But your presentation, your style, can remain consistent.  In this way, you can establish brand through your technique instead of your topic.

Examples of Styled Personal Blogs:

Tim Ferriss's Blog
Again, Tim's blog is a great example.  His posts vary widely in topic, but they're unified by a consistent approach. Whether he's talking about travel or weight loss, he shares what he's learned and focuses on how to "game the system" to get fast, reliable results.

• The RSS Factor:  Clear, concise, useful information that focuses on how to get results
• The Style Factor:  Tim leads with his success secrets and saves his asides, polls, and other extras for the bottom of the post.

Living the Romantic Comedy
Blogger Billy Mernit is an expert on romantic comedies.  But he's hybridized his blog, giving himself permission to write about other subjects like dating and his prior career as a songwriter.  But arguably, where he adds the most value for the reader is in his blogging style. His medium-to-long posts are consistently crafted like magazine essays.  He uses photos to establish his theme and often ends his pieces raising more questions than he answers (a perfect way to encourage comments).

• The RSS Factor:  Thoughtful writing on a specific aspect of film studies
• The Style Factor:  Intelligent, well-crafted posts on par with professional magazine content

Tip #3. Reveal Too Much

Warning: this option is not for everyone.

The technique is simple: say anything.  Don't self-censor. Don't be afraid to use strong language or embarrass yourself. Make people wonder, "Did he really just say that?", or "What will she say next?"

The blogosphere is full of success stories from no-holds-barred personal bloggers who turned their diaries into dollar signs.  From Diablo Cody to Stephanie Klein, personal bloggers turned authors (and Oscar winners!) have a lot to crow about.

But there is a downside to being yourself unfiltered. Along with the good, you risk revealing the unattractive, irresponsible, and unkind parts of yourself. If you don't get a book deal, you may well get fired or lose some friends. But you will gain readers.

Examples of Revealing Personal Blogs:

Dooce.com
The mother of all personal bloggers, Heather Armstrong has made a media empire out of being herself. Her highly personal, massively popular blog includes descriptions of her post-partum depression, love letters to her daughter, and lighthearted talk about poop. The appeal: she's funny, and she will say outrageous things in public.

• The RSS Factor:  What will she say next? 
• The "So What?" Factor:  She's funny, self-deprecating, sarcastic, and prone to exaggeration.

Citizen of the Month
Humorist Neil Kramer's specialty is in the promotion of his persona -- a neurotic flirt, knee-deep in therapy and fond of writing posts about sex. Kramer has other fixations, too -- monetizing his blog; going to BlogHer to meet women; learning how to undo a bra in under 30 seconds.  His posts vary in subject, but are almost always revealing about his personal hangups and ambitions.

• The RSS Factor:  When will Neil start dating?  What approach will his therapist tell him to try next?
• The "So What?" Factor: Neil is adept at the comic reversal -- almost every post has a punch line worth waiting for.

Tip #4. Make a Miniseries

So you're a true personal blogger -- you write about yourself and your life, with no particular plan or schedule. And maybe your life is kind of mundane. But that doesn't mean your blog has to be.

You can make your ho-hum life sound exciting -- just tell it like a story.

Find a thread or theme that can be teased out and told in increments.  Give your life a story arc with cliffhangers, like a miniseries or a soap opera. 

Buying your first home?  Blog about the process, from the open house to the closing. Going on vacation? Blog your trip in 5 acts, like Hamlet.

Humans love stories; we're wired to look for them.  Don't make your readers work too hard.  Give them pieces of your life in a shape they can understand, with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Examples of Personal Blogs with Miniseries:

Man Bytes Hollywood
Screenwriter David Anaxagoras published a 6-part blog series about his experiences trying to option a novel to make into a screenplay.  Readers followed along and became invested in his process. At the same time, they learned from David's experiences "how not to option a novel".

• The RSS Factor:  Was Dave successful in securing the book rights?
• The Story Factor:  A journey in pursuit of a specific goal

Living the Romantic Comedy
In Billy's 7-part My Romance in Amsterdam series, he describes a semi-fictional account of his spontaneous trip to Europe to meet a woman he met online. Each entry in the series corresponds with a standard turning point in a romantic comedy film.

• The RSS Factor:  Will there be a love connection?
• The Story Factor:  A romantic comedy, played out in real life

Tip #5. Get Some Friends

This is no reflection on your likability, and I don't mean friends in real life. I mean blogger friends.

There are millions of blogs out there, on nearly as many subjects. You may be a personal blogger, but you're also a person, the most basic unit of a community. 

Find that community, and join it. 

Then search within that community for a content or style vacancy you can fill. Use the previous 4 items on this list as your guide.

For example, are you the only mommyblogger you know whose family is macrobiotic?  Hybridize.

Are you a cinephile with a knack for rhyming?  Use your style -- write your movie reviews as rap lyrics.

Maybe you're in tech support, and need a place to reveal your frustrations with the dumb questions you get asked every day at the office. (In that case, consider writing anonymously.)

Or perhaps you're a senior citizen whose dating life would make a great soap opera.  Miniseries it!

Whatever you do, don't miss out on the opportunity to affiliate yourself with a larger group of bloggers. Networking with a community of like-minded people can give you instant traffic... and the opportunity to stand out by being different from the rest.

Wrapping it Up

The blogosphere is a crowded place, getting more crowded by the day.  The competition for readers is greater with every passing second.  Adding value to your personal blog -- a focus, a style, a persona, and a story -- is the best way to give your writing a clear identity and your readers a reason to stick around.

Does your blog need a boost?  Contact Kristen at 563 Media dot Com to learn how a blog consultation can help you focus your content and build your brand.

Make Your Lurkers Work for You

Thanks to Alison at We'll Know When We Get There, I read Virginia Heffernan's NY Times piece on the phenomenon of lurking on blogs and message boards. Lurking means reading without writing -- spending time on a blog or message board without ever posting a comment or otherwise letting people know you are there.

The majority of American participants in digital media are probably lurkers -- according to Pew research, 39% of Americans who use the internet say they read blogs, but only 22% participate in chat rooms or online discussions.  Considering the fact that much of today's online content is, technically, a blog (or interactive in some way, thanks to Web 2.0), most Americans who are web surfing are probably landing on pages where they have, but pass up, the opportunity to say hello and contribute to the conversation.

Why do people choose to lurk instead of providing feedback to content? (And thereby generating content in the process themselves?)

According to this academic abstract, gratification motivates lurking -- as it does just about everything. Some people simply like to take without giving. They don't feel a need to engage and interact with others -- they're OK with observing.  Lurkers are virtual introverts, or "selfish" in the community sense (as Heffernan notes in her piece).  But this doesn't mean bloggers should ignore them.

The key is to remember that mute observers are not inactive, and not even necessarily passive.  They are participating by showing up. They can still be influential over reputation and sales, because they vote with their dollars, their library cards and their site visits.  In a sense, they are purer fans than the visitors who leave comments on a blog, because they are drawn to a site as spectators and not as talkers -- they are more interested in reading someone else's content than they are in generating their own.

So the question is: how can you make your blog lurkers work for you?

Blogs in Plain English

Friday's Author Blogging Roundup

The last several posts to this site have been contest alerts.  I'm working on getting a new author interview up soon. In the meantime, here's a roundup of author blogs for Friday (note: not all of these posts are new, but all are well worth reading):

Barbara Delinsky, asks, "Has Your Life Gone According to Plan?"... Jacquelyn Mitchard wrestles with the decision to dress her daughters in geisha costumes for Halloween... Marly Youmans puts out a call for poetry and prose about insects... Janice Erlbaum buys sweaters for homeless cats... Brendan Halpin tries to start a literary feud... Billy Mernit reviews "Dan in Real Life"... Phil Town weighs in on whether Walgreen's is a stock to buy... Tod Goldberg gets angry at his DVR [warning: strong language]... Pam Ribon, a writer for "Samantha Who?", chronicles her picket-line experiences in Hollywood... and Chris Anderson ponders the promotional value of authors giving things away for free. [More on this later!]

More Author Blogs

New author blogs have been added -- click here to view the list.

Author Assistant: Is it Helping Authors Sell Books?

A few weeks ago, Seth Godin, in promotion of his new biographies project, Squidwho, raised an issue I've been thinking about for years: why don't publishers get where the internet's going?  Godin says:

There are a few problems with this publisher-first approach. The first is that few readers know which authors are published by which publishers, so there's no way they're going to visit a particular site.

Publishers, like many organizations, want to control the conversation, want to own the web page, want to be sure that people come to them, as opposed to going where people are.

I think this is starting to change; but like Godin, I have to wonder why it's taken publishing so long to catch up to the rest of the business world.  Nobody goes to publishers' websites; why would they?  Readers know book titles; they know authors. They generally have no clue who published what. 

HarperCollins' new AuthorAssistant website building tool is a new marketing channel that allows their authors to create quick and easy web presences using pre-built templates.  It's not optimal for building an author brand (for starters, it's not portable if one were to switch publishers; and it creates very generic pages that all resemble each other and are all branded by the publisher, not the author), but if authors use AuthorAssistant as another marketing channel, supplemental to their own official sites or blogs, it could be useful.  It is, after all, another neutral to positive hit on search engines.

What do you think?  A lively conversation about AuthorAssistant -- and whether it's helpful or a waste of time and publisher resources -- is going at Joe Wikert's blog.