The Importance of Blogging in Book Promotion and Book Publicity

When a writer doesn’t take advantage of every book promotion technology available, he or she will find it difficult for the promoted book to succeed in the market. But by wisely using a blog in conjunction with a sales-oriented website, the writer’s chances of more sales may increase dramatically.

A blog can be either designed by a professional and then turned over for the writer to use, or the writer can “design” it through a free provider such as Wordpress.com or Blogspot.com. Either way will involve a learning curve, but not one deep enough to justify not getting into blogging as part of a book publicity program.

Blogs, generally, perform two functions. Originally – and maybe still primarily – they act as a source of information that some segment of the market will be interested in. Posts are written by someone who (hopefully) knows the subject matter, and readers enjoy seeing what that person regularly has to say. Also, your blog will need to be filled with quality content. Agencies, do my writing, that writes articles, blogs can help you with this. But in the area of book promotion and any other marketing campaigns, blogs are more than information sources.

The important function of blogging in conjunction with book publicity is to attract search engines. The writer still wants to inform (and a writer will be better at that than most), but what the writer really wants is to draw readers who are ideal buyers of the book he or she has written. To do this, the writer will make judicious use within the blog’s text of key search words and phrases that people use to find topics related to the topic(s) of the promoted book.

When handled this way, a blog is like an intake valve with the goal of sending the reader from the blog to the website, which tells all about the book. On the website, a well-crafted sales message will be designed to end in the sale of a book. And this is the whole goal of publicizing what you’ve written.

Some pointers on blogging:

There are firms that will help you find the “hottest” key search words and phrases relating to your book topic. Use them.

Don’t overload your posts with these words and phrases, however. A good book publicist can advise you on how to handle this.

Write content that’s relevant, not off-topic.

Write regularly – search engines love to see blog sites that always add new content.

Don’t steal others’ writing – keep it original.

Follow these pointers and consult with professional publicists when necessary, and your book publicity campaign will have another effective tool you can use to increase exposure and sales.

Finally, I want to share some interesting information about book publishing.

Her voice still gets choked up when she talks about it. After working her way from an assistant position to a senior level publicist at a major publishing imprint, Robin* (who chose to withhold her identity for fear of retaliation) was proud to have worked her way into a competitive field as a black woman in an overwhelmingly white field.

She worked tirelessly, sacrificing personal relationships for the company, traveling mercilessly at a breakneck speed—giving everything to her job. Even as a debilitating illness painfully ravaged her body, and she went into the office under the effects of the medical treatment, Robin dedicated herself to the book publishing company, telling herself that if she had their backs in turn, they would have hers. And then, at what should have been the height of her career, her position was eliminated.

“After many years of stellar performance reviews, all of a sudden I was having performance issues that were never fully explained and there was NO plan for how I could improve. When I was also denied a cost of living raise, something I had gotten every year, I knew the writing was on the wall. I wasn’t surprised when I was told my position was eliminated. It was a ‘business decision’ which I came to understand to mean that they were no longer going to publish as many books by authors of color. How could they? Many of the editors of color who acquired those books had moved on and the list became more and more white which reflected the staff that was left. The imprint no longer felt like home and in many ways they freed me to pursue my passion elsewhere.”

It was a painful reminder of how far the industry needs to go in terms of creating true equality for people of color who work in book publishing.

“I felt like I was tossed out like the trash, like something that was no longer useful or relevant and had to go. I know I was let go to make room for a white staff member,” she says, “I was laid off along with another sister of color. My imprint went from being very diverse to being one that reflected most imprints in the industry. My imprint was no longer publishing authors of color as they had in the past. I witnessed a huge shift and there was no longer a firm commitment to publish authors of color who were not celebrities.”

Her story is not unusual. Black, indigenous, and people of color have had an arduous fight to make their mark in book publishing, a fight that has long been silent.

Not everyone who came forward for this piece was able to do so publicly for fear of backlash and blackballing that the book publishing and entertainment industry is known for. Others have left the industry all together and were in a position where they could speak for those who could not.

Information taken from the source https://thegrio.com/2020/09/09/book-publishing-insiders-systemic-racism/