Writing is the way of self-expression which helps a person analyse, organize and develop expertise over a particular subject. Blogging is a very popular and effective way of expressing your ideas to a larger audience. Many a time, we write and post things, the volume of which is equivalent to that of a book. After some period, you find yourself sitting on a mountain of content which could be turned into a book. Posting your ideas regularly is a way of publishing which helps you get instant live feedback too. The social media has opened wider avenues for everyone and as civilization connects locations, around the world, the web connects people. Reaching out to prospective readers has become a piece of cake in today’s world. Blogging is a good way of assessing your content before publishing your research papers in international journals, or gauging marketability of your content, if you want to be the author of a book.
Here are 5 Reasons why Blogging can Help you become an Author:
- Blog Helps you Construct your Ideas– You can start writing with blogs. Construct your idea as you would do for a book, because blogging is a good way to keep you motivated. You can journal regular day activities, experiences or vouch for journal call for paper; any kind of contemplative writing is a step closer to being an author. With blogs, you can choose your topic wisely based on your knowledge genre and market demand which will decide the saleability of your book. You can check the blogosphere as well as your local bookstores to mark your competitors. Inspire yourself from your methods. Learn from your mistakes and do not repeat the same while writing a book.
- Blogs Develop a Regular Writing Habit– Finishing a book definitely requires writing regularly and blogging helps in that. When you scribble with FOMO, you actually push yourself through writing regularly, and every day. You are aware that your readers and blog fans are waiting for your daily post, so you are committed to write, so this prepares you for nailing a manuscript too, as a habit develops. When you write regularly, you also develop a reading habit which nourishes your vocabulary; this immensely helps you if you want to write for your academic book.
- Blog Helps People Find Your Book– You can use your blog website to attract prospective readers for your book. When you start with blogging towards publishing your own book, you have to help people find your work.
- Set up categories based on your chapters. Don’t use creative names; use searchable terms or keyword phrases.
- Create a page for table of contents. Use widgets and such tools to create links because as the book is being blogged it will help readers find the chapters of the book.
- Create page turning option. Designing your blog website is important too. Create links like ‘previous page’ and ‘next page’ to help readers move smoothly through the book.
Now your plan doesn’t end with blogging. Creating a successful blog was only the first step to print your own academic book, and be an author consequently. Now continuing the blog process in an optimized way is necessary.
- Your Blog Can Also Attract Academic Publishers– If your intention is to attract international journal publishers who will be interested in your book, use your innovative ideas in promoting the work in a certain way. Many a time, literary agents and publishers scroll and troll the web to find promising bloggers who have a test ready blog that can be a successful book. A successful blog, one with lots of readers, acts like a beacon to agents and publishers. When they follow the light—the trail of readers—to your blog, they have what they want: numbers. Wow them with your unique visitors and page views. If your numbers aren’t as large as you’d like (or they’d like), at least show growth month to month. Google Analytics tends to be the most accurate measure of these numbers, but your hosting company probably has analytics as well, and these can prove more impressive.
- Blog Can Help in Author-Brand Development– As we have discussed, a social presence is a must for every author, artist, academician or anyone who is a professional. Blogging gives you that social presence. People can give quick feedback on your content which you can use to develop your writing according to readers’ expectations. People will also know you as a person, a researcher, academician, and a writer from your blog website. Your pattern of scientific opinion will create a brand for you. You can also write articles there, for journal call for papers to pick up, or you can write thesis ideas which will expose how good you can be as a scientific writer. Keep blogging on short topics or stories to create an anthology or series, because a full book can be overwhelming, but a parallel series blogging will keep up the pace of writing both as a blogger and a writer. When you actually publish your academic book, you can use the same blog site to market your book to your old fans.
Writing and publishing is a long process which takes a major part of a person’s life, and consume much of his brain matter. Doing it right and getting people to read your work and appreciate it, is even harder. But blogging can help you initiate the process so that you can publish and print your own book. The old school clichés about self-publishing are a myth now, and it is taken extremely seriously by writers and readers. Fifty Shades of Grey can be a classic example of self-publishing success story which started from online journaling. There are many more; the next can be yours.
