I created a blog called How Not To Act Old, two months later I sold it as a book to Harper Collins, and it went on to be a New York Times bestseller.
How did I do it? Here, the ten most important things you need to know to turn your blog into a bestseller:
1.Plan the Book Before You Launch Your Blog - If you'd love your blog to turn into a book, start planning from the beginning. Research what other books and blogs on your topic are out there, what's in the works (which you can find on publishersmarketplace.com), and how you can make your blog and eventually your book stand out.
2.Copy the Masters - Copy a blog that became a successful book. I copied Stuff White People Like, for instance. And you can copy my blog.
3.Find a Great Name - You want to launch your blog with the right url in place, not as url.wordpress.com. There are tricks to getting the one you want.
4.Think Visually - A book may be mostly black type on a white page, but a blog can and should use pictures, video, music. Doing so effectively will get your blog noticed, help build traffic, and differentiate it from your eventual book.
5.Build Quickly - Forget those pathetic "Sorry I haven't written in a while" posts. Write several times a day for the first weeks so you can hook in your readers and develop your book proposal.
6.Don't Be Shy - Build traffic by letting all your friends and colleagues know about your blog, but reach out to strangers, too: other bloggers, newspaper columnists, anyone who can help publicize your blog.
7.Marry, Don't Clone, the Blog and Book Proposal - You want your blog to support your book and vice versa, not be exact copies of each other. Demonstrate how the book will be different from the blog but will appeal to the same fans.
8.Relaunch the Blog - At publication time, relaunch your blog to support your book. Redesign to feature the book cover, buying links, and reviews.
9.Drum Up Presales - Presales are key to hitting the bestseller list right out of the gate, which can lead to even more sales. Get your readers to order early and, if possible, often.
10.Live Happily Ever After - When your book is published and you hit the bestseller list, you can relax for the rest of your life and you will never have any problems again.
Want to know how you, too, can turn your blog into a bestselling book and live happily ever after? For more details on how to create and promote your blog, turn your blog into the kind of proposal that sells, and make your book a bestseller, tune in to my webinar this Wednesday on SheWrites.
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