Blog Elements by Jim Hart

As a writer, or author, you need to have a purpose for your blog. It can serve several purposes:

1) Connect you to potential readers who will buy your book(s)

2) Offer some sort of information that will be of value and benefit to the reader

3) Simply entertain the reader

Regardless of why you blog you want people to connect with you on more than a surface level. You want to encourage them to engage with you, and the community or tribe that you’ve formed.

But to do this, you need to offer content of interest to the people that you are already reaching. A consistently strong blog will lead to a stronger marketing section in your proposal. It’s writers’ conference season and soon there will be hundreds – nay, thousands - of new blogs from aspiring writers who have been told to “go forth and blog!”

Here are some things that you can interject and include in your blog to help your blog standout:

Quotes

Interesting quotes are often shared or re-tweeted! You can use:

• A quote from an author who writes in your genre
• A quote from your latest book (just a sentence, maybe two)
• A quote from another blogger
• A quote from a person who is somehow historically tied to the subject of your book
• A quote from the Bible
• A quote from a popular media figure that somehow ties into the subject of your book

Facts

A short memorable fact such as:

• A fact about the book you just read
• A fact about the book that you are writing
• A fact about what you’ve learned about publishing
• A fact or statistic that you uncovered while researching one of your books
• A fact about you that would be surprising to your readers
• A fact from the period in history that you write about

Tips

Everyone appreciates some good advice now and then. Share:

• A tip on how to write the perfect first line of a novel
• A tip on how to graciously accept a rejection of your proposal
• A tip on a cool life-hack that you’ve discovered
• A tip on how to work a writers conference
• A tip on how to write a great synopsis
• A tip from something related to your non-fiction book
• A tip on a tricky grammar rule

Links

Include a link in the body of your copy:

• A link to one of your older blog posts
• A link to a blog that you often read, or are quoting
• A link to where you just wrote a guest blog
• A link to support something that you wrote about
• A link to another site that would interest your readers

Pictures:

There’s a reason Pinterest is so popular. People might like to see:

• A picture of the space that you write in
• A picture from some cool place that you just visited
• A picture that makes the reader laugh
• A picture of you from 20 years ago
• A picture of a calm nature scene
• A picture of your cat
• A picture from you book signing

Questions

These are great for eliciting a response and a comment:

• Ask the reader if they agree or disagree with your current post
• Ask the reader to help you name the brother of your protagonist
• Ask the reader how many times they were rejected before being offered a publishing contract
• Ask the reader who they would cast in the movie of their life
• Ask the reader to subscribe to your blog

So…what’s your favorite blog element?