Blogging for Writers

Third Thursday with Writers' League of Texas: Build a Book

"Build a Book"  is the theme for this year's Third Thursday program, sponsored by the Writers' League of Texas. It's a free event at Book People in downtown Austin.  

Tonight's topic is "The First Draft: Let the Words Rip!"  For more info on the four panelists, check out the Writers' League website. 

Have a book in your brain waiting to get out? Come get inspired. Just curious about the process? Come learn something. Hope to see you there! 

Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody; from Blog to Book

"Just FYI, a lot of book publishers are watching this book to see how it does. The big question in publishing circles is this: If you have a high-profile blog with a million or so readers, how many of those blog readers will buy a book by that blogger? One in ten would still mean 100,000 books sold, which would be great." - from a Fake Steve Jobs blog post

While reading the December 2007 Forbes magazine at lunch, I came across another "blogging/writer" connection, this time in Steve Forbes' editorial page. In place of the usual restaurant reviews is a book review of Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody by Fake Steve Jobs, published in October 2007.

Before Fake Steve wrote his book, he blogged his fake life at The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. Per his current Blogger profile he began blogging in June 2006 and is quite prolific, posting 1586 times so far this year.

Turns out there's a Forbes connection. Fake Steve Jobs is real Daniel Lyons, a Forbes' magazine senior editor. (His blog is now a "Forbes.com site.") Lyons has also published a book of short stories and a novel.

So, if you have some wicked parody skills, find a person of interest and start blogging. You may want to consult fake-blogs.com to see the competition.

Now, go get your blog on.

"To Do List": from magazine to blog to book

Sasha Cagen's 2nd book, To Do List, is a perfect example of how to take your idea, however strange it sounds, and go with it. Who would write a book proposal pitching a compilation of to do lists? Who would accept it?

Sasha first did a magazine of lists from 2000 - 2003. In 2005 she started a blog collecting people's to do lists. On November 6 of this year she released a book of 100 TDLs. No doubt her publication of the book was influenced by the success of the blog.

Your lesson from this: take what interests you and blog about it. At the least you'll enjoy spending time with the subject and practice writing. You might even inform or entertain a few people. At best you'll get a book deal.

Then you can use your blog to promote your book.
 

BTW, if you want to contribute a list to Sashas' blog, she's still accepting them.

HT: Blogger Buzz, the blogger.com blog.

A Few Stories About Blogging & Writers

As a means of encouragement I like to pick up stories about how other writers have used blogs to compliment their traditional publishing careers.  Book author Lydia Teh's post, Blogging for Writers, gives a quick overview of a workshop panel she participated in. A monthly column, a television series and a book title were direct results of the panelists blogs. Take minute to read her post and plant some blogging ideas in your writing brain. Then, go get your blog on.

Offbeat Bride: Blog for Book

Ariel Meadow Stallings, another BlogHer '07 speaker, started her Offbeat Bride blog to promote her book of the same name.

Her quick list of why she chose to use Google Ads on her blog gives some insight into the experiences of book authors who blog.