Building Book Buzz

I started blogging a few days ago for several reasons. First, I love to write and share information that I hope is useful to readers. Second, blogging is a wonderful promotional tool; it gives you web exposure and visibility, and helps build your author platform. Third, blogging creates book buzz. "Buzz" is word-of-mouth. It's one person telling another person about something they found that they thought was interesting.

I've been teaching writing workshops for the past twelve years, helping writers get their books published. One of the things I stress, after perfecting the query letter and book proposal, and researching appropriate literary agents and/or publishers, is building an author platform and developing an online presence before you submit your book proposal. This is soooo important to publishers. It's one of the major deciding factors in whether a publisher makes an offer on your book. A publisher wants to know how you're going to promote your book and increase sales, what networking opportunities you have, whether you give lectures or teach workshops on the subject of your book, and the many other ways you can help sell your book.

A website is essential; in addition to presenting a professional image of yourself, it shows the publisher that you can promote your books online. A beginning website for first-time authors doesn't have to be a big deal. It just needs to show your expertise in the subject matter of your book. A website is easy to set up and maintain. You don't need to hire a website designer. You can do it yourself for free. A good site for building a free website is Webs. I built one of my sites using this host. And I'm a non-techie so if I can do it, you can, too.

Since this is a free site, it's ad supported but they offer an ad-free option which is very reasonable. Buy the ad-free option; you want your site to look professional. Buy a domain name that is descriptive of your book or your area of expertise. But a word to the wise here. Buy your domain name from your host. If you buy it elsewhere you'll have to forward the name to your site and Google won't be able to crawl it so your site won't come up in google searches.

For your web content, write articles relevant to the subject matter of your book and put these on your website and/or blog. Give visitors something of value; offer interesting information so they will want to talk about your book, your website, and your blog to other people. In other words, build buzz. Include an author bio and your speaking engagements or workshop schedule if this is something you do.

In addition to creating a website, explore opportunities to write articles online that you can also put on your site. Two that come to mind are www.helium.com and www.ezinearticles.com. While you won't get paid for these articles, you will begin to create interest in your book online and this is where the value of writing for free comes in. Plus, you can link back to your website and blog, bringing more traffic to your website and blog, and increasing awareness of your book.

Creating a blog on the subject matter of your book is another free promotional tool you have available to you. A blog will increase your online visibility and allow people who are interested in the subject matter of your book to interact with you. Blogger is easy to use. Blogging gives you some serious credibility in the publisher's eyes. They know that you can create interest in your book before it's published and then promote the heck out of it after it's published. Plus, there's a ready audience for your book; all those people who leave comments on your blog will probably want to buy your book.

I decided to start blogging because my newest book, Zen Coffee: A Guide to Mindful Meditation, will be published in September and I want to create lots of buzz for it. In addition to this blog, I created
a Zen Coffee blog to increase the buzz about my book.

The best advice I can give you to get a publisher interested in making an offer on your book is: First, have a very marketable, unique book idea. Second, write the best book proposal you possibly can. Third, build your author platform. And last, but definitely not least, create a website and a blog and start building buzz about your book. It's never too soon to do this. The more you have to offer a publisher, the more likely it is that they will want your book.