The Literary Entrepreneur Blog

How to Provide Value “Beyond the Book” With Blogging

by Tyora Moody

This blog post was originally published in 2016. Updated June 11, 2020.

Content marketing offers authors a way to create targeted book marketing that can provide value beyond the book.

There is a commitment level to this type of marketing.

When you’re armed with an editorial calendar, you can plan for consistent marketing of your book(s) all year long.

You definitely want new readers to become aware of your books and other products, but you also want them to know they can trust you. By building that trust via regular blogging combined with social media you can definitely provide alternatives to the typical, “Buy My Book” post.

I mean what better way to attract readers than to give them writing that’s worth reading.

My Blogging Journey

I personally began blogging in 2006. This was before I even thought about writing a book. I started off by posting devotions and bible studies on a blog I called Cookie Aisle.  During this same year, I also started writing my first novel, When Rain Falls. I spent a lot of time blogging about my writing experience and also recommending books and articles I found on the craft of writing.

Some of my other experiences with blogging include:

  • A Christian book reviews website that I managed from 2004-2014. I welcomed other book reviewers to posts reviews.
  • A character-driven blog for one of my main character in Eugeena Patterson Mysteries.
  • Stepping into Victory was a blog that supported two anthologies, a podcast and provided interviews with female entrepreneurs. 
  • The Literary Entrepreneur still exists today under this website. The blog posts complement the book, The Literary Entrepreneur Toolkit.

As you can see I have experimented with a variety of blogs over the years, many of these were to support and provide content marketing for books.

As far as a blogging platform, I started using WordPress.org (self-hosted version) in 2006 and I still enjoy using the platform. Here is a listing of other blogging platforms to consider for hosting your content.

After choosing your blogging platform here are three (3) ideas below to think about for your blogging journey.

1. Use the Blog to Further Explore a Theme or Niche

It’s really important to develop a consistent way to draw traffic to your book and your author’s brand. I strongly believe an author’s website is your most important presence online and all social media should lead back to the website, preferably for building a mailing list. A website by itself can be pretty static so having a blog can serve as an excellent website companion for building an online platform.

Before you jump full speed into blogging, you should choose your book’s theme or niche. If this blog is a way to expand value beyond your book, the niche should closely resemble your book(s).  Don’t think of it as if you’re putting info from the book out there for free. This should be content that is complementary and in some cases, more timely.

So, think about your book (s). What are some themes and topics you can expand on AND consistently blog about on a regular basis?

2. Try out Video Blogging

If writing daily or several times a week for a blog doesn’t appeal to you, you might consider video blogging.  Videos are really easy to create these days via a webcam or your smartphone camera.  Setting up a Youtube channel that shares your blog name is a great way to grab traffic. Google owns Youtube and Google loves bloggers.

Why not combine both worlds so you can get a high ranking in Google?

Other places to do video blogging these days include Facebook Live and Instagram TV. Use a platform where you can easily embed the videos on your blog and add information or resources that complement the video.

If you want to learn more about video blogging here are some great blog posts.

3. Join Forces to Create a Group-Authored Blogs

Another alternative is to start a blog with a group of writers or authors. Each contributing writer can be assigned one day a week (or month) to add a blog post. Some existing group-authored blogs may offer guest blog opportunities.  Below are a few blogs that follow this model.  I write suspense, so I follow quite a few suspense and mystery blogs.