HOW TO DEVELOP A WEBSITE AND BLOG: Short Series On Book Publishing And Marketing In Nigeria
Welcome to Harmony Publishing, here we are covering a series of blogs on book publishing and especially marketing in Nigeria. You don’t need to open a shop as an author, but you need a blog. It is your office. Get one!
DEVELOP A WEBSITE AND BLOG
Your author website is “you-central” and the cornerstone of your marketing and promotion efforts. All of your social media profiles need to link back to your site and your blog. This is done by using consistent metadata, or keywords. The title of your book is an example of metadata. Your book description is metadata. Your price is metadata. Your book’s category or genre is metadata. Virtually any piece of information that helps describe or identify your book is metadata. Retailers integrate your metadata into their online stores so customers can find your book by genre, price range, language, sales rank (how your title is selling compared to other titles in the store), or other factors.
Ideally, your blog and your websites are the same. Many authors test the waters with a free Blogger, Typepad or WordPress blog, but here’s the problem—you don’t own or control your content. What you need is a “self-hosted” blog and website, and WordPress is the most popular platform. You can use Whogohost to register and host your blog or website as low as 3500 to 5000 per year. With managed WordPress hosting, you get automatic backups, so you never lose your data. Once you sign up, you’ll choose from a selection of simple themes. Just click and start building or hire someone to help you for surprisingly little money. You only need a few pages, to begin with; for example, a home page, about page, books page and
A contact page. Your home page is essential, but research has shown that the about page is the most popular page on most sites. Readers want to see your face and learn what makes you tick. Write it in the first person and talk with the reader. Do a little web research to find out more about what makes a great author about page. It’s also essential to include an e-mail newsletter sign-up form in your sidebar and links to all the social media sites you’re actively using. On your books page, consider embedding a widget that allows your readers to preview your book. Also, make it easy for readers to follow you with one click by integrating social media “like” and “follow” buttons on your pages.
Ways to blog effectively
- Write a blog One secret to good marketing is to engage your prospective readers in the conversation. Share your thoughts, your insights, your opinions and of course, your writing talent. Expose yourself, and you’ll attract a following of people who respect how you think, or who enjoy debating and discussing ideas with you. With hard work and time, you’ll eventually build a following of people who are more inclined to read your books or help you spread the message about your books. Starting a blog is easy.
- Write Guest Columns for Blogs Most literary blogs are run by people who love books and authors. Most bloggers do their blogs entirely as a volunteer effort. It’s a lot of pressure for a blogger to continuously “feed the beast,” which is how many bloggers feel when they can’t find the time to write new posts frequently.
- Invite other Authors to Post to your Blog
If you operate your blog, invite your favourite authors to write guest posts for your blog. This is a great way to offer your fans interesting new content that increases the value of your blog. It also helps fans of the other author learn more about you.
- Do Q&A Interviews with other Authors on your Blog Every author appreciates free media coverage. Do Q&A interviews of your favourite authors in your genre. Contact the authors and offer to interview them for your blog. Send them five or six questions via email, and invite them to include both their headshot and book cover Images.
- Join the conversation on blogs When you comment on another blog, you’re often asked for your web address.
You could give your web site or blog. Whatever you do, don’t spam other blogs with messages to buy your book. That’s rude. Instead, participate in relevant discussion. If readers think your posts are intelligent, they’ll be curious to learn more about you and will click on your name to access your link.
5.5 Organize a blog tour
Many authors go on tour to promote a book by organising book signings at bookstores. But nationwide too expensive for most authors and publishers. With the Internet, consider a virtual blog tour instead.
Thank you for reading today’s blog on book publishing and marketing. We are here for when you ready to publish your book. Call us on 07032212481 or email publish@harmonypublishing.com.ng.
Our service is available everywhere in Nigeria, and we can deliver worldwide. The service we offer is editing, ghostwriting, book cover, design and interior layout, Printing, ISBN assignment, ebook publishing, soft and hardcover publishing, audiobook publishing, online distribution, indexing, social media marketing.
[…] You can see from this story that your book must have a market waiting to buy. Do not write a book, and then try to find a market for it or make people read it. It mostly won’t sell. Sorry. Read this post and get more ideas how to build a platform and this one one on blogging […]