Are you using a blog to promote your book?

My friend Rick (RB) Levin over at PC Talk Radio is looking for people who have used a blog to promote their books.  I know there's quite a few of you, so I don't want to leave anyone out.

It you are one of them, please post what you are doing in my comments and Rick will take it from there.

Comments

[Michael]

Book is in the works. Loved Naked Conversations

[Ted Demopoulos, Blogging for Business]

I'm blogging to promote "Blogging for Business" and will for my next book demop.com/book.html as well.

[Philipp Lenssen]

My blog Google Blogoscoped sort of spawned my book "55 Ways to Have Fun With Google" and I also blogged about the book, of course.

[Bram]

Count us in - comment too big, so posted at my blog.

[Joseph A. di Paolantonio]

Shel,

We're using our blog, wiki and a lens [on Squidoo] to document our research into Open Source solutions for Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing and data analytics. This started as a book project which is undergoing some changes.

[Tris Hussey]

Well of course! Daddy Wears Slippers to Work. The book isn't done (Shel doesn't think it's too bad so far), but I started the book blog as soon as I was committed to doing the book.

Gee, wonder where I got the idea? ;)

[shel israel]

Tris,

I didn't say your book wasn't bad. I said it was damned good.

[L.L. Barkat]

A Merchandising and Promotions Manager at a publishing company (not mine) suggested I blog.

I knew I would not do it.

Then, I read NC. Well, here I am... two days, six posts into blogging. Zero comments. Not that I'm impatient or anything. One can't be a writer without a little of that virtue. But, how long, might I ask, does it take for blogging to show a little ROI?

[L.L. Barkat]

I've been ruminating about that statistic in NC, from Pew, about one-quarter of Web users reading blogs... and the number increasing by about 60% annually.

Question is, who are these users... what sector, if any, do they tend to clump in? Seems this is vital knowledge for those of us who would make the time investment in blogging, for promotion purposes.

Or maybe it's not that vital. Any thoughts?

[Michelle Katz]

I am using a myspace blog to promote my book and book signings....due to the demographic of myspace and the content, it is not effective.

[Andreas Johannsen]

Yes, I am now - after reading this blog posting. This, and Seth Godin's posting over here http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/08/advice_for_auth.html just kicked me started.

[Digital Traveler]

I've been using a blog to promote my book. My publisher suggested that I do that late last year. I post every day to teach all about art, text, image and message. Hope you get to take a look and I have the possiblity of getting on the radio.
http://digitalartphotographyfordummies.blogspot.com

[lilredpro5]

I started my blog last month to see how it goes as
far as this style of writing...I have written tons
of stuff in the past while in college and grad school, but writing history essays and theses is alot different from what I want to do now. If I like the blog, and get enough good reviews, I will then start my book. Thanks for info

[L.L. Barkat]

New thought.

I'm trying to forget about blogging to promote my book, even if that was the initial catalyst, and even though it seems "socially acceptable."

Rather, I want to push my thinking and writing abilities to new levels...which the blog already seems to be doing. I believe the rest will follow naturally, all in good time.

[Xavier Pierre]

I'm using my blog to get peer review of my book. That seems to be working out. My book is an autobiographical account of my recovery from addiction.

[Kilian]

I've created a razor-sharp, incisive blog filled with news, giveaways, symbolic logic, and more fun than a barrel of weasels in accordance with the novel you've been waiting for, This Feels Like A Riot Looks.

[shel israel]

Kilian,

Your self-effacing use of understatement moves me. i won't say which direction it moves me into, however.

[Darlene Nicholson]

I am a new romance author on the scene residing in the city of Chicago. I have been blogging and using a number of websites (google, authorsden, barnes and noble, borders, amazon.com....etc) to promote my book. My only problem is I'm having a hard time trying to get a radio station or newspaper to announce them. I have 2 romance novels that are great reads and I want the avid readers to know about them. So, what can I do to make this happen? My books are Sweets and Sweeter Than Sweets.

[Kilian]

Shel, we should always celebrate our movements, regardless of their purpose or direction.

[Toyn Nesca]

Tony Nesca was born in Torino, Italy in 1965 and moved to Canada at the age of three. He was raised in Winnipeg but relocated back to Italy several times until finally settling in Winnipeg in 1980. He taught himself how to play guitar and formed an original rock band playing the local bars for several years. At the age of twenty-seven he traded his guitar for a Commodore 64 and started writing seriously. He has published six chapbooks of stories and poems, three novels, a novella, a book of poetry and has been an active contributor to the underground lit scene for ten years, being published in innumerable magazines both online and in print. He currently resides in Winnipeg.

[Sammy Shu]

I’ve created a blog on my site where I promote my book through announcing signings and such. But I haven’t mastered the ability for promotion through other blog sites.
My book is a children’s book about fairies and its called "There’s a Season For All"
Written by Sammy Shu
I love that the book has been so well received but I’m sometimes at a loss as far as self-promotion. My site is www.sammyshu.com
you can buy it at any borders or barnes and noble

[skint writer]

coming late to the topic but yes I have used my blog to promote my books and other books that I publish

in fact the latest book was submitted by a fellow blogger and has just been published

[Joe]

Do you sell the book from your blogging site or do you try to encourage the user to buy the book from somewhere like Amazon.com? I am currently trying to help an author who has written a great book about preventable deaths and living a healthy life. I have created a website at: http://www.drricksguide.com

I am looking for better ways to drive traffic to his site.

Thanks,

Joe

[Paul Crawford]

Struggling writer Paul Crawford is commissioned by God's stepbrother, Grod, to write The Book of Grod in this weekly serial blognovel by Ian Blake and Marshall Scott.

[Py Kim Conant]

I have used MySpace blog for promoting my book, "Sex Secrets of an American Geisha: How to Attract, Satisfy, and Keep Your Man" (Hunter House). On my blog I usually excerpt and adpt from the book, with the link to Amazon.com to purchase.

Also www.ezinearticles.com works perfectly too. On ezinearticles.com I post the same blog as I do at MySpace.

Fearless American Geisha, Py (pie) Kim Conant