How To Start A Book Blog
You love reading books and giving your opinion on them, so you think that it might be a good idea to start a book blog. But where do you start?
Choose Your Platform
Where do you want your audience to see your book reviews? The most common would be having a website on which to share your content and link any social media accounts to this.
You can start a basic website pretty easily with a few technical skills. If you’re looking for something with additional features or more unique, then bespoke web design services might be your answer.
Choose Your Niche
Thousands of books are published every year, not including self-published ones. You may need to decide what the focus of your blog will be. If you’re planning on finding other people to contribute, then you may be able to section your site by genre. Some blogs choose to focus on fantasy, sci-fi, or historical fiction. There are pros and cons to refining your niche.
Start Reviewing What You Know Before Approaching Publishers
As an avid reader, you’re probably looking forward to all the free books you’re going to get or invites to awards and book launches. Many bloggers do indeed get these perks, but it’s not going to happen overnight. You need to prove your value to publishers and authors. The best way to do this is by reviewing books you’ve already read. This can help you hone your writing skills and create a body of work to show people.
Next, you need to concentrate on getting your reviews out to an audience. This is usually done by social media or by building an email list.
Once you have some traction, you can then put a list of publishers together that you would like to approach. Send them details of your site and audience and request to be added to their press or reviews list.
At first, it may only be a few independent publishers that respond, but you can build your audience and reputation over time, and the big guys will take notice. As well as publishers look for PR agencies that have writers on their books and ask to be added to their press releases.
Create Additional Content
Drawing people to your blog is important, and long book reviews might not always be the best way. Consider additional articles such as ‘best ofs,’ ‘author top 5s’, and gift guides. You could also do author profiles or offer interviews to self-publishing authors.
Learn How To Promote
It’s a fact of blogging in any niche that you will spend more time promoting your content than creating it. For this reason, it’s a good idea to learn some of the basics of SEO, social media marketing, and email marketing.
Final Thoughts
Running a book blog can be very rewarding, but it’s a lot of work too. To grow you’re blog, you’re going to need to do a lot more than just write reviews. Start slowly, and don’t put too much pressure on yourself.
