Welcome to 5-minute writing tips – answers to questions that clients ask me that can help you be a better/happier/more efficient writer in 5 minutes, 500 words or less

Today’s question: “If I’m planning to write a long book, should I write a blog first?”


Great question! If you’re at the beginning of a writing project, how should you proceed?

I’ve worked with authors at different phases of their books, and I’m an author myself. I wrote one published book, have advanced drafts of two others, and a pretty good idea for the third. The first three books I wrote completely behind closed doors, other than a few conferences or writing workshops here and there.

I also have a great dream of writing a book about politics and parenting, but it’s pretty far out on my priority list. So for now, I have a newsletter called Everyday Activism where I record my thoughts about the raising politically aware kids.

How will this turn into a book? There are at least 3 things to think about here - what will motivate you to write, how to get people interested in your writing early, and what a publisher might want to see.

Motivation

One of the major questions to ask yourself is what will get you to the finish line of a ~75,000 word book. That’s a lot of writing. Can you do it by yourself? Would an event like NatNoWriMo/AcWriMo work for you? (if so - write with us this November!)

Writing a blog or a newsletter might be a great motivational tool for you. Everyday Activism works that way for me. It’s fun writing, and I’m accumulating a (very) modest readership for any future book projects. I picture myself writing to my mom friends, and so it’s very low stress. It functions as an accountability mechanism for me - I imagine my subscribers out there, hitting refresh on their phone, dying to know what Halloween costumes my kids are going to wear, and it makes me write consistently. I am hopeful that, when the time comes, I’ll have a solid set of essays I can revise into a book proposal.

Readership

Another question to ask yourself is how you’re going to get people excited about reading your writing. This could be through writing a blog/newsletter, or figuring out how to get a bunch of social media followers, or having a really dedicated group of people in your corner (I’m not a Roller Derby person, but my vision of the Roller Derby community is that if a derby-er [derbyist?] were to write something, every other derby-er in the land is gonna read it).

You probably have a Venn diagram of things you read. Some authors, I’ll read whatever they write. I’d read their review of Spookley the Square Pumpkin or about why they eat oatmeal for breakfast. I’m there. There are also a few topics that I read compulsively (email me if you want to know what they are). A perfect intersection is when my favorite people write about my favorite things. My point is — think early about how you’re going to build a readership for your book, which you can then pitch to the publisher.

Publishers

The final piece of this to consider is what will publishers think. My perception is that publishers will be reluctant to publish things that are online already, with some exceptions. So be careful about writing essays that have a broad readership and then expecting someone to publish them whole cloth. You want to avoid self-plagiarism, and make both the publisher and your readers think that you have ideas worth paying for in book form. So think about your blog/newsletter as a place for early ideas and drafts that are perhaps less formal in tone or about broader topics, and then broadening it, might be a way to hit a sweet spot of balancing motivation, readership, and attracting a publisher when the time comes.

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