Question: What is the difference between a writer and an author?

A writer is someone who writes with the hope of getting paid for it. An author is someone who gets paid for writing.


PROMOTE YOUR WRITING WITH A BLOG OR WEB SITE

It doesn’t make sense not to start a blog for your book or to promote other writing services and projects that way since they cost nothing but your time. A Website costs very little and some providers even offer free Website hosting.

The difference between a blog and a Website is that a Website stays more or less static, while new messages should be posted on your blog on a regular basis to keep readers interested in coming back. You can promote a book project on either site, and can provide links to purchase your book or get more information from either a blog or a site.

Websites
A list of Website hosts and their rankings are available by googling "Website providers." The first thing to do is compare these providers, then register the domain name you want to use for free. Then register for a site and decide what you want your site to look like, and what information you want to include. I studied the sites of other writers, then sketched out on paper what I wanted to include in mine before I sat down at the computer. You can use software that’s probably already available on your computer, or purchase software to design your Website. Or you can hire someone to design a site for you, but templates in the software make it easy to create a nice site.

Blogs
Blogger (www.blogger.com) offers free blogs, and all you have to do is sign up, then find the layout you like and start posting. You can add your photo, your book’s photo, links to related sites, and information about yourself or your book in a section that stays up permanently. Each post you add is displayed for awhile, although newer posts will be added above it, and eventually they will be pushed off that page. They’ll still be available to readers in the archives. Posts should ideally be 300-600 words, but if you are providing information that requires more words, that's okay, although you might lose some readers who don’t want to take time to read a long post.

I have four blogs currently up and running, two for each book that has been published in the past two years. One is for my newest book, Looking Back: Boomers Remember History from the ‘40s to the Present. That title was too long, especially for those searching the Internet, so one blog is: http://boomersrememberhistory.blogspot.com for those looking for books on the boomer era. The other blog for that book is: http://lookingbackboomersrememberhistory.blogspot.com for those who have heard of the book or read a review and are searching by the title. The book titled: Portable Writing: the Secret to Living Your Dreams with 25 Projects to Fund Your Freedom has one blog titled: http://portablewritingnewsletter.blogspot.com for those who know the title and know that I produce a regular newsletter. The other blog is http://freelancewriter.booklocker.com for Internet users searching for books about freelance writing.

One note about blogs: your blog must include key words that Internet users would look for on search engines. Higher rankings put your blog at the top of the list, but they don’t necessarily keep that same ranking. You need to post regularly to your blog to keep it somewhere near the front of the list so that whenever someone googles a key word in your blog, it pops up near the front of the list.

I believe that my blogs have definitely helped sell books. It’s a way that those who don’t know me can find out a little about me. It is still necessary to publicize my blogs so that people know about them, and know where to look, so each email that goes out includes a signature line that includes my name and the title of my blogs. That way, all of my regular correspondents know about them—and hopefully, help spread the word.

It’s also a good idea to promote your blog and Website on business cards, brochures, and on any other written materials you might regularly hand out to potential clients/customers. Then let the blog and Website do the selling for you.

Blogs and Websites work for you 24-7, promoting your book or writing skills. Make sure you use these cheap and simple tools to further your writing career.