Piper Nuelle

A blog is a bit like a plant, it needs to be well watered and looked after to become a success and to grow. You need to water it, give it plant feed, produce new ideas to keep your garden growing and ticking over nicely. And for a blog to keep it watered and well fed, you need to plan and create blog ideas and write posts that people want to read and interact with.

We live in a world now where blogging, vlogging, and creating content is very saturated, a bit like the ground when its had a lot of rainfall, and sometimes it feels like it has no where to go or fit in. It also feels scary putting yourself and your work online for others to see and criticise, and then… There is also the keeping your blog fresh, up to date and working hard on it and keeping people and readers entertained and informed but in a quick fashion. People now have less and less time to enjoy reading and usually if things are not done in a quick scroll and within less than a minute to read, things get missed and ignored and left under the radar, even when that content is good and useful to the world.

With blogging its clear to see that a lot if not most things have been done and said before by someone else, and it can feel a little useless to then try and work on yours and basically saying the same thing that others have said before you. BUT… maybe they haven’t said it or done it the way you would, maybe you have a unique voice or personality and that is what will pull readers in.

Take my blog for instance, I know people have book and author blogs, the internet is filled with authors that want to make it and reach their target audience, and that is why I have mine. When you have a book to sell and or promote, you need an audience to see it to buy it, so I set up my blog in the hopes of connecting with like minded people, but also to connect with people that maybe one day could become my target audience and readers. To connect with a reader you need to interact and build trust, and if you have a Traditional publishing house behind you with PR agents that get your work out there for the masses to see and enjoy, then maybe you don’t need a blog to connect, or maybe you do but not one you need to work exceptionally hard on. But, when like me you decide to go the self publishing route because you love to write so much it comes out your earholes, then a blog and working hard on it to connect is a must.

Now, don’t get me wrong, having a blog is not a definite for increasing sales for books, it’s not a magic wand and I cannot guarantee that if you do all this hard work you will sell books, I cannot guarantee that, but it may help, it may help to get you out there a bit more, more discoverable, because at the end of the day, you need people to find you, to discover you and your books, and this could be a potential way to do that and to maybe, hopefully make some connections with other writers, authors and or readers.

So, to help you out a little, I have 20 writer come author blog ideas which may help to grow your blog and readership… Because at least if you are trying, you have a chance at being seen;

1. How to start your own book blog – Help others just like you. Maybe someone else is feeling just like you ,scared, wondering if it is worth it. Or maybe they don’t know how to do it or where to start. So tell them, how to start your own book blog.
2. Book Hauls – You see it with beauty Vloggers and Bloggers all the time, the biggest makeup haul etc, so let’s do it with books!!!
3. The best book shops in town – Maybe your local town has lots of independent book shops and not just the big guns in town. Or maybe you love looking in the big most well known and loved ones. Tell people why they are the best.
4. Book Reviews – A bit of a no brainer here right, a book blog must have book reviews. But you could make it so certain books are your niche, become an expert reviewer of books in a certain field or theme.
5. Your daily writing or blogging routine – People love to see what others are getting up to and what they do with their lives. So let them in, theoretically speaking. Take photos of your day, explain your routine and why you do it.
6. Write with me – Having a hard time sitting down to write. Get people to write with you. Write a blog post of what you need to write, get people’s ideas and help.
7. Author Interviews – Can you interview any local authors in your area? A lot of indie or self published authors desperately need any advertisement, and then maybe you can get one too in exchange if they too have a blog or a platform.
8. Todays writing to do list – What do you need to accomplish today? X amount of words, a tight deadline coming up, do you need to research something for a work in progress?
9. Book Lover Gift Ideas – Do you have ideas for book lover gift ideas, especially great at certain times of year, e.g. seasonal, birthdays, Christmas, Easter, Valentines day etc.
10. How you build a world for your characters? Do you use anything visual like photos or go for walks? Do you draw?
11. Book Shopping FAQ’s – Let people know how best to buy books and to not just buy for the sake of it, but to buy for them and to know they will read what they bought.
12. Most used apps for bookish people and why? – What apps do use the most? Are they all just social media or do any help with book writing and or promotion?
13. Self Publishing V’s Traditional Publishing – What are your views and takes on this?
14. Your favourite coffee shops to read, write or get author fuel from – Do you always write at home? Do you sit in coffee shops?
15. Do you listen to music to write or do you need silence? – Let people know your writing methods and quirks.
16. E-Book v’s Print – Do you prefer to hold a book in your hand and smell the pages? Or do you prefer to own as many as you can but all electronically?
17. Meeting an Author – Have you ever met an author? What was it like? What did they say?
18. Bookish History – Do you know something in history about books or writing that you wish to share that others might enjoy knowing about?
19. Your author notebooks – Let your fans and readers see into your mind when it comes to writing your books. Do you use notebooks? Do you draw in them? Is it all neat and tidy notes or organised chaos?
20. Author Self Care – How do you take care of yourself being an author? And how do you prevent yourself from burning out?

I hope these 20 ideas will help you and give you something to write if your brain freezes or your hit a brick word wall and can’t think of something to write. Maybe soon I will write some more ideas down.

Take care, xo Piper xo