How To Blog A Book
Write, Publish, and Promote Your Work one Post at a Time
By Nina Amir

Writer's Digest Books
May 21, 2012 / ISBN: 9781599635408
Nonfiction/ (Writing/Promotion/Tech)
Amazon

Reviewed by Carolyn Howard Johnson

If you're a writer and you've been whining about how you don't have time to blog-no matter how many times people tell you how essential it is-this book is for you. If you're not a writer but you've been thinking about blogging but still have this vague notion that it's a monumental waste of time, this book is for you.

"This book" is How To Blog a Book by Nina Amir. Published by Writer's Digest, it is nevertheless a book for anyone who is considering blogging and making their blog worthwhile, successful, or both. I mean, it has all kinds of information in it that every blogger should know. One of the most valuable sections in the book is on "pinging" which pretty much means a way to get the news out to anyone interested that a blog-your blog-exists. And why they should drop by to read it. It includes a couple of pages of services that help your blog be seen (Pgs. 104 and 105). What a resource.

What I loved most about Amir's book is that it gives beginning writers the essentials, from what a nonfiction book is to the process for writing one. It seems this is essential because many who write nonfiction aren't professional writers. They're professional therapists, trainers, businesspeople, etc who want to share their knowledge with the world and perhaps infuse their careers with a little oomph, a little credibility. So Amir includes the basics-how one must consider the topic (title), and plot out the plan of attack (the organization). This information will help anyone considering a book, whether it is to be written the old-fashioned way or is to be blogged. As Amir says, "A book is a book is a book."

OK. I lied. That isn't what I loved most. I also loved that Nina recognizes that marketing is an essential part of publishing any book, no matter how it's published - - traditionally, on your own, blogged, or banged out the way it has always been done.

Amir tells you how to write a book - - a real book. She doesn't pretend it will be easy - - only fun. And anyone will see that blogging a book has some advantages that a would-be author (or an experienced one) can't get doing it any other way.

PS: Though this book shows how to blog a nonfiction book, a very similar process may be used for a collection of poetry, a collection of short stories, or even a novel.