My Reading Problem: #BeMyGuest - How to be a Good Guest Blogger by Christine Locke

Book bloggers love to find that author who writes what they most want to read, has a decent looking cover and a readable book blurb, and contacts them with a polite query. But what’s even better for the book blogger (and they are essential to indie success), is when that author is willing to do something for them. That might mean providing complimentary book copies for a giveaway or cross-promoting their blog on your social media (because you are building that platform, right? RIGHT?) But one of the nicest things you can do is offer to write a guest blog. Bloggers need new content to keep the blog visible in search engines. If they can get a little help in producing that content, yeah, that’s a plus. So, how do you write a guest blog?

First of all, blog. It doesn’t have to be a lot. I’m not a professional blogger. I just write about writing and reading novels. But I do get out there and blog. Blogging is different from other writing. You need to keep it brief, but informative. You can have a long entry, but it needs to be broken into relevant, clearly distinguished bits. When you have to write posts on your own blog, you get a sense for what works and what doesn’t. Blogging is not like Facebook. You gotta do it to understand it.

Second, ask your host what kind of content she/he would like. AND ACTUALLY READ THE BLOG. Maybe the subscribers like the kind of writing you usually do, but maybe not. Maybe your mystery novel is being reviewed on a blog that normally posts YA books. Maybe the blogger just liked your style. If so, you need to check out the blog to understand what kind of content is appropriate. And what is the blog’s style? Is it edgy? Don’t write about your twenty-two cats. Is it humorous? Don’t write about when your dog died. Ask for an appropriate topic, have a look at the style of the content, check out the blog’s followers, and then….

Be timely and accurate. Professional bloggers amaze me. They have to post content, watch out for legal issues, accumulate blog followers, and follow a zillion blogs in their own and other interest areas to keep up with what’s going on. They comment on other blogs, attend blogger conferences, field pitches from writers/publishers/agents and still find time to read and review our books. They’re organized. So when they ask me to have their content ready by a certain date, I do it. When they ask me to put such-and-such in the subject line, I do that, too. And I thank them. A lot.

And speaking of thanks, that social media platform you’re building: yeah, that’s not just for you. When you have thousands of twitter followers and hundreds of Facebook likes and Google + people in your circles, you can say a big thank you by promoting the blog on YOUR platform. It benefits you, yes, but you can use your tweets, status updates, and +one’s to say thank you to your host. Book bloggers provide a fantastic service that is free to authors and helpful to readers, and they deserve our very best writerly efforts. Happy posting!