Content marketing tools and training.
Few things in life are guaranteed. This is especially true if you are a writer.
But this one rule — The Rule of 24 — is guaranteed. Iron clad.
Doesn’t matter who you are, what you write, how you write, or how hard you try to prove this wrong.
You won’t.
How I used a blog to attract thousands of subscribers my first week.
Why I make six figures and you don’t.
How I quit my day job and now I work all day in my robe and slippers while my wife brings me lattes.
Ever seen headlines like these before? Find them at least a little compelling?
First, let’s get one thing out of the way. A blog alone, no matter how popular, isn’t enough to score you a book contract. It’s not quite that simple.
In other words, it doesn’t quite work the way it does on television.
“Did you hear that Random House gave me a million dollars for a book based on my blog?” chirps the hipster starlet as she emerges from a crowded Starbucks, caramel macchiato in hand. “And we’re working on the movie rights. Hey, let’s go for a ride in my Jag.”
But you already knew that real life is more complicated than a sit-com. So let’s talk about the critical role a blog does play in securing a book deal.
Since the very first blog, written around an ancient campfire somewhere in the moist foothills of Seattle, content has been crowned the undisputed king.
The king ruled over all that was written, be they blogs, articles, ads, fiction, or a killer love letter. All that was copy sat at the feet of the king.
Nothing succeeded without content. Writing without it was cast from the kingdom, banished as self-serving junk mail and the much-loathed “interruption marketing.”
But the king is dead.
Writers love metaphors, and one of my personal favorites is the comparison between writing and sports. They’re both something anyone can do, but few can do it at a professional level.
What’s intriguing about the comparison – at least for this writing teacher and novelist turned blogger – is that while hardly anybody with an ounce of sanity who takes up tennis or golf thinks they’ll eventually turn pro at it, just about everyone who has ever darkened the door of a writing workshop or has secretly begun writing a novel has every intention of doing so.
