How to Blog a Book: Write, Publish, and Promote Your Work One Post at a Time [Paperback]

Nina Amir (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 21, 2012

How to Blog a Book teaches you how to create a blogged book with a well-honed and uniquely angled subject and targeted posts--and how to build the audience necessary to convince agents and publishers to make your blog into a book.
Inside you'll find:

• Basic information on how to set up your blog and the essential plug-ins and other options necessary to get the most out of each post
• Steps for writing a book easily from scratch using blog posts
• Advice on how to write blog posts
• Tips on gaining visibility and promoting your work both online and off
• Tools for driving traffic to your blog
• Information on how to monetize an existing blog into a book or other types of products
• Profiles with authors who received blog-to-book deals

Author Nina Amir explains how writing a book in cyberspace allows you to get your book written easily, while promoting it and building an author's platform. It's a fun, effective way to start writing, publishing, and promoting a book, one post at a time.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Blogging is a great way to create content for a book. Now Nina has put together a road map for getting a book out of your blog posts. Check out How to Blog a Book. It covers all the stops along the way to your destination as a published author."
John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Book, bookmarket.com

"Recycling your blog posts into a book may provide the easiest way to write a book, and How to Blog a Book provides the plan for producing both
the blog and a book that agents, publishers and readers will notice."
Dan Poynter, The Self-Publishing Manual and How to Write Nonfiction, parapublishing.com 

The old saying, Kill two birds with one stone, is the perfect metaphor for what Nina teaches in this valuable book. Blog with the intention of turning the accumulated material into a complete trade book is a brilliant concept.
Jeff Herman, Literary agent, jeffherman.com

"If you are just starting out as a blogger or if you already have 15,000 posts online, Nina Amir's How To Blog a Book, has the plan for you. You can't go wrong with this book. Written to provide you with the easiest path from screen to page, this book gets you there while helping you to dodge many pitfalls and common frustrations. Read it and learn."
Shane Birley, co-author of Blogging for Dummies, shanesworld.ca

“There's a lot more involved in creating a book out of a blog than just gathering up a bunch of posts and hitting "publish." Nina Amir leads you step-by-step through all the consideration. Say good-bye to "what should I write about?" and say hello to "I'm a published author."
Shel Horowitz, book shepherd and author of eight books including Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers, frugalmarketing.com

“Nina Amir’s new book is a book writing and promotion revelation. She shows you how to finish your manuscript at the same time you build a platform. Every writer will benefit from reading this slender, savvy volume.”
Rick Frishman, bestselling author, publisher, and speaker, rickfrishman.com

About the Author

Nina Amir, the president of CopyWright Communications (copywrightcommunications.com), is a seasoned journalist, author,  editor, blogger, writing and blogging coach, book proposal consultant, workshop leader, and speaker with more than 33 years of experience in the publishing field. She is the founder of Write Nonfiction in November, a blog and writing challenge, and currently writes four other blogs, including How to Blog a Book and Write Nonfiction NOW!

Amir has edited or written for more than 45 local, national, and international magazines, newspapers, e-zines, and newsletters, producing hundreds of articles. Her essays have been published in five anthologies, and she has self-published nine short books.

Additionally, she has a proven track record as a book editor. One of Amir's client's books, Enlightened Leadership by Ed Oakley and Doug Krug, was self-published and then purchased and re-released by Simon & Schuster; it has sold more than 230,000 copies to date. Another, Radical Forgiveness by Colin Tipping, won the 1998 Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Award and went on to sell 115,000+ copies.

Amir resides with her husband and two children in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Los Gatos, CA.

Visit her website at ninaamir.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Writer's Digest Books (May 21, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1599635402
• ISBN-13: 978-1599635408
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 7.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #54,908 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #46 in Books > Computers & Technology > Internet & Web Culture > Blogging & Blogs

More About the Author

Nina Amir, Inspiration-to-Creation Coach, inspires people to combine their purpose and passion so they Achieve More Inspired Results. She motivates writers and non-writers to create publishable and published products and careers as authors as well as to achieve their goals, fulfill their purpose and live inspired lives.

The author of How to Blog a Book: How to Write, Publish and Promote Your Work One Post at a Time (Writer's Digest Books), Amir is a nonfiction editor, book proposal and blogging consultant, blog-to-book coach, and book and author coach with more than 33 years of experience in the publishing field. She also is the founder of Write Nonfiction in November, a blog and challenge. She writes five blogs, including Write Nonfiction NOW!, How to Blog a Book and As the Spirit Moves Me, and two national Examiner.com columns. Additionally, she is the regular writing and publishing expert on the popular radio show, Dresser After Dark (www.dresserafterdark.com), hosted by Michael Ray Dresser, which has approximately 80,000 listeners per month.

Amir holds a BA in magazine journalism with a concentration in psychology, has edited or written for more than 50 publications producing hundreds of articles and had her work published in five anthologies. She has self-published 10 short books, including the popular workbook How to Evaluate Your Book for Success and 10 Days and 10 Ways to Return to Your Best Self.

As a book editor, Amir also has a proven track record. One of her clients' books (Enlightened Leadership) was self-published and then purchased and re-released verbatim by Simon & Schuster (Fireside); the book has sold over 230,000 to date. Another (Radical Forgiveness) won the 1998 Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Award (Inspirational category), went on to sell over 115,000 copies, and recently was purchased by Sounds True. Her clients' proposals regularly get them contracts with agents as well.

Amir also speaks and writes about self-improvement, human potential, practical spirituality, and Judaism. She is the former regular holiday and spirituality expert on Conversations with Mrs. Claus, a weekly podcast heard in more than 90 countries and downloaded by 130,000 listeners per month. She is a certified rebirther, a trained Voice Dialogue facilitator and currently is working on her life coaching certificate. Although she often speaks and writes from a Jewish perspective, her work spans religious lines and is pertinent to people of all faiths and spiritual traditions.

In all she does, Amir focuses on helping people live their lives fully and manifest their desires -- whether those desires look like written products or something entirely different. She sees herself as an "Everywoman" whose struggles and successes are not unlike anyone else's. Therefore, she writes, speaks and teaches from a place of knowing that what has worked for her will at least provide others with a starting place from which to find what works best for them.

Amir lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains above Los Gatos, CA.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of the 'How To' Blog Books May 10, 2012

By Evolving Knowledge

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

THE GOOD

The author deserves six stars for an outstanding book. For the past few months I've been looking at blogging books and this surpasses everything else published. Doesn't matter if you are a beginner or an old hand at blogging this book has worthy information. Even if you just want to blog without plans to repurpose your content this is still a blogger's bible.

In addition to great content the writer's style flows and keeps your attention.

THE BAD

What was Writer's Digest Book thinking using a font size that is smaller than the fine print you'd expect to see in a contract. If a Kindle version was available, I'd say go for that. Otherwise find yourself a good magnifying glass. Hopefully WDB will quickly recognize their mistake and never release another book with tiny type. If the content wasn't so good I'd chuck the book out the window.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great hands-on advice for authors and new bloggers July 15, 2012

By Dara Lurie

Format:Paperback

For the past 6 weeks, I've kept my copy of Nina Amir's How To Blog A Book within reach of my desk. As an already self-published author, I am finding this book to be a handy guide as I learn how to translate the content and essence of my book into a blog format. How To Blog A Book is a well-written, entertaining and practical guide for beginning and more experienced advanced bloggers. For those of us who lack business and marketing experience, How to Blog A Book gives readers the 101 of Internet marketing concepts including the 'Ping." As a self-published author, I also appreciate the easy-to-read visual design of the book.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for blog authors or authors who blog May 5, 2012

By Deborah Carney

Format:Paperback

This book very clearly lays out what, how and why you would want to blog a book. From making you accountable to an audience that wants you to keep writing, to establishing good writing habits, to actually writing a business plan about what you want the blog and book to accomplish. Easy to read, easy to understand and easy to implement, must read for bloggers and authors both.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A few good nuggets... November 17, 2012

By M. Smith

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

There are a few good nuggets in this book but for the most part I was pretty disappointed.

If you already have a blog, then don't waste your money on this book. Find a book that actually gives specific advice on how to drive traffic to your blog, build content or use social networking. Most of the advice in this book was too generic and vague for anyone who has been blogging for more than 5 minutes.

There were 2 things that really irritated me about this book (fortunately they didn't show up until the end)

1. For as much as the author talks about her experience with blogging a book the reality is her book success did not come from her blog being discovered. She was already a published author with an agent to tap into. Grant it she does have useful experience on the process of blogging a book, but through out the book she talks (vaguely) about ways to drive traffic to your blog and get discovered when in truth that is not how it was for her.

2. She should have chosen better people for her success stories at the end. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading success stories from real people whose blogs got discovered and turned into a book, but often her subjects would directly contradict things she said in the book. For example, she spends time harping on the importance of doing market research, but most of her success stories said they didn't do any market research; they simple wrote about a topic they loved.

The book isn't awful. I was able to glean a few useful nuggets. But as someone who already has a blog, I would have rather spent my money on a book that would give me specifics on how to make my blog more successful/attractive to make a book deal happen.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Blogging Is The Way May 4, 2012

By linda bowden

Format:Paperback

Finally, someone tells why we need to blog, how to get started and what are the benefits. In Nina Amir's blogging seminar we learned the in's and out's of why in todays market it is so important to be more than a writer. Great material, great information. I recommend that you pick up this book and find out what blogging can do for you. This book is the answer to so many questions. Nina keeps it real by sharing her experience and her knowledge. Pick up a copy today and get to blogging. Thanks Nina for a real winner.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A step-by-step guide for writing your book and creating fans July 25, 2012

By Mark Smith

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Today's author must be an entrepreneur. It's not enough to write a book and then hope that someone will discover it, buy it, and read it. Getting your book written is only a small fraction of building an author's platform.

How to Blog a book is a step-by-step guide for writing a book and creating customers. This includes practical advice on planning, writing, producing, promoting, and selling your book. By beginning with the end (a book) in mind, each blog post gets you one steps closer to your end goal. This is the key to getting started, staying motivated, and sticking to the plan.

The book references over 50 tools (i.e. WordPress plugins, web services, social marketing services, outsourcing tips, etc.) you can use today to create a book. The book does not go into the technical details about how these services work, so I've got a lot of follow-up research to do as I follow the steps to blogging my way toward a book. Nevertheless, I now have a road map and the motivation to start my book writing journey--which is worth much more than the price of the book.