Thursday, July 24, 2008 Toral: Blogging from home By Janette Toral Digital Filipino
MY fourth book, “Blogging from Home,” is scheduled to be launched on Aug. 13 to 15 during the Second Internet and Mobile Marketing Summit at Hotel Intercontinental Makati City.
It took me more than a year to finally complete this book. Playing the role of author, editor, proofreader and publisher all at the same time was not an easy task. However, I hope readers will find the complete work worth it.
The book’s title was inspired by my current lifestyle. I blog from home, whether in the Philippines or elsewhere, pursue passions and blog whenever there is something worth sharing.
Last year, I was frustrated when my blogging book project couldn’t be completed. My blog
(http://www.bloggingfromhome.com) partly reflected that struggle. After learning how to mind map last summer, I was able to structure my ideas and write the manuscript afterwards. There were changes and additions but they were more manageable.
I am so glad that I learned how to mind map and have decided to include a mind map of every chapter to make the book easy to digest and understand.
The changes in the way we market today compelled me to handle things differently, such as:
Taking advantage of events. Instead of organizing my own book launch activities, I joined one instead and hopefully get
interested buyers.
Promotion through social networks. Plug the launch and cite the event where the book can be purchased. As social networks are designed for one-to-one and one-to-many communication, it is possible to reach more potential buyers rather than waiting for folks to read my blog or website. Of course, this has to be done in a way that it won’t appear like spam. This includes promoting only once for every social network.
Tapping potential merchants and distributors. Instead of marketing a book alone, tap distributors and online merchants to also promote and sell the book. This means allowing enough revenue after more than half of a book’s fee goes to bookstore and distributor commissions. In my past projects, this was not factored in and it was impossible to sell through other venues.
My book will be available internationally beginning with Australia and in the United States.
A big chunk of the book’s content came from my various blogs, write-ups and updates for this project.
I hope that with more folks getting into blogging, this book will serve as a reference for those interested to learn more about it. Happy blogging!
