How Book Blogging Launched My Career as an Author

“This book is horrible. I can’t believe people are reading this. I have to tell them not to read it. I think I’ll start a blog.”

And so it began. My unfortunate run-in with the book-that-must-not-be-named upon the recommendation of a popular parenting magazine led me to write my very first blog post ever. I had no clue what I was doing, and to anyone who read that first post—I’m so very sorry. The writing was horrible, the blog design bland. I had no platform. No anything really. But it was a start.

That blog post was the beginning of my career.

We all have to start somewhere, right? When I entered the world of blogging, I soon discovered that authors and publishing companies will actually give you books for FREE if you review them within a certain period of time. Free books? Yes, please! Sign me up! Sign me up for all the free books ever!

Commence blogger burnout.

I quickly learned reading books on a deadline, and too many books at that, took all the fun out of reading for me. But blogging also provided valuable takeaways. First, I learned how to meet a deadline no matter how stressed I was. And second, I learned this lovely little word called platform.

I’d always dreamed of being a novelist, but the publishing world was foreign to me. How does one go from a novice with a Word document to a paid author? I began my research and found there were certain things I needed under my belt, certain steps that would help me reach my goal. Blogging was one such step, because blogging helped me build my platform (gain followers and subscribers who would later be potential readers).

In addition, blogging helped me network with authors and those in the publishing industry from editors to publicists. After two years of blog posts, I had quite the list of author connections. Authors I had supported in their debuts. Authors who became friends I went to for advice, and later turned into established names more than willing to offer endorsements for my own debut.

Thank you, WordPress.

When blogging became monotonous, because let’s face it not everyone is cut out for it or even does well at it, I found other avenues on the world wide web to use as outlets. Enter, YouTube. While I’ve seen others master the art of blogging, it just wasn’t my niche. But I knew I needed an online presence, knew I needed SOMETHING on my resume to show agents and publishers that I did, in fact, have a consistent presence on social media.

That’s when I discovered BookTube. Hello, vlogging.

BookTube is this super awesome community on YouTube and, you guessed it, everyone within the community vlogs about books. My first videos were of course awkward and low quality, but it was a start. A door to something bigger, and dare I even say fun? Building my platform quickly changed from a required task to a cool hobby. I made friends in the community and had a blast filming everything from tags to book hauls.

And up my subscriber count went.

Now granted my platform was still small, and by the time I pitched to my agent at my very first writer’s conference I hadn’t even made it to 1,000 subscribers yet. But the fact that I had a channel caught my agent’s eye. He saw it as different and unique, something that made me stand out from the rest. He was straightforward and admitted my book would be a hard sell, but he liked my enthusiasm for social media and the fact that I did indeed have a consistent presence online. And not only that, it was clear to him I loved my little corner of the internet.

So he signed me.

Things were a whirlwind from there. Within six months of offering representation he landed me a contract with my dream publisher. And what did my publisher tell me made the difference for them in the proposal? My platform. Not that it was big (not even close) but that it was there. It was consistent. I had readers and followers and connections that I’d spent several years building and growing. I’d done the ground work and laid the foundations, so when my publisher took me on they had some things to work with.

Blogging was only the beginning. And I’m not saying all I had to do was start a blog and presto chango I became a published author. It took years of hard work, several writing contests, a freelance editor, patient critique partners, a firm mentor, hours of research, and buckets of blood, sweat, and tears to go from blogger to published author. But blogging was indeed the beginning. I’ll never regret the time I spent on it or the connections I made through it. And I think it all came full circle. Because now instead of reading someone else’s work on deadline, I get to read my own. Instead of publishing my writing on WordPress, I get to send my next draft to my editor.

Now I’m an author. But I think I always was one. Because author isn’t a title specific to those who have a book for sale at Barnes and Noble. No, author is what you are if you write. If you create using words. Are you a blogger? Then, hello. It’s nice to meet you, fellow author. Nice to meet you, indeed.

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Find Sara Ella on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Tumblr and on her website, www.SaraElla.com.

Buy Unblemished [Thomas Nelson / HarperCollins]  HERE

Tags: Blogging, featured, women writers

Category: On Writing