Guest Blogging

[Jo]

I have read guest blogs on other people's book blogs, but I now have the opportunity to have an author guest blog on mine. I've not done it before and don't know how to go about it. I've tried researching, but I'm getting confused, so I was wondering if anyone on here could help.

Do you provide a topic to discuss, or do they decide themselves?
Do you have them email you their guest blog, or do you hand them over the "keys" to your blog so they can type it directly?
Anything else I should know about?

I am just at a loss. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[Jen - Devourer of Books]

I generally give a few suggestions, but allow authors who are guest blogging to write about anything related to their writing - whether it is research, life, getting ideas, getting published - that they wish to write about. Some authors really want the suggestions, others figure it out for themselves. I then have the authors email me their post (usually in Word) and attach any pictures they might want me to add to the post, other than the book cover and I post it myself.


An additional tip: I take their post out of Word and paste it in Microsoft Notepad (when using Windows) before putting it on my blog to get rid of any weird font size/formatting that might be in the document.

[Jo]

Cheers, that is helpful! Thanks!

[Maw Books]

I've had just a handful of guest blogs but generally we discuss a particular topic for them to cover. I like to know what I'll be getting and how it will benefit my readers. If my review can be used as a jumping off point then even better.

Like Jen mentioned, they'll email the post w/ any photos they want attached and I do all of the formatting. Don't forget to introduce the author, link over to any reviews you've done on your site and to their website as well.

[Wendy]

I've done a couple of author guest posts. For one I asked them to just write whatever they wanted to write; for two others I asked them if they would write on a specific subject. In all cases, the author was very agreeable to whatever I requested. I have them email me their post and then I post to my blog...it may sound paranoid, but I don't like "giving the keys" to my blog to anyone...I am so worried that content will disappear or something will get messed up. I've never had an author ask to create their own post directly on my blog...

[Wendy]

Oh, I meant to give you a couple of links to some recent guest posts on my blog:

http://www.caribousmom.com/2009/04/06/guest-post-catherine-brady/
http://www.caribousmom.com/2008/09/16/tlc-book-tour-kathleen-mccleary/
http://www.caribousmom.com/2009/01/18/tlc-book-tour-breathing-out-t...

[Donna Lea Simpson]

Hey, Jo,

As an author who has done many many blogs lately - and I appreciate every opportunity - there are a lot of ways you could go with this, and all of them are valid. I think it depends upon what the writer writes, how many blogs they've done lately, and lots of other factors.

You could:
- Provide a topic, but be aware it may be something they've covered many times before.
- Ask questions for them to answer; I have found this a lot of fun when the questions are well thought out and interesting to answer.
- Leave it open for them to think of a topic.

I would suggest you ask the author what their preference is, if you're not sure. From experience, although the reason to do a guest blog is to get the word out about my book, after the fifteenth time of repeating the same stuff about my release, I appreciate a blogger who has some original questions to ask!

[Jo]

Thank you all for the info/advice! I've decided to ask what they would prefer, and then take it from there. Cheers!

[Lisa]

I've only done it once when an author was on a virtual tour for their new book. I picked a date and let her choose a topic (though I had the option of choosing what I wanted her to blog about if I wanted) and she just sent it to me via email in advance and I posted it up on the day :)