Book marketing is a rapidly changing game. Blog tours, book blasts, and reviews are becoming less effective by the day. One quick search on Google Trends shows that the search term “Book Review” has slowly lost ground over the past several years.
Lots of bloggers are starting to take guest posts in an effort to meet the changing demands of their audience. What does this mean for authors? Well, you can either continue spamming bloggers in an attempt to get attention, or you can join the native marketing movement and get the exposure you need to be successful. Guest posting is an art form in itself, so keep these things in mind and before you know it, you’ll be writing amazing guest posts that get you noticed. 
Keep it Snappy
Blog readers move quickly, so keep posts short — between 300-600 words. Any longer than that and you’re audience will abandon you before the second paragraph.
Master the Lists
People love lists and bullet points. Break your article into a series of subheadings (like the one you’re reading right now), a set of bullet points, or a list of products you’re recommending.
Save Your Sermons
Step down off the soap box and kick it into the corner because you don’t need it. Write a great post with information that people want to read and leave the sermon in your back pocket. Unless your name is Matt Walsh or you have new research to back up your opinions, your preaching will most likely be wasted keystrokes.
Abandon Your Ego
If you want to get attention, you can’t talk about yourself. Readers don’t care about you, your life experiences, or your book (at least, not yet). Instead, write something helpful, informative, or fun. Don’t treat it as a chance to promote yourself — even if that’s why you’re writing it. Think about the audience and what they want to read. Are you offering something helpful or are you simply trying to push your book?
Be a Ninja
No one likes a salesman, so you have to be a ninja instead. You can’t let let them see you coming. You need to write an amazing article that sucks them in, and then — BAM! You slip in some information about yourself and your book before the reader knows what happened. Need an example? Let’s say you’ve written a middle grade fantasy novel. You could put together a roundup of the best middle grade fantasy books you’ve read and include yours in the list, or come up with an original craft idea and mention some books (including yours) it could complement. The trick is to integrate yourself seamlessly into the blog you’re guest posting for.
Want to write a guest post for Batch of Books? Find out how.
