Amateur To Published: The Fiction Writer's Guide To Publishing

10 - Start A V-Log

If the thought of doing more writing in your blogwhile trying to keep up with your novel writing sounds tedious and you're notshy, consider running a V-Log/Youtube Channel. That way you can save all yourwriting time for your novel and use your blog to only announce new releases andevents.

With the world becoming more visual and many peoplespending most of their time on sites like YouTube, this is one of the fastestgrowing marketing platforms and you should take advantage of it. The great thing about vlogging is that you can earn money from your videos even while promoting your books.

However, notethat blogging and v-logging are both time consuming activities and serve thesame function. The best thing is to choose to do one or the other – not both –and then put all your expertise and effort into that choice.

STEP 1: KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

If you went through the process of crafting yourauthor persona as well as picking a niche then you already know who your readersare and what kind of things they are most interested in their daily lives. Ifyou didn't then this is a great time to go back to those chapters and figureout who your ideal is.

STEP 2: CHOOSE YOUR THEME

A vlog gives you a lot more freedom with your choice oftopics. You don't necessarily have to focus on your genre (though that would benice) but having a specific v-log theme will get you more views. If you writefor teenagers for instance, you could vlog about issues affecting teenagers,review the latest pop-music, the funniest videos on the internet, favorite TVshows etc. If you're writing for males aged 21-40, you could have a channeldiscussing sports, cars etc.

Some people focus on interesting aspects of their daily lifekind of like a reality show with all the drama. There are vlogs about DIY stylesolutions, losing weight, exercising, cooking, reviewing movies, reviewingbeauty products, home gardening, home renovations, car restorations etc as longas it resonates with your target audience. If you have thefunds/connections/equipment, you could even try creating an online series thatis based on your novel.

Great content is about v-logging about your passions;the things you love to do outside your writing. Think of it as a space to shareyou.

STEP 3: GIVE YOUR CHANNEL A NAME

As much as you'd like to create a unique channelname, don't forget that your author name is a crucial part of your brand. Itshould therefore appear either as your title or as a part of your channeltitle. For instance have a channel called Baron Wade or Creepy Stories withBaron Wade or Cooking with Baron Wade, Baron Wade says etc.

Before you settle on a name make sure to test it on a fewof your friends and/or family just to make sure that it is something they canspell and easily key into a search engine and come up with your channel. Makesure that it is also a unique name. You don't want to find yourself competingwith some popular YouTuber who will squeeze you out of the game just becauseyou have similar names.

STEP 4: SET UP YOUR CHANNEL

There are several platforms where you can set up achannel, the most popular being YouTube especially if your goal is just topull in the average reader. To set up your YouTube account, you're going toneed to sign up for a Google account (YouTube is owned by Google).

Sign in to YouTube and then click on 'My Channel' whichcan be found by selecting the drop down arrow next to your avatar on the topright corner. Fill in all the required fields, select 'done' and you are readyto start vlogging.