Guest Posting

This blog is for the community of writers out there and one of my aims is to help other authors.

Guest posting is a fantastic way for you and your book to get exposure and it is also a great help for me as I always need new content! So I welcome guest posts on the blog as long as they follow the following guidelines:

  • Posts should be related to the topics of writing, publishing, marketing, or creativity and should be relevant to the readers of the blog
  • The article should be useful or thought provoking and the body of the article should not be marketing your book/product. However, it can be on a related topic e.g. an article on book marketing can be written by the author of a book on marketing!
  • The post should not be derogatory in any way to any section of the publishing or writing community. This is an equal opportunity blog! I love all types of publishing and all types of writing. No one thing is better than anything else. I self-publish but I love traditional publishers too and would consider a print book deal. I e-publish but I love print books. I love fast-paced thrillers but I also enjoy a literary piece of inner turmoil and amazing descriptions. So please don’t submit articles that put down other members of our wonderful, creative and passionate community. (Sorry, but I am getting a lot of these right now!)
  • Please tailor your post to my blog audience – which means you should read some of the other posts and understand what the ‘feel’ of the blog is. I don’t want a copy and pasted chapter from your book.
  • The article should be positive in tone, and as this is a clean blog, with no bad language or inappropriate references
  • Please include a resource section at the end with information about you, your book and where people can find you online. (This is your marketing bit!)
  • Please send an appropriate image or link to one as well. It should be your image, or Creative Commons or one you own the rights to.
  • Articles should be 500-1000 words in length
  • Articles must be unique i.e. they should not be posted elsewhere first, or on your own blog. You can post it on your blog after it has gone up on this site but you should be writing it specifically for this audience.
  • Final editorial control rests with me and I may edit your article and or headline. I may also reject it if it is not appropriate or if it is too focused on marketing as opposed to useful information.
  • I do not accept posts from sites just wanting inbound links. I don’t accept guest posts from anyone who is not in the writing/publishing/book marketing niche. I much prefer to have authors/publishing industry people on the blog writing ‘real’ guest posts. Thankyou!
  • There may be quite a significant delay in posting your article as I am often backed up with content and also change scheduling depending on whether something significant has happened or for one of my own posts. I will try to keep to a date if you have a launch or something but it may take 2-6 weeks before it is posted.

Here are a few examples of successful guest posts on the blog:

Please email your post to me at joanna@TheCreativePenn.com and I will let you know if it is appropriate and when it will be scheduled. Articles are left on the front page of the blog for 2/3 days, and are promoted on Twitter and Facebook and Stumbleupon.

Thanks so much!

Image: Flickr CC Rocket Ship