Usually, the “author web sites” category features authors who are using their web sites to successfully promote their book. This case is different. This is the case where a blog actually BIRTHED a book… or at least, a book deal. Jennette Fulda is a blogger by nature who began blogging on her web site Pasta Queen about her weight loss efforts. Let’s be accurate… it’s not about her weight loss EFFORTS… it’s about her weight loss SUCCESS.

Jennette writes:

This blog is not a food diary or a list of how many sit-ups I did today. I don’t even do sit-ups. It’s a place where I talk about weight loss, my old life as a fat person losing weight, my new life as a mostly thin person, and my reactions to news stories that relate to obesity and fat acceptance.

I post on basically every weekday and update my sidebar with my weight every Saturday.

Her writing is witty and charming and as a result, she’s landed a book deal and the result is Half Assed: A Weight Loss Memoir.

Jennette is an example of the new breed of author being sought out by publishers… someone who started a blog, proved herself as a writer and as a communicator and then got the opportunity to become a published author.

Jennette write about her “blog to book” journey in her “blog to book” series of posts.  I love how she credits blogging with improving her writing.  I also LOVE how she documents her “overnight success”… NOT!  She started her initial blog in November of 2003.  Her documentation of her current weight loss run of over 194 lbs began in January 2005.   For the record, her first contact from a publisher occurred in September 2006.

So, not only is Jennette’s blog the key to her book deal, she’s now using her successful blog to promote her book AND she’s launched a blog for the book as well.

Filed under: Author Web Sites, author book marketing, blog success, blog to book, blogs as marketing tools for authors