An author with a popular blog has a valuable platform, a way of cutting through the noise and clutter. It's a direct channel to your audience, the same kind of asset that enables network TV news anchors to write bestselling memoirs.
Blogs aren't magic, though. They can't make a losing book into a winner. Plenty of blog-based books have flopped because the publishers mistakenly believed a blog audience would automatically translate into demand for a weak book.
Some publishers remain skeptical of blogs as a vehicle for book promotion. Frequent questions are:
Who would buy a book when they can read it for free?
Will blogging distract the author from writing a good book?
Could the blog exhaust interest in the book before it's available?
The reality is, online content makes it much easier for the audience to discover a book and develop an appetite for it. Is it possible for a single author to promote a single title using a simple blog? Many who have done it well have had tremendous success: