Chris Anderson, the author of The Long Tail and the editor in chief of Wired, told I Want Media in an interview that blogs are a "fantastic aid" for authors.
Anderson: I think it's a fantastic aid, especially under circumstances like mine. It had three advantages for me, as I was writing a non-fiction, research-heavy book that was based on an article already published.
By feeding the conversation, it allowed me to keep the momentum of the article going during the 22-month dead time between the publication of the article and the book. I gave away some of my research results and ideas, but got back many times that in comments, other people's blog posts and emails.
Hundreds of people applied The Long Tail to their own industries and experience and revealed resonances I never would have thought of, from The Long Tail of beer to travel to warfare. I tossed out half-baked ideas and phrasing, and my smart readers helped me bake them. Those thousands of readers have great word-of-mouth influence, which I imagine will help market the book when it comes out.
Chris Anderson's blog can be found here. A lot of authors are using blogs these days to help promote their books. You can read more about author blogs in this article from The Internet Writing Journal.
