60+ Quality Blog Post Topics and Ideas for Fiction Authors

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My blog has been in existence for eight and a half years, even though my first novel was published two and a half years later.

A LOT has changed in that time. When I started my blog, I was essentially creating a personal résumé website with the goal of establishing an online presence while I queried literary agents. I also wasn’t sure if I was ever going to succeed at becoming a published author, so my website was a way of sharing my writing instead of leaving it to sit, unread, in notebooks on my bookshelf.

But once I decided that independent publishing suited my needs and goals better than traditional publishing, my blog started to evolve with the publication of the first fantasy novel in my award-winning Chronicles of Avilésor series.

Then, in 2020 when I started to educate myself about website monetization and affiliate marketing, my blog evolved again and my web traffic increased dramatically. I currently see an average of 6k+ visitors finding my website through organic searches every month, plus another monthly 1k+ through direct links and referrals. When I first started, I was lucky to get more than a few hundred visitors per year.

You can see how much my website has grown once I began to understand content marketing, keywords, and my audience demographic and then apply that knowledge to my blog:

I publish at least two blog posts every month. Usually, I have plenty to say! I blog about my experiences as a self-published author, writing/editing/publishing advice, updates about my series, Q&As from fans, my personal art and photography, tips for authors, and more.

But these past few months, I’ve struggled to find good blog topics, and to my extreme disappointment, searching “blog post ideas for fiction authors” came up with shockingly bad results! I was frustrated to read through long lists of topic ideas that I knew wouldn’t generate any organic traffic to my website or even engage my most loyal fans. Many of the results didn’t actually seem to be geared toward fiction writers at all, and vapid suggestions such as “describe your perfect vacation day” or “list your favorite foods” felt like an absolute waste of my time and effort, let alone my readers’ valuable time and attention. I prioritize quality over quantity.

So… I decided to compile my own article for other fiction writers who might find themselves turning to the internet for ideas when writer’s block hits. These blog post topics are relevant for authors, and although this article is primarily for fiction writers, nonfiction writers will also be able to find good starting topics in these lists.

Blog Post Ideas Based On Your Unique Audience & Content Goals

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First, it’s important to know your audience demographic. Who will be reading your blog post?

This was the key point of frustration for me when reading through lists of potential blog topics trying to find inspiration. It was clear that the writers who composed these lists (if they were even real people and not AI-generated articles) didn’t actually have real-world readers in mind.

The topics felt empty; those articles would be for no purpose other than publishing content for the sake of having a blog post online. Nobody would find it in a Google search. Nobody would be interested in reading it even if they knew it existed. They were doomed to be bland fluff with no substance.

I don’t publish content that doesn’t serve a purpose, and if you’re serious about growing your own blog and website, then you shouldn’t, either.

To ensure that you’re publishing high-quality content, it’s important to identify your target audience. My blog actually serves several different audiences depending on the post.

In some cases, I’m writing to fans of my book series. In others, I’m speaking to writers, artists, and authors when I share my tips and experiences. Sometimes, I’m publishing content for the general public while targeting people who share common interests. (Example: my #1 best-performing post is a compilation of literary holidays every year. Readers, writers, poets, teachers, and bibliophiles find my website through this article.)

I have different goals in mind when speaking to my different audiences. Some of those goals include:

• Attracting organic traffic to my website with articles targeting specific search keywords
• Networking with other authors and artists
• Building my authority to establish a strong online presence when people search my name, books, etc.
• Helping indie authors navigate the self-publishing steps and avoid mistakes that I made (and sometimes earning revenue through donations when aspiring authors find value in my articles and want to say thanks!)
• Introducing potential new readers to my sci-fi/fantasy series (and boosting book sales)
• Generating excitement for existing fans who are ready for the next book in the series
• Entertaining my followers with engaging, relevant content about my ideas, creative process, fantasy world, etc.
• Earning revenue from visitors who interact with ads and affiliate links
• Gaining new subscribers for my free monthly newsletter
• Encouraging top fans to join my Patreon community for exclusive behind-the-scenes content and membership perks
• Promoting additional educational content for creative entrepreneurs through my Substack subscription

Still not sure whether a blog could be beneficial for you as a fiction author? Read my recent article about the benefits of blogging.

Since the goal of your blog post should be to attract and engage a certain type of reader while seeking to inform, entertain, educate, or drive a specific action, I’ve divided my list of potential blog topics into relevant categories depending on your audience and goals.

Blog Post Ideas About Yourself (Build Online Authority)

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Writing posts about yourself can feel a bit weird, but your blog is a great (and safe) space for you to introduce yourself to new readers who are just discovering you!

It’s easy to write introductory posts in the beginning when you’re first starting to establish yourself. But once you get past the phase of “Welcome to my blog, I’m Author Writes A. Lot, and this blog will be about my journey as a new author,” … then what? Readers will get bored if you keep rephrasing the same introduction, especially if your book has been out for a while and your blog is fairly well established.

Blogging about yourself not only gives readers a chance to know you on a more personal level, but it also serves to build your authority and online presence. When people type your name into the search bar, will your articles come up first? Think about how much more impressive it is to have your content dominating the search results as opposed to being interspersed with other people around the world who have the same or very similar name.

Here are some blog post ideas if you want to write about yourself:

• What inspired you to become an author?
• What purpose do you hope to accomplish with your books? Do you write to help people? Entertain? Educate? Inspire? Escape?
• What were your favorite books and stories growing up? How did they inspire you? Make sure you tie this topic into your own writing.
• What unique experiences can you share about your journey to publish your book? (Tip: be open. Don’t sugarcoat the process; if you made mistakes, own up to them and explain what you learned.)
• What was your inspiration for the story you chose to publish? Even though it’s fiction, are parts of it tied to your real life?
• Which character is your favorite and why? What does that character represent to you? Did you imbue them with any of your own personalities and traits? Do they represent something you have… something you want… something you’ve lost?
• How have you grown throughout the writing and/or publishing process?
• What is your ultimate goal with your book(s)? Do you dream of being a bestselling author someday? Do you strive to see your work transformed into a different medium such as an audiobook, television series, video game, movie, et cetera?
• Why do you write? What drives you? What inspires you to keep pushing forward?
• What research did you have to do for your book? Did you need to learn more about foreign places, different cultures, body anatomy, fighting styles, et cetera?
• How did you learn to explore different viewpoints through your characters? Did their experiences open your eyes to any real-world challenges you (or society) has faced?
• What are your qualifications for writing your book? Why are YOU the best person to tell the story? What skills, talents, and experiences do you have that directly contributed?
• What does your writing process look like? Are you a pantser or a plotter? Do you have a regular daily schedule, or do you squeeze writing time in wherever you can?
• What authors do you follow and why? Which ones inspired you the most? Did they have a direct influence on your unique writing style?
• Did you always want to be an author? If not, what career path did you think you wanted instead?

Blog Post Ideas for the Writing Community

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My website traffic experienced tremendous growth when I shifted my focus away from sharing my own poems, short stories, personal musings, etc. and started speaking directly to aspiring authors who were seeking advice and information about the publishing process.

Once I realized that I was making a genuine connection with aspiring authors (even though that wasn’t translating directly into book sales since the writers who were reading my posts were much more interested in publishing their own books, not reading or buying mine), I steered into that topic because it was pulling a lot of visitors to my website and putting my articles near the top of search results. I had stumbled into a micro niche, which is incredibly valuable for content marketing, affiliate marketing, and general ad revenue.

Gaining organic website traffic is the first step. From there, you can evaluate your strategies and decide how to leverage that traffic to start earning revenue from visitors.

Networking is also valuable, even if it doesn’t directly translate into sales, subscriptions, or donations. You never know when the right connection can open a door to a new opportunity! What goes around comes around, so share your knowledge with the writing community. Somehow, some way, it’ll pay off.

Here are some blog post ideas if you want to write for aspiring authors and the writing community in general:

• As a published author, what general advice do you have for other writers?
• What is the biggest mistake you made when you published your first book?
• What do you wish you knew before you published?
• How was your experience with working with your editor, cover designer, ebook formatter, printer/distributor, or any other professional who helped you along the way? Would you recommend any of these professionals to writers who are searching for freelancers? How did you find them?
• How do you go about finding and booking events to sell your books?
• What strategies do you use to increase book sales?
• How do you cope with bad book reviews?
• Do you do any writing exercises or prompts to hone your skills?
• What tips do you have for writing dialogue that sounds realistic?
• Do you have any advice for developing characters? How do you make readers care about your characters? What details are important for establishing character empathy?
• What activities help you overcome writer’s block?
• How do you deal with imposter syndrome?
• What steps did you take to get published?
• Why did you choose to publish traditionally or independently? Since there are pros and cons to both methods, what pushed you to make your decision? Are you happy with your choice, or do you wish you had chosen differently?
• If you published traditionally, how did you successfully pitch your book to an agent?
• What advice do you have for adding descriptions and sensory details into your writing?
• How did you find beta readers? How did your beta readers impact the final manuscript?
• If you could go back and publish your first book again, what would you do differently?
• How do you market your book?
• If you’re a plotter, share your general outline template or tips to successfully plan a story.
• What are your thoughts about a global distribution strategy vs. Amazon exclusivity?
• How do you “ground” readers into your story and pull them in?
• Explain the different stages of writing and editing that your manuscript goes through before it’s finally published.

Blog Post Ideas for Your Fandom

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Your blog has the potential to turn regular readers into super fans by showing them unique perspectives and taking them behind the scenes of your creative process.

I give my fans some glances at my creative process here on my blog, but my Patreon subscribers get to take a much deeper dive. This method allowed me to not only earn subscriptions (which all go straight back into my business to help me publish the next book in the series), but it also gave me the opportunity to differentiate between casual fans and my most supportive fans who can’t get enough bonus content.

(I explored some of the biggest pros and cons with subscription-based content in an earlier post.)

Remember that writing blog posts for your fans likely isn’t going to attract many new followers. Chances are, these articles won’t be targeting broad keywords for organic searches, and people who haven’t read your book(s) yet aren’t going to care very much about your worldbuilding and characters.

These articles are meant to engage and excite your existing fan base (which you are hopefully growing over time as you move forward with your other marketing strategies). They help to cement deeper connections so readers are more likely to support your career, write book reviews, recommend your book to other people, and buy future books, especially if you’re working on a series.

Here are some blog post ideas if you want to write articles for your fans:

• How do you come up with character names? Do you have a special process? Do their names have hidden meanings?
• Share a deleted scene that didn’t make the final cut.
• Were your characters inspired by real people? If so, talk about them. Were they historical figures, celebrities, fictional characters you loved as a kid, personal acquaintances, family members?
• Invite fans to submit questions for you or a character to answer.
• What details didn’t make it into the book?
• What inspired your setting(s)? Were they based on real places you’ve been?
• What would your protagonist say if they met you? What would you say to them?
• What interesting information did you find during the research phase when exploring relevant geography, cultures, animals, magic systems, et cetera for your story?
• Share unpublished worldbuilding details about the landscape, history, language, clothing, social hierarchy, et cetera that you developed for the story… especially information didn’t make it into the final manuscript.
• Are there any unique legends or fairy tales in your world?
• Compare your protagonist and antagonist. What do they have in common? What separates them?
• Engage your fans and bring them into the process by asking for their opinions, posting polls, and participating in Q&As. You’ll always have the final say in any creative decisions, of course, but readers can turn into super-fans when they feel like they’re co-creators rather than passive consumers.
• What challenges temporarily stumped you when you were working out unique worldbuilding elements?
• Do you have any sketches, drawings, maps, graphic designs, et cetera that you can share?
• Do you have any regrets about a character? Did you kill them off and wish that you hadn’t? Do they have a trait that ended up being troublesome? Would you change something about their appearance? Do you wish that you had paired your protagonist with a different love interest?
• How would you have reacted differently than your character if you found yourself in their shoes?

Blog Post Ideas to Boost Organic Traffic & Website Revenue

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Unfortunately, there’s no magic formula to find all of the perfect keywords and start siphoning internet users around the world to your website. But there are some tools and tricks you can use.

I’ve already talked about this topic in other articles (and this post is getting to be pretty long), so if you want tips about search engine optimization and searching for good keywords to target, check out this earlier post I wrote on that subject.

If you aren’t already familiar with affiliate programs, they’re definitely worth checking out. Here’s how they work:

1. You sign up to be an affiliate with a company. (For example, you become an Amazon affiliate, which is a good move if you’re an author because it enables you to earn extra commissions on your own book sales.)
2. You write an article on your blog that mentions a product that people can buy on Amazon. Instead of using a regular URL, you generate an affiliate link that directs people to that product listing on Amazon.
3. If someone clicks on that link and completes the purchase, Amazon gives you a small commission as a reward for sending the customer through your unique affiliate link and initiating the sale. If that customer adds other items to their cart before checking out, you get commission on those products, too. (This varies per company.)
4. Amazon tracks these small commission amounts until they add up to a large enough payout, and then they send you a direct deposit. This is usually done monthly unless you fail to hit the minimum threshold, in which case, your earnings roll over to the next period until you reach the required amount and receive your payment.

If you’re an author, check out my previous blog post where I go into a lot more detail about how you can leverage Amazon affiliate links to get extra commission on your own Amazon book sales.

Even if you aren’t part of an affiliate program, higher website traffic means more ad views, which also translate into slow but steady revenue.

The goal with these types of posts is to elevate your articles to the top of search results, which means you need to choose broader (yet still relevant) topics that prioritize strong keywords. Did you know that only .044% of Google search users make it to the second page of the search results? If you want people to discover your website, your articles need to make it onto the first page, which means you need to be strategic about your topics.

Here are some blog post ideas if you want to target general writing/reading topics and keywords to increase your organic website traffic:

• Discuss the writing style, worldbuilding methods, or other craft techniques of famous authors. For example, I have articles about Hemingway and Tolkien that are still among my top-performing posts even though I published them years ago.
• Write reviews for recent, relevant novels in your genre. Choosing popular bestsellers will boost your traffic if there’s already a lot of online buzz, although highlighting indie books and hidden gems could open doors for paid book reviews if that’s something you’re interested in pursuing. Having a well-rounded portfolio of reviews is beneficial. After all, there are a lot of great books out there even if they aren’t at the top of the bestsellers list. Bonus: choose books that are similar to yours so you have a natural tie-in to pitch your novel to readers who enjoyed the book you just reviewed.
• Review products and services that are relevant to your audience. If possible, choose products/services that have an affiliate program so you can earn commission from clicks, purchases, and/or sign-ups resulting from your article.
• Post tutorials and how-to articles that solve common problems. My advice: choose a solution for a problem that you have personally struggled to overcome. For example, one of my top posts teaches people how to glue a cabochon into a bezel setting. I wrote this article after trying multiple products/techniques and failing several times until I finally found the right solution. As it turns out, I wasn’t the only person who ran into this problem (which is usually the case—somebody out there hit the same roadblock you did and is looking for a solution). My article included several Amazon affiliate links to the products that I mentioned in the article, and clicks from that post regularly generate revenue for me every month. But the key is to genuinely try to help people, not sell them products. When the advice is organic, the sales come secondary.
• Publish a holiday shopping guide (with affiliate links to products).
• Compare X vs Y products/services/businesses that your audience might use. Some of my top posts compare IngramSpark vs. B&N Press for self-publishing, Spring vs. RedBubble for print-on-demand merchandise, ACT vs. Next for small business insurance, et cetera. It’s always best if you have personal experience with the products or businesses you’re reviewing.
• Discuss current events and major news going on in the writing/publishing community.
• Create list articles targeting relevant keywords. For example… a list of blog post ideas for fiction writers who are stumped by writer’s block. (See what I did there?) If you want another example, check out my post of 162 different writing genres & subgenres for fiction authors, which currently ranks #11 in my top posts. For that article, I was targeting the keyword phrase “different writing genres.”

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