There has been a fair amount of discussion lately regarding blogging. I’ve been reading some of Kristen Lamb’s posts, including this one and through that post, I bought her book. She believes that for fiction writers, our blogs should be based ‘on topic’ in order to gather our readers. I understand this reasoning and it does make sense, yet I’m not too sure what to make of this. I wonder if you write too much ‘on topic’ that it would eventually alienate readers, when after all, readers these days like to find out more about their favourite authors as a person.
Maybe because I am a writer, I like to learn how other authors deal with the writing process, rejections, etc. Making friends with other writers would be in my own best interests, not only helping out in the writing process, but they would be my first port of call as readers. If they thought my writing was good enough, this may then help spread the word about my books/work and therefore encourage my future (non-writing) readers. I know I’d do the same for them. As luck would have it, I read this post by fellow blogger, Molly Green, and was relieved to find that I was not the only one feeling this way lately.
Adding further to my blogging dilemmas, I had been reading this post by Meghan Ward regarding the expectations some agents have on the number of hits an author’s site should receive. It is from reading such numbers as these, that one begins to feel a bit like Linda Blair in her head-spinning scene in the Exorcist! Her post, along with this one from Jami Gold helps put blogging into perspective. As someone pointed out in the comments, marketing should not be confused with platform. In the end, I went back to a good old reliable source book, something tried and true – Get Known Before the Book Deal by Christina Katz. This quote was the one that brought it all home for me:-
My opinion is that you should put the lion’s share of your energy into the work you do that earns you money and keep your blog growing slowly and steadily on the side.
So now, I’m not going to stress too much about blogging anymore. I believe the best way to go is to find some sort of balance between being ‘on topic’ and what is happening with my writing. I have seen published authors blog this way and it doesn’t seem to be doing them any harm. I’ve been blogging for a little while now and I think it’s a case of blog whatever you feel comfortable with. And by the way, if you don’t already have a copy of Christina’s book, I heartily recommend it.
Still on topic, but on a more happier note, many thanks this week to Jen at Jen’s Bookshelf for giving me the 7×7 Link Award. Yes, my blog has been given another award! 🙂
Now for this award I need to list what I regard as some of my best within these categories:-
