Alexandra Bogdanovic's Blog: That's life... - Posts Tagged "experts"

So here I sit. It's 6:30 p.m. on Thursday and I'm desperately trying to dream up a creative, insightful, entertaining topic for this week's blog. And I'm failing miserably. It's infuriating.
But I've got to come up with something. I mean, I can't not do a blog post this week.
Or can I? I mean, I've done more than 70 posts and I don't want to break my streak. And what would happen to my brand? I mean the book marketing pundits and the gurus and the experts all say that every self-published or Indie author worth their salt has to have a blog. Blogging at least once a week is recommended -- blogging two or three times a week is essential. It's one of the best ways to set yourself apart as an author, allow your current and prospective readers to get to know you and develop a following, or a fan base. Or so they say.
By the way, has anyone figured out who they are? When you do, please drop me a note and let me know. I've been dying to find out.
In the meantime, I'll keep debating whether or not to follow their advice, but it will probably take a while. I mean, there's advice about blogging, the use of social media, book reviews, book contests, book trailers, book launches (although I'm kind of past that point) book signings (I've never done one but I would love to) book fairs, e-books, audio books... I think you've got the point.
There's good advice, bad advice and contradictory advice. They say the worst thing any author can do is scream, "buy my book" but let's be honest, isn't that exactly what we all end up doing? We're all finding creative ways of screaming for attention and patting ourselves on the back when we achieve even a modicum of success. Hell, I've even resorted to the deliberate use of double negatives to set myself apart.
After spending two years (and thousands of dollars) trying to sell my memoir, I'm broke, I'm tired, I'm frustrated... and yes, I am screaming.
Is anybody listening?
Until next time, "That's life..."

It suddenly dawned on me that I've been doing this for a while now.
By my reckoning, I've been blogging here on goodreads for two years... give or take a few weeks.
At first it was something I felt compelled to do. As authors... or more accurately, as indie authors it's something we're supposed to do. Right?
According to the experts, (whoever they are) blogging is supposed to help us "build our brand," develop a following, or a fan base, etc., etc., etc.
So I set out to follow their advice (for what its worth), came up with a name for my blog and wrote my first post, called "Here I am."
Since I introduced myself in that first post, I've written about my adventures as an author, my adventures in general, my book, politics (sort of), capitalism, patriotism, sports, celebrities family, travel, New York, Europe, Australia and (last but not least) my cat.
I've been serious, I've been snarffy, I've been unabashedly opinionated and I've made no apologies for any of it. I've been true to "my brand" and more importantly, I've been true to myself.
That's not to say I haven't made a few changes along the way. I started writing on Wednesdays and then shifted to Thursdays. Somewhere along the line I started blogging on Sundays and now I'm doing a Monday blog. Go figure.
It took some time, but I mastered enough html formatting to get by and -- after quite a bit of frustration -- I learned how to include photographs in the posts.
But something far more important changed. What began as a chore and became a habit also became fun. My weekly post morphed from something I dreaded to something I actually enjoy.
For those of you who have been along for the ride since day one and those of you who joined in the fun, all I can say is thank you so much. I couldn't have done it without you.
Until next time, "That's life..."