Building An Audience
When you start out as an author, particularly when you enter that home straight in the race to the finish line for your first book's publication, you get lots of advice. Possibly, too much. Not surprisingly, a lot of it has to do with promoting yourself and getting yourself 'out there'. Many suggestions will be made, one of them will be to blog.
Clearly, I've not had the best form in that regard.
Most blogging authors, after they work through the short list of topics they *did* want to talk about, fall back on a mix of personal musings and publishing news. A good portion also lean heavily on book reviews. Such reviews are often also plastered across the internet, from Amazon to GoodReads.
The thinking behind churning out such reviews is that you'll build an audience who likes that product, might grow to like you, and who will then be interested in your own book when it finally sees the light of day. For myself, I'm happy enough to give sound-bites on some of the reads I've had. I'm an author, not a reviewer.
Successful blogging is about what you have to say and how you say it, not much else. No one wants to read a blog about nothing. Simply, it won't build you an audience.
I haven't blogged any where near as much as I would have liked, and there's no one to blame for that but me. I've either been too busy working on a book or separate project, working a full time job (sometimes even looking for one) or trying to grab some sleep or a moment of social time. Amongst my life's *exciting* bustle has also been the feeling that I don't have much to blog about.
Yeah, I know, poor me.
People who know me well, know that I've always got an opinion. The only time I'm quiet is if I'm feeling unwell. Yet, I've often felt that blogging seemed a waste of time (as most new blogging authors do, I suspect). You can't help but wonder why you're investing so much time on something you doubt anyone is reading.
Logical enough, isn't it?
But, over the past few months I've been getting more and more emails, letters and other queries from people who wanted to thank me for past posts (yeah, I know, I didn't believe it either) or to ask me advice (what are they thinking)!
While I've been terribly busy the last few months getting Ossard's Hope ready, I've also been conscious of, for the first time, the fact that there are actually people out there waiting for my next blog post.
Incredible!
They want to know how my publishing adventure is going, how our small press outfit survives, or to get tips on how to get your book out and about and known. I guess, what I'm saying is that I've begun to build an audience, and funnily enough, that audience is starting to *shape* my topic selection.
Feel free to take part by commenting, emailing, or joining up the Facebook fan page or following me on Twitter. If you do that, I'll do my best to post what I can that's relevant, particularly as we come up to the next stage of my publishing adventure; the release of Ossard's Hope.
Clearly, I've not had the best form in that regard.
Most blogging authors, after they work through the short list of topics they *did* want to talk about, fall back on a mix of personal musings and publishing news. A good portion also lean heavily on book reviews. Such reviews are often also plastered across the internet, from Amazon to GoodReads.
The thinking behind churning out such reviews is that you'll build an audience who likes that product, might grow to like you, and who will then be interested in your own book when it finally sees the light of day. For myself, I'm happy enough to give sound-bites on some of the reads I've had. I'm an author, not a reviewer.
Successful blogging is about what you have to say and how you say it, not much else. No one wants to read a blog about nothing. Simply, it won't build you an audience.
I haven't blogged any where near as much as I would have liked, and there's no one to blame for that but me. I've either been too busy working on a book or separate project, working a full time job (sometimes even looking for one) or trying to grab some sleep or a moment of social time. Amongst my life's *exciting* bustle has also been the feeling that I don't have much to blog about.
Yeah, I know, poor me.
People who know me well, know that I've always got an opinion. The only time I'm quiet is if I'm feeling unwell. Yet, I've often felt that blogging seemed a waste of time (as most new blogging authors do, I suspect). You can't help but wonder why you're investing so much time on something you doubt anyone is reading.
Logical enough, isn't it?
But, over the past few months I've been getting more and more emails, letters and other queries from people who wanted to thank me for past posts (yeah, I know, I didn't believe it either) or to ask me advice (what are they thinking)!
While I've been terribly busy the last few months getting Ossard's Hope ready, I've also been conscious of, for the first time, the fact that there are actually people out there waiting for my next blog post.
Incredible!
They want to know how my publishing adventure is going, how our small press outfit survives, or to get tips on how to get your book out and about and known. I guess, what I'm saying is that I've begun to build an audience, and funnily enough, that audience is starting to *shape* my topic selection.
Feel free to take part by commenting, emailing, or joining up the Facebook fan page or following me on Twitter. If you do that, I'll do my best to post what I can that's relevant, particularly as we come up to the next stage of my publishing adventure; the release of Ossard's Hope.
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