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Okay, HOW and WHERE to blog?
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I can't even find out how to start a GR blog. I don't see a "start new blog" link anywhere.
I'm still a novice when it comes to author blogging myself, but I have had some encouraging success with a Tumblr account, so that could be a decent start for you. A Facebook page can work well if you already have at least a small audience. I've found it's difficult to get people to find your Facebook page if you're an unknown writer, however.
John wrote: "I can't even find out how to start a GR blog. I don't see a "start new blog" link anywhere."
It's been a while since I set up my GR blog, but I think it requires an author's page. I couldn't find one for you. Here's are a couple of help topics you should read: https://www.goodreads.com/help#author...
https://www.goodreads.com/help/search...
It's been a while since I set up my GR blog, but I think it requires an author's page. I couldn't find one for you. Here's are a couple of help topics you should read: https://www.goodreads.com/help#author...
https://www.goodreads.com/help/search...
Ken wrote: "John wrote: "I can't even find out how to start a GR blog. I don't see a "start new blog" link anywhere."It's been a while since I set up my GR blog, but I think it requires an author's page. I c..."
Thanks, Ken, but I am already seeing that it is going to be far too convoluted: Clicking on my name brought up 27 books, only two are by me. It instructs to list the books in the list that are not by me but there is no option to just list those that are; then it also wants to know my last agent/publisher _or_ if I am self published. I am both, but the last publisher was fourteen years ago... and I have not even got to the blog part yet! I'll stay with Blogger!
Don't like convoluted forms or bad expert systems (I've designed expert systems).
@Mr Eli: Mr Ken beat me to it. Best of luck, sir!@Mr John: You can post in the librarians group and ask to "claim" your books if you wish. They're a pretty great bunch of folks and lightning quick too!! They'll...um...convert? your GR profile into a fancy (not really haha) author one. This shall give ya an Author Dashboard. With your books, ask-the-author, and your blog below that.
Hope this helps! Or Blogger works too ^_~
Hugs,
Ann
@Mr John: You can post in the librarians group and ask to "claim" your books if you wish. They're a pretty great bunch of folks and lightning quic..."Thanks Ann!
@ Eli You got 1/2 dozen views?! I can't even figure out how to get followers! I've been on Goodreads for awhile now and I still can't figure out some of this stuff. At this point, I'm just lost.
My pleasure! *hugs Mr John* Glad I could help!!
J.B. wrote: "@ Eli You got 1/2 dozen views?! I can't even figure out how to get followers! I've been on Goodreads for awhile now and I still can't figure out some of this stuff. At this point, I'm just lost."I'm afraid I can't really help you there. I DO post links to my blog posts on Twitter.
Annie wrote: "My pleasure! *hugs Mr John* Glad I could help!!"They separated out my books to a new page so it was easy for me to make the application. Now it will just take few days for approval so I'm off and running! thanks again Ann!
@Mr John: Woot woot! Exciting!! And, no problemo at all :)
I think most people blog elsewhere and import the articles into goodreads. I would like to know how to do that!
I started blogging on Goodreads too, then switched to Weebly (not a suggested platform) and I'm currently on Wordpress (which I will stick with). With Wordpress.com, they give you a website and blog for free, and it shows up on Google (yay!). Starting a blog there is pretty easy, they take you through the steps and are very clear about it.
You can then link your Wordpress blog to your Goodreads one (so that each post made on Wordpress will switch over to Goodreads) by going to your goodreads blog, finding the 'link external feed' or 'add blog' button (I don't remember the exact wording but it should sound something like that) and submitting your blog's RSS feed (a slightly stylized version of the blog's usual URL, which I found by googling 'what's my Wordpress rss feed')
You can also go to Feedburner and enable email subscriptions for your blog by typing in your RSS feed, after which they'll give you a piece of free code that you can embed on your site to add a snazzy little 'subscribe via email' button.
It helps to add at least one image to each blog post, I've found--that way people can share it on Pinterest, which is a great way to drive traffic in :) I also share my posts on StumbleUpon, which then shows the post to people who are just looking for something to read (which is kinda fun) :D
Hope that helps and best of luck!! There are a ton of great online blogging forums too--every time I reached a sticky spot in the process, googling the problem found a ton of helpful answers :)
C. wrote: "I think most people blog elsewhere and import the articles into goodreads. I would like to know how to do that!"I see blog updates on GR friends email notifications and I have an automatic feed on my Amazon Author page which I have set up to come from my Blogger blog, but as I blog five days a week that seems excessive if friends on GR got a notification every weekday, so I wouldn't want to do that. I've been thinking of a blog on GR that only gets posted once a week/2 weeks/month, whichever. My Blogger blog is quite extensive: about 650,000 words in three years.
Amazon Author page allows you to edit and change blog feeds etc. from the top link at:
https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/home
I have been thinking about a blogging about writing my next book perhaps once a week and I thought writers might find that interesting (but perhaps no one else!). Meanwhile, I don't think that writers in general would be too interested in what I mostly blog about, and certainly not in reading so much, so often.
Has anyone else blogged about writing a book as you were writing it (the experiences and tribulations of working)?
I can't speak to what works, but I just setup a blog on my website. I have my website setup through Squarespace (which I would definitely recommend if you're willing to a pay a little bit for a site; it was ridiculously easy to set up) and added a blog page to that, which I have fed to my Goodreads and Amazon Author pages via an RSS feed (also pretty easy with a few quick Google searches). It was easy to set that whole thing up and I like having it on my own site, my own little home on the web, especially since I can feed it out to other sites like this so easily.My website is pretty bare-bones at the moment and, like I said, I just set it up so I can't say that it works, but it was less of a hassle than I expected and I'm happy with it at the moment.
Grace wrote: "I started blogging on Goodreads too, then switched to Weebly (not a suggested platform) and I'm currently on Wordpress (which I will stick with). With Wordpress.com, they give you a website and b..."
By the way, I think blogging your way through writing a book is an AWESOME idea (really, I'm in awe of it). It would be so fun to read through after you've finished the book, even if you missed it while the book was being written.
I really like that idea. It keeps growing in my head... Maybe even just adding a tag at the bottom of your posts to show what book you;re working on as you go (so they can look back and see what 'that damned impossible story' was that you were struggling with when you wrote that one long diatribe).
This should be a thing. If you decide to do it, I would love if you would post something here about it. I'd love to follow that.
Yes, blogging about your book and any other writing issues is a great idea--because that's where you pivot from. I've been in the habit of writing a weekly blog, come hell or high water because consistency is key. As I've become more in tune about "branding" - my later blogs pertain to aspects about writing. My blogs are just one aspect hosted on my web page at Authors Den. My work is well attended there. I do link elsewhere such as Facebook. Goodreads is an excellent place to post your blog because it feeds to your author page at Amazon.
May you soon find your voice and direction.
Eva wrote: "Yes, blogging about your book and any other writing issues is a great idea--because that's where you pivot from. I've been in the habit of writing a weekly blog, come hell or high water because c..."
Hmm. I haven't thought about blogging about a book as I'm writing it. How do you do it without giving the plot away step-by-step?
Monday: "Today I covered the surprise betrayal."
Tuesday: "Today I wrote about the hero's girlfriend dying because of the betrayal, and hero being left dangling from a cliff."
Wednesday: "Today I wrote about the hero being rescued from the cliff edge by his brother."
Elí wrote: "Eva wrote: "Yes, blogging about your book and any other writing issues is a great idea--because that's where you pivot from. I've been in the habit of writing a weekly blog, come hell or high wat..."
I think you would blog about the process and your thoughts around it, rather than just reveal what you wrote that day.
C. wrote: "I think you would blog about the process and your thoughts around it, rather than just reveal what you wrote that day."Yes, I do that from time to time. Updates on progress, what challenges I've hit along the way, tips on getting around problems in the writing process, insights gleaned etc.
Upon becoming a Goodreads author I started making the odd post on my GR blog, but I haven't been good about keeping posts coming steadily, and they don't get more than a few dozen views each.
The first issue is obviously something I need to work on myself, but can someone explain the science of blogging to me? How and where do GR blog posts get noticed, and what's the route to getting more views? Should I set up shop on some special blog site, or post more on Facebook, or what? What is proven-ish to work?