Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion
Bulletin Board
>
Any authors here also blog?
date
newest »

message 1:
by
Andrea
(new)
Nov 26, 2014 11:13AM

reply
|
flag


I do blog and it does seem to have expanded my fan base a bit on Goodreads and other literary sites.
If curious, you may check it out by accessing my Goodreads profile.



So it's a useful thing to have. But doing it properly does take time, and it can take you away from your core projects if you're not careful. It's like most non-core activities for a writer; one should consider it, but weigh up the investment in time.


https://lynntesli.wordpress.com/wp-ad...
I recently put up my author blog as well to help readers find me to learn about my upcoming book(s)
www.therebornseries.com
I am fairly new at this, but it looks like I'm getting more hits as the weeks (and days) go by. My author blog had 74 hits today, and only 12 followers so far, but it was new this week :)
I think a blog needs to be updated fairly often though, and you need to connect on all platforms to allow readers to find you. How will they know about your work if you don't lead them to it? I think an author blog is a good place for discussions and connecting with the author as well as getting sneak peaks at the works of the author on a more personal level. Even a professional blog is more intimate and personal than simply advertising your book. It helps your readers to feel like they know you and your book(s) on some level.
I definitely think that it can help your readership to blog, but I think it needs to be on point. people need to know what you are blogging about. And it is also good to get to know your audience and get their feedback first hand.
Also, I don't think it really takes away from your writing (just your current word count of your project) because you ARE writing, every time you punch those buttons on the keyboard. Even now, as I am communicating with you here, I'm doing some meaningful writing as well as expanding my views and perspectives as I go. I think that every time we converse with each other, write feedback or even simple tweets we have the chance to grow as writers...

I believe that by having a blog on my author website, rather than a blogging site like Wordpress, I then get more traffic to the other pages on my site including those about my books.
My blog is here if you want to check it out: http://www.scarlettvandijk.com/blog





http://alphilipson.wordpress.com/
I update it when I have something to say. That means I'll sometimes update it a couple times in a week and sometimes not for a month.

Has it helped sales? Not a clue, but I don't think it has hurt them and I've increased my network and found books I want to read myself.


I think it's worthwhile for writers to have a blog. It gives others a chance to get to know you.

Same here although love is a bit strong. Blogging allows me to write about other things and about writing



I just started, like you, I'm just feeling my way around.

I'm new. I'm one of those needing spotlights and/ or reviews.

W.E. wrote: "Anne wrote: "I used to blog every weekday. If I didn't have any original content, there were always authors out there needing spotlights and/or reviews. For my own personal sanity, I stopped abou..."

Ah, being new is difficult...

I think sometimes it's hard to know what to blog about. I spend most of my time writing my writing so to speak, so what's left? In my case I comment on some interesting areas of science and sometimes social "commentary". I'm not doing huge book promotions, interviews, book signings etc. (yet! I live in hope :) ), so don't have anything like that to blog so my posts tend to be a little irregular.
Thanks
Dave

I blog about ideas that intrigue me and experiences that make me think or that simply make good stories to share. My "greatest hits", though are reviews and author interviews. I am doing a series of reviews of mysteries set in New Mexico followed a week later by author interviews, and it's been fun for me, the authors, and our readers. I ask new questions for each author based in his or her book, not a fixed set of questions. The next interview will be posted tomorrow.
http://amberfoxxmysteries.wordpress.com





I've just started building a social network identity--literally, this past weekend--after reading an enormous amount of "How I Do It"-type writing from e-published authors. I'm here on Goodreads, on Facebook and on Blogger.com.
I haven't decided which will stay and which will go, but I'm going with the simple idea that if it's natural to me I'll keep doing it, and after a week or two I'll get my bearings and dump those pieces of the whole I'm experimenting with if they don't work.
The point of it, for me, is to let people find me, find something of value for free, and then want to try my books. The blogging will be about things I'm interested in that show what my novels are about, namely, crime, horror, and non-Tolkien-ish fantasy, post-apocalyptic fiction, etc.
How do I do that? By reviewing books and movies about those subjects, posting photos, covers I've created, etc. It will take, in my estimation, many months to even begin to see results on this. Meanwhile, I am publishing more books, so when readers start buying, they will have more to buy than just one. Reviews will appear, I hope, and the process will begin to include not just me writing my little comments here and on the blog, but readers expressing opinions.
To buoy that, I'll be posting free flash fiction about characters from my books, and links to other freebies as I add them.
Sorry if this is too long, but as you can see, when I write about something I find interesting, I can write quite a bit. I tried blogging 3 times over the years, and I just couldn't bear writing another "Here's my book on Amazon, let's all sit around talking about writing" post. Now, I'm taking a different approach, which will include little of the writer's shoptalk stuff I find irritating coming from folks who've put one book on Kindle.
I'm not an expert on writing (or blogging), but I AM an expert on what I write. If I write about it well enough, I will develop a readership for those postings, and from that, perhaps, one for my novels.
Hope this helps, and good luck to you. Keep us posted.

When I have been consistent, I struggled with finding a topic as well, so I started reading more blogs, and the ideas came.
I just need to put blogging in my calendar as an appointment as I have with writing.

http://counteractbook.com/blog
On my other blog, I do book reviews, mostly of classic children's literature and comment on historical information related to my nonfiction book, based on a journal written by my great-great-great grandfather in 1838.
http://tracylawsonbooks.com/blog
I like blogging--especially on two different sites. It's not always easy to keep up with it, and I tend to post more often on Counteract, because it's been my main focus of late.

Has it helped my sales? I don't see major sales, but I do find good traffic to my site when I promote.
Each blog post also contains info about my books at the bottom so that people who stumble across me know a bit more about me. In the end, it keeps my profile up - a profile I'm steadily building.
I used to think blogging was a waste of time, but it's more important than you realise.

I post about writing, publishing, and marketing on http://jacklknapp.com; I post non-fiction essays on http://jlknapp505.com
I don't do it to boost sales, although that may happen. I started blogging almost five years ago, then began writing fiction in 2013; Marketing wasn't a consideration when I began and it still doesn't affect what I write on the blogs, though I might explain my experiences with marketing.

If anyone here writes dark fantasy or horror, I do interviews and reviews on my blog, Mom's Secret Horrors. So drop me a line if you're interested. I need to get more involved with MSH, and maybe people reminding me will help.