Wednesday 20 March 2013

Don't blog, do blog ... let's call the whole thing off!

Cartoon: Johnny Ancich
By Candy Gourlay

Over at Jane Friedman's guest blogger L.L. Barkat has called on experienced writers to stop blogging.
Does this mean I would recommend that everyone stop blogging? No. I encourage new bloggers, just the way I always have. It’s an excellent way to find expression, discipline, and experience. But if writers already have experience, and they are authors trying to promote themselves and their work, I tell them to steer clear. If they’ve already found themselves sucked into the blogging vortex, I suggest they might want to give it up and begin writing for larger platforms that don’t require reciprocity (an exhausting aspect to blogging and a big drain on the writer’s energy and time). Read the whole thing



Barkat made the point that in the early to mid 2000s, when the blogosphere was only just on the rise, it made absolute sense for authors to start blogs. But today ... with Twitter and Tumblr and Facebook and and and ... one can't help feeling that the writers are getting sucked in the wrong direction.

Do we even know why we're doing stuff on social media anymore? Or have we all jumped into the Black Hole of Procrastination and lost all sense of direction and proportion?

This was the point I was trying to make last year in a piece titled If everyone's now got a platform, how are you going to stand out? I was just getting the feeling that too many people were jumping on the blogging bandwagon for the wrong reasons ('I need a platform', ' my publisher told me to', 'I want to sell my novel').

Jane Friedman puts it well in her introduction to Barket's piece:
Blogging is neither a requirement nor the best marketing and promotion tool.
Mind you, I could easily be accused of a hidden agenda. And yes, I have to admit to dismay when I realized that blogs targeting the same readers and writing about the same things began to proliferate!

Speaking of competition - Words & Pictures, the newsletter of SCBWI in the British Isles is relaunching as an online magazine! One cool new feature of the revived W&P will be a blog feed of British SCBWI's network of bloggers. Very helpful. Thank you, SCBWI!




I was fascinated to read the comments on LL Barkat's piece - a blogger made the point that she didn't measure the success of her blog in hits but in 'relationships'. Funnily enough, I got to know fellow blogger Addy Farmer because I was a fan of her fiction blog Wilf (I still believe it should be made into a series). And I have made many great friends through the initial contact of the comments page of this blog.

But how much of my book sales do I owe to blogging? Hmm ...

Me, I still enjoy blogging - but I have so little time - I blog a lot more succinctly now whereas in the past I tried to be comprehensive. I would like to develop my blog on CandyGourlay.com but at the moment, I only have the time to report my author activities, which I imagine can't be terribly exciting for someone who wasn't there.

Here on Notes from the Slushpile, the blogging team has been so busy with our own individual writing journeys that we are perfectly capable of allowing a week to slip by without updating the blog. I follow blogging gurus like Heidi Cohen - who recently warned that "writing only when the spirit moved you" was "blarney". Here's what Heidi counsels:

The reality is that you must consistently publish fresh content on a regular basis to build an audience

Be that as it may, I haven't got the time. For me, the reality is that I have to write books in order to have an audience at all. What's the point of a platform if you haven't got anything to show for it? Blogging is not my job. It's just a thing I like to do.

I don't feel that guilty about not updating the blog as regularly as we should - and I hope my co-bloggers don't either, because it's a sign that our priorities are in the right place.

Anyway there are so many blogs out there that our readers are probably pleased with the respite.

28 comments :

  1. I blog because I like an audience and I wouldn't other wise have one. That's the plain, ugly truth of it. I have other reasons: it's a great place to store information; it's a diary; it's a good place to let of steam; it's an ideal way to show fellow writers I support them. All of that stuff is true but it's not why I check my blog stats. Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I do have a hardcore reason why I should pay more attention to my blogging - I need to build some profile over the Atlantic because my poor book is out there not being noticed. I'm still working out how to build profile without neglecting the novel writing!

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    2. Yes, that's a tricky one - you need an American Candy...

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  2. While I agree (mostly) with your point about blogging itself, the social media side cannot be underestimated. Just in terms of sheer numbers, look at non-authors like George Takei and the audience they reach on Facebook - not just in terms of followers, but in terms of new connections with every 'like' or 'share' they receive.

    The best examples to me are Neil Gaiman and Anne Rice - authors who I now buy fanatically because their media feeds (Rice on Facebook and Gaiman on Twitter) are so consistently interesting and engaging that when they do post the occasional self-promotion, I really don't mind.

    Personally, I still blog mostly because I have so many micro-ideas I wouldn't have time to build a book around them all, so instead I blog about them. I still blog because I have something to say, rather than finding something to say because I have to Blog, as it were.

    You're right though, it's very easy to get caught up in the social media presence side of audience management and forget about the actual content production. Hence why I've taken a week or two off blogging to concentrate on a collecton for Kindle.

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    1. Oh you are so right about not underestimating the power of social media. How lucky we are to be writers at this time ... we can take responsibility for our own marketing (a double edged sword, I grant you). But times have changed since those early days of blogging - I went to a talk recently where someone said we are now looking at creating content that can be shared. Videos, tweets, slideshares. The blog has become just one of endless possibilities.

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  3. That's funny, I use my blog to store information as well. That is why the titles are written the way they are - for my own convenience.
    I resisted blogging for years and then found that I loved it. Finding a subject related to what I do but not writing about myself very much (except from the point of view of an observer) helped. I don't blog regularly, just when I feel like it and have time. Sometimes it can be a great way to start the work day, I write about books I love and this gives me a lift.
    I am fascinated by which of my posts get the most hits. It seems that if you mention graphic medicine you get an instant audience! I seem to remember Kathryn Evans having a similiar experience with a post about slugs?
    You are so busy at the moment Candy, perhaps it is OK to step away from blogging temporarily if you need to?

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    1. Oh but blogging is also oxygen and an escape from the tedium of one's current work in progress. I also find that if I encounter a bloggable idea, it sits in my head and takes up space and makes it difficult to do little else until I purge it by writing it up in a blog post!

      (I am a loyal reader of your blog - keep it up!)

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    2. And that blessed Slug post is STILL getting all the hits...

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  4. Thanks Candy! I am relieved that I don't have to worry about the blogging too much. I like to do it, but I hate being tied to a schedule when I have so many things I HAVE to do already. Ceej :)

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    1. I'm sure more serious bloggers would disagree with me on that though. But when I read their objections to 'as and when blogging', I just remind myself that blogging is not my job - it's the other thing I do.

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  5. I stopped my time-sucking Help! I Need a Publisher! blog last year and have never regretted it. However, I did then start a new blog, on my website, but it's more personal, free-ranging, and crucially, I won't feel I have to do it 3 times a week. In fact, I *do* seem to do it three times a week, but the main thing is I don't have to. And I don't care whether lots of people read it - I've constructed the tags so that people can always find what they want, if and when they want. I'm happy like that. I blog because it's writing and I'm a writer. I'd find it hard not to.

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    1. Oh but your Help! I Need a Publisher! blog was magnificent, Nicola! Perhaps you got too successful for your own good! It probably didn't do you any harm - and I hope you enjoyed it as much as your readers did!

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  6. Yep ALL social media is a monkey on your back. But like the organ grinder said, where would I be without the monkey. (Not that anyone knows what an organ grinder is anymore and if they do it's probably very rude)
    For some foolish reason I have been helping run a web magazine hackwriters.com for 14 years now (proud to make no money from it) but why I have no idea. It's that darn monkey again. Every month a new issue and time away from writing that new novel. Perhaps that's what it is - supreme writing procrastination. Must be.
    One day I'll just let the monkey do it on his own.

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    1. Money is never the best reason to do anything. Following the monkey probably took you some interesting places.

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  7. Intersting post - thank you! I love blogging because unlike the rest of my writing, it reaches readers and garners feedback straight away. Also, because I blog about dreams, I get a lot of fascinating stories in the comments, and have got to know something of the inner life of my readers, both those I already know quite well and those I've never met. Having said that, I'm aware that since I've been blogging (and following blogs) I'm writing less

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    1. I have long realized that blogging less might mean writing more ... so not blogging is an act of extreme self control.

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  8. It's easy to get sucked in to blogging and social media and then eventually you lift your head up or stand back and think, 'What am I doing? And why am I doing it? Which is what I did a few weeks ago. My answer was, because I enjoy it, because it's a type of writing I wouldn't normally do, because I can shout about the things I'm learning about writing and people can answer with 'That's rubbish!' or 'What a great insight into the process!' Where else could I do it? Well, I'll be submitting to Words and Pictures like Candy and many other SCBWI members. Both blogs have a specific focus and audience. I know you can get a bigger audience if I blogged about knitting but I want to engage with writers and artists about our craft, not woolly craft. And I limit my blogs to once per month, usually, so I have fun when I write them and hopefully people have fun when they read them.

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    1. When you decided to blog only once a month, I was impressed at how sensible you were being, Maureen ... and then I discovered that you had started up a new blog!

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    2. It's only once a year on the funEverse! I'm even MORE sensible on there.

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  9. Yes, there are too many of us! Too many to read and keep up with and enjoy. Unless you're a big name author, I suspect people won't find you or your blog. Which in turn probably means you won't help sell your book by blogging.
    On Bookwitch I have readers who come for many different things, which might mean that me mentioning a book will reach further. But I don't know.
    The two things that concerns me most are that publishers think blog tours are the answer, and that they pander too much to the 'bodice rippers bloggers' in order to get an online mention of the latest romance.

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    1. I have a feeling I'm not a bodice ripper blogger ...

      I do enjoy your blog a lot - you have a way of reviewing books that is offbeat and disarming. I read almost all of your posts via email ... I wish I had the time to offer comments for every single one!

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  10. I think blogging should be something you do because you enjoy it. It should never be a chore. And you should try not to worry about the size of your audience. Treasure the audience you have. :-)

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  11. Yes, totally true... sometimes I'm quite pleased when my favorite bloggers HAVEN'T blogged. But at the same time, Candy, I've totally noticed your more frequent blogging since you finished edits, and I've been even more pleased to hear some of your thoughts. I don't know if blogging sells books, especially in the kidslit world, and of course it's ridiculously time-consuming, but it definitely forms relationships and offers knowledge and encouragement and that's the reason I keep coming back.

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    1. Heh thanks, Anne! Right now, it's Teri and Addy who are deep in other things. We all go through phases.

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  12. I enjoy taking part in a multi-blog (Picture Book Den) because it is a supportive community and I don't have to blog every week. I don't think it sells books but I do know that it has impressed publishers, who have congratulated me on my 'online presence'. For them it is a plus point in my favour.

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    1. I think Picture Book Den has really plugged a gap in the blogging firmament - not enough writer bloggers were focusing on picture books. It's a brilliant blog - and the plus point is well deserved.

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    2. Here, here, I always read it.

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