Tim Murray
Through space, time and dimension
As a newly published Author, Blogging is another thing I need to do. Does it help? If it does, what are the best blogging sites, and what are the best methods to approach it?
Blogging
- Thread starter Tim Murray
- Start date
As a newly published author, you are ideally starting to publicise your newly published book and build yourself up as a name. How you do it depends at least in part on you. The usual advice handed out around here is to pick a couple of methods that you are happy with and concentrate on them so that you do them well, rather than spreading yourself too thin and cutting into your writing time. It might be a blog - but then you have to get people to come and see the blog. You also have to write stuff for the blog and ideally keep to a regular schedule on the blog. Not saying don't do it, just saying there is:
Goodreads
Reddit
Here
Absolute Write
Fantasy Faction
Facebook
Twitter
Blog (often hosted on Wordpress or other like places)
With social sites like here, the best method is to turn up and contribute, promote through your avatar and the occasional polite punt where appropriate.
You can do promotions - giveaway or reduced price - announce it on social media including here and Goodreads. Hope this leads to ratings and reviews on Goodreads, which gradually improves your book's visibility to the Goodreads recommendation algorithms and leads to it being recommended to readers.
Have an Amazon and a Goodreads author page.
You might want a website where you can expand on your author page, put on a bigger bibliography, build a mailing list, post news - but there is a difference between the sort of website your readers go to because they want to know when the next book is coming, and a website/blog to promote your book that you have to somehow persuade people to read.
Then there is write more books. More you've got out there, bigger your presence.
Goodreads
Here
Absolute Write
Fantasy Faction
Blog (often hosted on Wordpress or other like places)
With social sites like here, the best method is to turn up and contribute, promote through your avatar and the occasional polite punt where appropriate.
You can do promotions - giveaway or reduced price - announce it on social media including here and Goodreads. Hope this leads to ratings and reviews on Goodreads, which gradually improves your book's visibility to the Goodreads recommendation algorithms and leads to it being recommended to readers.
Have an Amazon and a Goodreads author page.
You might want a website where you can expand on your author page, put on a bigger bibliography, build a mailing list, post news - but there is a difference between the sort of website your readers go to because they want to know when the next book is coming, and a website/blog to promote your book that you have to somehow persuade people to read.
Then there is write more books. More you've got out there, bigger your presence.
It sells no books and you need to maintain regular content. If you like blogging go for it, if not it can harm more than help
EJDeBrun
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2016
- Messages
- 370
My friend who does marketing for a few places would tell you blogging definitely helps. You want a page a page that readers can go to and learn more about you.
That being said, I agree with Jo in that either you do it and commit or don't bother at all. Nothing is worse than liking an author and looking them up on the internet only to have nothing on their blog. It's sorta like people who make start ups and put no content there.
So it's one of many marketing tools, but yeah, if you do it, do it full throttle or not at all. Better to have nothing than disappoint.
That being said, I agree with Jo in that either you do it and commit or don't bother at all. Nothing is worse than liking an author and looking them up on the internet only to have nothing on their blog. It's sorta like people who make start ups and put no content there.
So it's one of many marketing tools, but yeah, if you do it, do it full throttle or not at all. Better to have nothing than disappoint.
I think it is an overstatement to say blogging sells no books. Much depends on the blog, the site, and on the person reading the blog. I can help, but there are no reliable metrics and it's pretty clear that it has slipped from an important marketing element to merely one of many. All require time and care, and it's a rare author who can tend all the gardens equally.
I would argue you have the stick by the wrong end. The question is not, will blogging help me sell books. The question is, do you want to blog. If you do, then go ahead and don't worry about its effect on sales. You're blogging because you have something to say. A *lot* to say. For years.
I would argue you have the stick by the wrong end. The question is not, will blogging help me sell books. The question is, do you want to blog. If you do, then go ahead and don't worry about its effect on sales. You're blogging because you have something to say. A *lot* to say. For years.
DelActivisto
WARG!
I thought about it, but I just don't think what I write about is very mainstream. I do have a blog, but mostly I just dump the occasional mental thoughtstream on it. I think it can definitely help, though, but it is a lot of work. However, if you get enough people reading the blog, you can make money from ads.
To clarify - I've been blogging consistently for several years with 2k hits + per month.
Some people come to the blog and later buy the books - but it is a tiny amount. When a post has hit high - say 1000 hits in the day - I do not see any pick up in sales. When people appear as guests on my blog they don't report a peak of sales.
So, yes - people find me from the blog. But they find me as a blogger - not to read my books. I have undoubtedly sold many more books on forums, Facebook and twitter than I ever have through the blog.
But - the other side of the coin - I AM more visible from it. Since a lot of my writing income comes from facilitation, panelling and workshops, the blog brings some of this to me. So it has a place in presence and placement of brand Jo Zebedee - but not so much in promoting sales of my book.
Some people come to the blog and later buy the books - but it is a tiny amount. When a post has hit high - say 1000 hits in the day - I do not see any pick up in sales. When people appear as guests on my blog they don't report a peak of sales.
So, yes - people find me from the blog. But they find me as a blogger - not to read my books. I have undoubtedly sold many more books on forums, Facebook and twitter than I ever have through the blog.
But - the other side of the coin - I AM more visible from it. Since a lot of my writing income comes from facilitation, panelling and workshops, the blog brings some of this to me. So it has a place in presence and placement of brand Jo Zebedee - but not so much in promoting sales of my book.
Interesting timing, this question. I just asked some friends here on Chrons yesterday or the day before if my blog here was actually a blog, or a narcissistic stream of consciousness. I asked what should be in a blog because mine’s never been about Best Practice, or book reviews, or even discussions on the state of e and trad publishing.
From Stephen King’s On Writing, the biggest thing I took away was not what everyone bangs on about re adverbs and being brutal, but the unshakable link between your life experiences and your writing (regardless of genre). I found that almost profoundly simple yet I’d never clicked it. It gave me either permission or validation to write my stories without frequently asking Chrons ‘can I do this, can I do that?’ In that regard, and after feedback from the aforementioned chronners, my blogs might not be to do with the craft or marketing of writing but they are to do with writing.
pH
From Stephen King’s On Writing, the biggest thing I took away was not what everyone bangs on about re adverbs and being brutal, but the unshakable link between your life experiences and your writing (regardless of genre). I found that almost profoundly simple yet I’d never clicked it. It gave me either permission or validation to write my stories without frequently asking Chrons ‘can I do this, can I do that?’ In that regard, and after feedback from the aforementioned chronners, my blogs might not be to do with the craft or marketing of writing but they are to do with writing.
pH
DelActivisto
WARG!
In the investing world, it is recommended that people invest in what they know. I know a lot about renewable energy, electronics, and tech, so Tesla, Apple, and Netflix are good companies for me. So is most real estate, with the exception of high rises, about which I know nothing. And so, I know a lot about trying to make your way in a world that wants to break you at every turn and destroy you, so I can write about that - in a medieval world since it's what I've read and therefore experienced vicariously.
tinkerdan
∞<Q-Satis
It seems that some of the most successful blogs are from authors who already have a name and rep and perhaps some sort of presence that brings more people to the blog.
It can be a lot of work and you could be working in a vacuum unless you have something strikingly popular to discuss and people interested in listening to you.
You can do it free or you can go whole hog and pay for a url and for hosting and then you could always hire people to keep it full of current information for all your followers.
Good luck with it.
It can be a lot of work and you could be working in a vacuum unless you have something strikingly popular to discuss and people interested in listening to you.
You can do it free or you can go whole hog and pay for a url and for hosting and then you could always hire people to keep it full of current information for all your followers.
Good luck with it.
Steve Harrison
Well-Known Member
I blog about writing (usually contrarian don't-listen-to-writing-advice pieces) on my Wordpress site, mainly to give me a variety of content for my promotional tweets. I also blog for an online magazine, mainly humour and political pieces, which also helps my profile, and I'm hoping to get a regular paid gig with a major newspaper or magazine eventually (Huffington Post Australia has run a couple of my articles, so I live in hope!).
The combination of these blogs generates a lot of traffic to my site, but I can't tell you if it results in more sales of my book, as everything is interconnected. It doesn't hurt, though, and I enjoy writing blog pieces as they are fun, good concise writing practice and I only have to invest an hour or two to write them.
The combination of these blogs generates a lot of traffic to my site, but I can't tell you if it results in more sales of my book, as everything is interconnected. It doesn't hurt, though, and I enjoy writing blog pieces as they are fun, good concise writing practice and I only have to invest an hour or two to write them.
Cli-Fi
John J. Falco
My blog is completely separate from my novel. When I first created my blog, I thought I would write about my novel, but I write about TV and movie franchises instead. I get a good 250 hits a day. Not great, and I don't make money from it, but it has helped me become a better writer I think.
Cli-Fi
John J. Falco
Sometimes I have insane fan theories on my blog that gets a lot of attention on social media. My biggest page to date has been 15,000 page views. The only reason why I got that many was because some other fansite picked up my theory and people were tweeting about it, and I'm not even on twitter. The theory turned out to be wrong unfortunately.
I don't think you have to blog regularly, but it does have to be vaguely regular. I tried twice with once per week and once per month, but it just didn't work. Now I blog when there's something to say, which is fairly often...
I can't see as it can harm anything, but I don't see it as a 'must do' thing either. I have a blog but very, very rarely use it. I just can't be bothered, to be honest. I do do blog tours that my publisher sets up for me (that's where I'm hosted on other blogs, usually run with a giveaway too) but that's all arranged for me and not something I have to commit to regularly. I don't really read blogs either - I might read a post from someone every now and then, but I don't rush out to read one every time it appears. Actually, there's only one blog I read every time a post comes out and that has nothing to do with books or writing and is written by a mate of mine who drives around in his 1930s car visiting tea rooms and eating cake.
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I have two blogs (both on blogger.com): one about writing and the other about making models, which is very much a secondary hobby for me. I started the model-making one as an attempt to get better at it, so I could chart my progress through pictures, and I tend to update it weekly or so. I think this works because it’s very much a visual medium, and I have no intention to make money out of it (and it’s not my IP).
The writing blog I only update when an idea for a post occurs to me. Often, a passing comment on this forum will trigger more general thoughts. I try to keep it all pretty much “how to write a book”, and try to say things that I don’t see much elsewhere. However, I don’t feel that I’m really learning anything completely new by writing it, so I don’t feel as driven to post my progress on it. There’s less of a sense of trying out a new technique and seeing how it works – not that I’ve got nothing left to learn, because there’s loads I don’t know or can’t do terribly well yet, but that blogging doesn't lend itself to writing quite like that.
The writing blog I only update when an idea for a post occurs to me. Often, a passing comment on this forum will trigger more general thoughts. I try to keep it all pretty much “how to write a book”, and try to say things that I don’t see much elsewhere. However, I don’t feel that I’m really learning anything completely new by writing it, so I don’t feel as driven to post my progress on it. There’s less of a sense of trying out a new technique and seeing how it works – not that I’ve got nothing left to learn, because there’s loads I don’t know or can’t do terribly well yet, but that blogging doesn't lend itself to writing quite like that.
Link!
The Biskitetta encouraged me to start blogging to have a presence when I wanted to start promoting my books. I couldn't face churning out re-hashes of my take on how-to-write, so I wrote about what caught my attention - the farm, the livestock, things that annoyed or amused me. I very rarely write about writing. I've been at it about 3.5 years now, blogging roughly once a month, and really enjoying it. Whether it helps any in promoting a book I don't know, and the reality is that I only get a dozen or so hits per blog. If I get bored of it, I will stop, but for the moment my monthly rant or giggle at the world is keeping me entertained.
@ Mouse Ooh, lovely cake. Lovely tearoom.
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