Get a blog! That shred of indie writer common knowledge propelled me to begin the road to the potential self-publication of my first novel. The task of settling on what to blog about has been an uphill battle. Not because I don’t know what to write about, but because there is so much to be written.
The logic seems to run along these lines: “If you blog it, they will come.” That may have worked for Kevin Costner in the movie Field of Dreams, but a swath of corn turned into a baseball field for ghosts is certainly more unique than one blog out of more than 150 million.
I just don’t want to be another indie author blog that offers advice to writers. While I am eternally thankful that such blogs exist and that I too could now produce helpful writer posts on a regular basis, I hesitate. I want my blog to eventually be reader-based, not writer-based.
Finding your blogging niche really can feel like walking into the mouth of a monster!
So I’ve started focusing on book reviews, interviews, notes on craft, and progress updates on my novel Lost Girl Road. Yet why stop here? As a teacher, I always felt my strong suite was incorporating multimedia into assignments. I am a creative thinker and I want my blog to show my talent for appreciating the inspiration that literature can bring readers beyond the pages of a book.
So that has led to posts incorporating book art in the form of cool covers and artwork that has been inspired by literature. Then there’s the magic of film adaptations, song lyrics as poetry, literature-based smartphone apps. The sky really is the limit, and I’ve built a good base to experiment on.
Aye, there’s the rub! I tend to be a big-picture thinker, which means my vision of how to share my love of literature with the world is a bit broad right now, but that really is my background as a reader and writer. I’m equally at home writing a short story or an essay.
So what is the appeal of this brave new world of self-publishing? Will I sink or swim?
O wonder!
How many goodly creature are there here!
How beauteous mankind is, O brave new world,
That has such people in’t.
William Shakespeare The Tempest 5.1.2.203-6
The surface of things always looks great. Aldous Huxley takes the concept to extremes in his novel whose title takes its inspiration from the lines above. The lines between utopia and dystopia, bliss and despair, are becoming more blurred all the time. My goal is to survive the self-publishing, author-platform building journey with my sense of self intact.
What twists and turns has your blog made along the way?
Please share responsibly. Jeri Walker, 2012.
Image Credit: Face The Monster by Frits Ahlefeldt
Here I thought your blog was about book reviews… Hmmm. Interesting you should post this now since I am doing some of this same kind of evaluation myself right now.
I love to self-reflect, so blog entries like this kill two birds with one stone!
Hi Jeri – This is very timely. I’m thinking along the same lines, trying to direct my efforts towards readers. Keep up the good work.
Larry
Thanks for stopping by Larry! I’m about 30% done with your book. I love how you craft sentences with such clarity. Your background in script writing shows.
I am thinking of doing that too. We are writing so we start blogging about our interest in that, but we have other interests too and we should expand on that. In any case like you write, we are writers, we should be blogging predominantly for readers, not for other writers. But we have to start somewhere.
For now my Wednesday posts will still be mostly writer based, but at times I wonder if I can really add much to the multitudes of what is already out there. Your approach stands out in the way you analyze self-publishing data in a user-friendly way. I love those posts so much!
I am glad you’ve widened your ‘blog-horizon’. Don’t fret unduly, I am sure your book will do well. It is good to get regular updates on your writing projects.
If I wasn’t fretting, I wouldn’t be me!
Hi Jeri: I think you will find that blogging is an evolutionary process. I began my writer’s lifestyle blog 3.5 years ago. It was a little bit of everything, but primarily personal reflections about the writer’s life and travel posts as I am a travel writer.
Eventually, I had enough travel posts to splinter those off and launch a new travel blog. So having more than one blog can also work well if you like to blog about varied topics.
Your readers will tell you which posts they like best via their comments. Surprisingly, the most popular post I’ve ever had (on either blog) was when I asked my readers which books have most impacted their lives. That post launched an awesome discussion which resulted in 93 comments (the most – by far – that I’ve ever rec’d in response to any post.
And by the way, never forget that other writers are voracious readers, so when you want to communicate with ‘readers,’ they may very likely also be writers.
I’ve definitely been surprised by a couple of posts that people have shown lots of positive response to because they’ve been posts that I wrote in about 45 minutes! I would love to have separate blogs for travel, foodies, and teaching someday. For now I’m happy to be focusing more on books with some writing advice thrown in. Then again, give me two weeks and I might be changing my mind again! This time I think I’ve found what will work best for me as a blogger. Thanks for the encouragement.