If writers need to blog in order to make connections with their audience, what should they blog about? It’s a tricky question for many of us — especially if you write fiction. But even a non-fiction author needs to fine-tune the overall blog topic. These are my tips for finding the way forward that is particularly suited to YOU. And there is ONE key thing that really matters!
But first…
A recap: Why we need to blog
Last week we talked about whether or not authors really need to blog. Since I know you’re probably as busy as I am, I would have loved to say we don’t need to do it. But then I heard a bunch of publishers saying that the first thing they do is google a hopeful author’s name… Dang. We must have an online presence.
Even if you don’t want to reach a traditional publisher, all indicators are that if you are an emerging author, blogging is something to consider seriously.
- If you plan to self-publish globally, your blog or website will form the centrepiece of your marketing.
- If you are seeking a publisher, and writing anything other than literary fiction, you need an online presence to help boost your reputation in the eyes of agents and publishers. And the best way to control your online presence is via a blog or website that you own.
Read that previous article for more information, and ideas on how to get started.
So, how do we choose the topic?
If you’ve been searching this question on the web, you’ll have a mishmash of interesting/puzzling/conflicting/just-plain-scary ideas to try to sift through.
“Write about writing.”
“DON’T write about writing.”
“Write about your life.”
“DON’T write about your life.”
“Make sure you pay attention to SEO (search engine optimisation).”
“Oh no! They’ve changed all the rules for SEO!”
“You must think like a marketer.”
“You must think like an artist and forget icky marketing.”
Aaagh! How do you decide?
The ONE thing that really matters
I’m going to boldly bring all that conflicting information down to just ONE thing that really matters.
Some people will disagree with me, and quote science and statistics to support their case, but I maintain that all the cleverness in the world won’t help you without this one thing.
This one key thing is vitally important because:
- You’re human.
- Your readers are human.
You can be a marketing genius and an SEO ninja, but you still need this one. Marketing and SEO are the servants of humans, not the other way round!
Are you ready?
Here it is. *drumroll*
Choose a topic you LOVE.
Choose a topic that motivates you. That you want to write about, month after month, year after year. Something that fires you up inside. Something that excites you. Something that you are always thinking about. Something you could talk about all day.
What will sell, what google loves, and EVEN what readers want to read are secondary to this one key thing. Yes, even what readers want is secondary! (I told you I was bold.) This is why:
- Your blog is a showcase for your writing. From 18 years as a book editor, I can assure you that impassioned writers are better writers, no matter what level of technical skill they began with. If you really love what you’re writing about, it flows through your words into the reader’s mind and heart and they are inspired. Passion releases that right-brain creativity and shoves the niggly nagging Not Good Enough fairy into a box. You forget to be self-conscious and awkward, and you just communicate!
- Your blog is a meeting point for you to connect with other people who share (at least some of) your interests and passions. What better way to find them than by expressing who you really are, and what really matters to you? There’s no value in somehow “tricking” readers into coming to your blog via SEO tomfoolery, because they won’t stay, and they won’t love you. (Note: I am NOT saying that SEO is completely useless, in fact it can be very powerful when used wisely, but it MUST have a lower priority than this primary issue of human engagement.)
- Your blog is a long-term commitment. It’s going to be much more sustainable if you choose a theme or topic that you love. Writing smart is OK as far as it goes, but writing impassioned will go a lot further. 😉
- Your blog needs to be future proof (as far as possible). Google is going to keep on changing its algorithms and limiting our ability to optimise for search engines. Reader preferences will go through phases — this year it’s mommy-porn and vampires, next year might be garden gnomes and books set in the Outer Hebrides! If you focus on “playing” either area at the expense of your own dreams and passions, you’ll end up tired and disillusioned.
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Blog fatigue awaits us all. Your best defence is a topic you LOVE!
Your blog is going to have to compete with all those other things you have to do or love to do, and survive your own busyness and even exhaustion.
- We all encounter social media fatigue eventually. We will all think at times, “Why am I blogging when I could be writing my next book / working / feeding the family / sleeping?” Your blog needs to be compelling and interesting to you (if no one else!) or you simply won’t do it. It’s too hard. Give yourself a fighting chance.
OK, so how do we find our way through all those possibilities of things you love, to the topics that can form a workable basis for your blog theme?
The worksheet
Here as my gift to you is a downloadable worksheet. Use it to work through all your possible blog topics, and find a solution that fits YOU.
Choosing-the-best-topic-for-your-author-blog (PDF, 63KB)
This is what it looks like:
I won’t repeat all the information on it here, but it steps you through brainstorming about the things you love, the concepts behind your books, the topics you might like to blog about, and how everything fits together.
You can use it if you’re just starting. And you can use it if you’ve been blogging a while and you feel the need to refocus.
Allow yourself to reshape and refine your blog as the years go by. It’s OK to develop and change.
And allow yourself to “just get started” and work out the details as you go. That’s OK too. You will eventually find your community of readers, the ones who are genuinely interested in the things you long to say.
Talk to me. What is your blog theme, and how did you choose it? Is it working well? What thoughts do you have for others? If you are just starting, how are you deciding about your topic or theme?
Confused woman image via Bigstock/Maridav. Snoozing koala image is my own! 😉
Hi Belinda! I just discovered you through ALLI and the Author FRINGE event. Your workshop on beta readers was very helpful. I’m working on my first novel and I’m still several months away from having a first draft. My goal is to publish by end of year. Is it too soon to be thinking about an author website? I’m still trying to determine theme. One author on ALLI proposed that I explore some of the settings and components of my novel in the author’s blog. So for example, one of my characters is diagnosed with bipolar disorder but she actually has thyroid disease. One post could look at the science that links the two. The story is based on Topsail Island where there’s a turtle hospital – I could blog about relevant Topsail history and interview turtle hospital volunteers. There are so many interesting things that come up in research. When I’m on to the next book, my blogging topics would change to reflect what I’m learning with regards to that manuscript. Any thoughts on this idea?
Hi Terri, I don’t think it’s ever too soon to start blogging. It takes a long time to build a readership, and if you start now, and share links to your posts on social media (especially Twitter and Facebook), you can be building a community of people who are interested in what you have to say. Some of them will read your book when it comes out, a few will champion your book to others, and some will never read your book, but they will form part of your online community that draws interest and prompts Google to give you more traffic. Your topic sounds fascinating. Let us know when you’ve launched your blog. 🙂
I do have a theme for my blog – women in tech. I try to stick to that theme but about a quarter of my posts are about something else that interests me.
It’s a new blog, less than 4 months old, but so far it’s holding my interest
Thanks for your comment, Mary – sorry I’ve only just seen it! Hope you are still enjoying your blog, and it’s helping create a community of interest around your topics. 🙂
Thank you for this simple bit of advice, and for the well thought out worksheet. I’m just restarting my blog after a two year hiatus while I wrote two novels and two screenplays. Best to you with your own writing.
Thanks Stuart, I’m glad you found the worksheet handy. Blogs seem to go through phases and seasons. I know mine do. Best wishes for both your blogging and your writing. 🙂
Hi Belinda, brilliant advice and so very helpful as always – and a much needed reminder to me about what blogging is about. Regards my blog I talk about a mix of things but mainly stuff to do with writing. Now I’m having a rethink, which is no bad thing! Thanks 🙂
Oh, yes, can I ask you, Belinda, how do you manage to post posts without dating then? It seems to make timeless, which is a great idea. Off to print out your worksheet 🙂
Glad you found it useful, Marianne. I always enjoy your eclectic mix of topics on your blog. I think perhaps it’s the “Marianne-ness” of it that comes through. 😉 To thine own self be true…
As for removing the date… I did it by modifying the loop.php file. And you really need to have a “child theme” operating to do it without causing problems later. Confused yet? Me too. 😉 I use a premium theme, so I went into the support forums for my theme and looked up how to do it. Whichever WordPress theme you’re using, do they have a support forum? Otherwise, best suggestion is to ask a local geek who knows something about WordPress to do it for you. Hope you get it sorted. I’m not very geeky and always have to follow directions quite laboriously!
I really enjoyed this article.
I tortured myself for months before finally launching my blog. Everyone I talked to had completely different advice. In order to write anything at all I had to make peace with the fact that I couldn’t please everyone.
In the end, my conclusion was similar to what is stated in this article; I decided to write something that I could stay excited about for a while: writing and story.
Thanks again,
Sarah
Well done, Sarah. So glad you’ve found something that gets you fired up. And yes, there will be naysayers in your future, and conflicting opinions. That’s OK, go with what fits Sarah. 🙂
Thanks for this post! I have at times felt the need to focus my blog to a specific topic, but for me, that never works. I believe writers shouldn’t write solely about writing (especially technique and tips that would be useful to writers rather than readers). I quickly got bored when I tried to have a “writing” blog. So instead I merged my personal/home-decor/parenting/crafty/creative blog with my writing and editing blog, and couldn’t be happier. So I think pretty much the only thing I think about when I write is the human connection element. In the end, a reader doesn’t want to know my top 5 tips for writing. A reader wants to know about me. So that’s what I give them. And in 50 years when I’m totally famous, I hope they’ll find it refreshing to discover that their favourite writer (me, of course) isn’t/wasn’t depressed or suicidal or addicted to laudanum, but was instead a normal, happy, sometimes insecure mother, wife, friend, and human.
Sounds like a plan, Jo (except let’s make it 5 years to be totally famous instead of 50, haha!) But it sounds like you have found your voice as a blogger and it’s harmonising well with who you are as a writer. Well done! Hope you continue to enjoy it. 🙂
Hi Belinda,
A great article as usual. You obviously follow your own advice which is often the best recommendation – do what I do as well as what I say. I think your worksheet is a great idea. I had already jotted down lots of things to write about, but your worksheet helps to formalise the list and provide some focus. Education, especially of early childhood learners, is my passion and always has been, so I have a great deal to offer in that area and am trying to find my voice as I go – jump in, feel the fear and do it anyway.
I love Bonita’s advice too – what a wonderful way of recording family stories and memories. Inviting family members to add their voices via comments would create quite a collective family story. I will give that some thought.
Once again, thanks for all your wonderful support and encouragement.
Hi Norah, yes I do love what I blog about, both here and over on my author blog. My poor old author blog doesn’t get lots of attention lately, but even that’s OK… once I have this one settled into a good routine, then I’ll try to build up the other one. Rome wasn’t built in a day, or even a month. 😉
I’m glad you have a passion that you love to write about. It sounds like helping others is something you instinctively want to do. Enjoy your blogging, and may you have every success! 🙂
I enjoyed reading this and agree. I am a vintage writer, publish throughout my life here and there. I do have problems keeping up with all the new things on my phone, let alone on my computer. For other “of a certain age” writers, may I offer a suggestion that can take some of the angst out of the scary world of blogging? DO NOT tie your first blog to the name that you use for publication. Start one for your grandchildren. Call it “grandma’s memories” or “grandpa’s revenge.” Write your blogs about your own childhood (outhouses anyone?) and how your children were as babies. You learn to use this valuable tool. You get more writing experience. You will leave memories. You have no worries about what others think. (Except your children. They will pick your nursing home, so be careful.) When you become comfortable posting and managing your blog, then you can branch out. You can have as many blogs as you want. Happy writing!
What a great idea, Bonita. I hope others read your comment and are inspired.
It’s such a valuable thing to realise you can ease into this blogging thing, and yes, you can have as many blogs as you want! Thanks so much for stopping by. 🙂
Great article as always, full of goodies Belinda! As a new author and always grateful for great info, I am only too happy to help you spread your words! 🙂
And it’s lovely to have friends like you to join me in the journey, Debby! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂