There’s a lot of kerfuffle on the net about whether authors need to blog, and people coming down on both sides of the debate.
Just this week, I was thinking about the one big reason why it’s good to blog if we possibly can.
Yes, it’s good to get some writing practice, it’s good to build community, it’s good to have a “marketing hub” for our efforts, but the clincher for me — the thing that’s very hard to get any other way — is this one…
A blog post is very, very SHAREABLE. Long term.
Social media is central to “organic” book promotion these days, but it needs material to feed the machine. Material that’s shareable.
Let me explain by telling a little story.
A tale of two authors
Author 1
Author 1 is someone I love to chat with on Twitter and I wish I could give her career a little bit of a help-along but… she doesn’t blog. She only has a static website promoting her books.
Twitter is the social platform I’m most active on (for you it might be another one, and that’s fine).
I tweet links from lots of different authors, and I mention them from time to time on this blog. But always in the context of providing useful/interesting information on a particular topic.
I’m not a book reviewer, so I don’t tweet or blog people’s books, as such. Every now and then I tweet about an indie book I’ve just read, if it was really good. It’s always spontaneous, and I doubt it has much effect anyway. As I said, I’m not positioning myself as a book reviewer, so people don’t look to me for that type of information.
So I can’t tweet this author’s website promoting her book, because that’s not what my readers are looking for from me. They’d either ignore it or, worse, get annoyed. But I could tweet a relevant blog post… if she had one.
But does that matter? Would it really make such a big difference????
Author 2
Let’s look at how the “shareable” thing works, in practice.
This week I decided to do some research on NetGalley, which is a service distributing electronic advance copies of books to readers, who then post reviews on various websites. This is how it happened…
- I check out the NetGalley website, which doesn’t tell me how much it costs for a self-publisher to list one book. They are being all mysterious, and want me to send them an email request. Dang. Who wants to do that??
- Like everyone else, I turn to the Source of Obscure Information. 😉 I google “how much does it cost to list a book on netgalley”, and get this result.
- In position 3 on the first page of the Google search, my eye is drawn to a result with a photo, indicating to me a likely blogger, or at the very least a human rather than a faceless corporation!
- Google has suctioned out for me the fourth paragraph of the article, because its algorithms have discerned what I want to know: “The cost of listing a title: $399.” So I could get on with something else now. However…
- I like the title of the article: The NetGalley low down for authors and readers. It looks like I might learn something about the NetGalley experience from both sides of the fence. So I click through. And yes, it delivers!
- In fact, I like it so much that I tweet it, because my followers might find it useful too. This is what they see:
Really useful…The NetGalley Low Down – For Authors and Readers @kearytaylor http://t.co/egejxp7Z4s
— Belinda Pollard (@Belinda_Pollard) May 29, 2014
- And now, today, I’m even mentioning the whole experience on my blog, which brings this author’s blog post before another set of readers. Maybe you’re not interested in NetGalley, so you just gloss over it as an example. But… maybe you want to know more about NetGalley, and you click through.
- Maybe you like the article and share it with your circles on whichever social media platform you favour.
- Maybe someone in your circles sees it, reads it, likes it, and shares it with THEIR circles.
- A percentage of people seeing it in those shares also reads it, likes it, and shares it.
- And on and on it goes, like ripples in a pond.
I hadn’t heard of Keary Taylor or her books before this NetGalley expedition. A percentage of those people listed in the “ripples” above hadn’t heard of her either. But now we all have.
And among us, there will be people interested in the genres Keary Taylor writes. And she has placed herself before us as a sensible person who provides useful information, and has given us a feel for her writing “voice” and a little of her personality. Visitors who go to her site because of this blog post might click around to her other pages, read other posts, check out her About page, get curious about what books she’s writing.
It doesn’t often happen instantly, but some of these “ripples” WILL translate into book sales. And all because an author wrote a blog post about a topic that she thought might help someone else.
This was a writing/publishing topic, but that’s just an example. You don’t have to blog writing or publishing to be shareable!!
- If you write travel books, maybe that shareable blog post about a particular destination will cause “ripples” that lead to book sales.
- If you write historical fiction, maybe that shareable blog post about one aspect of life in the 18th century will generate “ripples” for you.
- Lots of topics, the sky’s the limit! It’s about being useful or interesting and becoming SHAREABLE.
But but but…
I’m active on Facebook/Pinterest/Twitter/Instagram etc. Will that do the trick instead?
Hmmm. Maybe, maybe not.
Think about, for example, a Facebook post. Unless they go viral straight away, they tend to slip down the timeline and be forgotten, don’t they? They’re not really as easy to share again and again year after year. This blog post above was more than a year old when I stumbled upon it, but still useful! Where are our year-old Facebook posts now?? (No really, where are they? I can’t find the one I wrote last week. 😉 😀 )
A blog post has its own URL, its own little anchor in the vast and stormy sea of the interwebs, and is searchable and SHAREABLE, long term.
Also… what happens when FB falls over next month or next year? What happens when you get put in FB jail because of some random complaint from a troublemaker? (It does happen.)
We don’t own our social media profiles or pages. FB/Pinterest/Twitter/Instagram etc does. And they have “the power of life or death” over us on that platform.
Yes, it’s great to have that social media presence, but the most effective long-term plan is to have it as the support act to our blogs. Our blog is our little piece of internet real estate that we own and control. (Another good reason not to have a free blog, by the way. You’ve got less control with a free blog.)
But I need to write my books, not waste time blogging!
You betcha. I always think of this quote from highly successful indie sci-fi author Hugh Howey on Publishing Perspectives: “There is no promotion as strong as writing the next book. None. That always comes first.”
Very good advice, and a constant challenge to me personally, when wearing my author hat.
But having said that, Hugh Howey blogs. 😉
But I’m so tired!
My security manager demonstrates author fatigue
I hear ya. Oh yes indeed I do. Jobs, families, exercise. A billion things screaming for our attention. And the dishes won’t do themselves, no matter how long you leave them in the sink. (I’ve tried.)
Everyone needs to make their own decision about this, of course.
However, if you find the thought of blogging overwhelming, why not “lower the bar” instead of giving up on the idea altogether?
Maybe you could blog just once a month, to get started? A toe in the water?
In a previous article, I outlined how I built up 10 times as many blog readers over the course of a year, even though I only blogged sporadically — and the 5 factors that I think made the difference. Yes, it’s best to be consistent and moderately frequent (weekly is good), but it does seem that anything really and truly IS better than nothing.
What do you think? To blog or not to blog? What things do you find shareable? How do they work long term?
Featured image via Bigstock/mkabakov
This is such great advice. I’m a fairly new blogger (just started in the past eight months or so), and I find myself wondering now and again why I’m doing it. In fact, I’ve even blogged about that very topic. One thing I’ve discovered is that I really, really enjoy it, especially when i don’t limit myself to any particular topic. Since my blog is still so young, I let myself play around with topics that interest me, and which usually have something to do with writing or my life as it involves writing. Still, I give myself the leeway to explore whatever topic interests me. And that keeps me going. But some days, like today, it’s tough to get myself going. There’s so much other work to be done. And so much other writing that I’m supposed to be doing.
But with this post you’ve given me great incentive to keep writing posts, because you’ve reminded me that posts are shareable. They can live on in a way that a FB or Twitter share won’t. Such a great point that I often lose sight of. Posts have a life outside of other social media, and our other writing. And they can help others gain perspective on topics of interest to them.
So thank you, Belinda, for reinforcing my commitment to blogging.
Thanks for your comment, Colette. You might notice from my home page that it’s been several weeks since I blogged, but not because I’ve “stopped”. Life has been too “full”! But I’m not about to give up blogging because I’m unable to stick to a schedule just now. As my blog has found its shape over time, I’ve realised that I’m building a body of work, not just building stats. And so rather than just churning out something for the schedule, I’ll wait till I have time to write a post of enduring relevance. We all find our own rhythm and purpose in our blogging, and it sounds like you are finding yours. Enjoy!
Looks like an oldie but a goodie. Wish I read this before I gave a talk about blogging!
Really good info here. Glad I found you, Belinda, on Twitter! Now I’ll go to your blog.
Thank you so much, Marlene! I’ll bet you gave a good talk anyway. 🙂
I have tried the blogging route for a while now, and really (and embarrassingly), like Dahlia, I’m hard pressed to find things to blog about or share. From what I’ve seen most blogs tend to have a theme, such as writing tips, or health tips, or even home decorating tips. But I have none of those things. (Well, none of those things that relate to writing) I am just me: a homeschool mom, a wife, a cancer fighter, and a women trying to make a career out of story telling. I’d truly like to connect with my readers, and other bloggers, but I can’t seem to figure out how exactly to do that when I have no “theme” to blog about. This may be asking a lot, but do you have any suggestions about how to figure out a vein of blog ideas?
Hi Kimberly,
I know what you mean, it took me a while to figure out what to blog about. Finally I settled on themes from my blog… Anyone of these topics I think would be great for a blog, “mom (talk about the trials and tribulations of being a mum), a wife, a cancer fighter” (you could talk about your journey).
I hope that helps
Good luck! 🙂
Hi Kimberly, I don’t claim to be the World Expert on blogging, but your story does generate some blogging ideas…
If you’re writing YA, you probably need to decide if you’re blogging for the parents or the readers… either can be OK, because often it’s parents who buy books for YA. (and adults read them too) So those kind of topics that Dahlia mentions could work well for the parents.
Another idea could be to think about what the overarching themes are from your books. Not the plot, but what they are really all about, deep down. Then blog about those themes, as they appear in daily life, or things that spark thoughts along those lines for you from the world around.
Just some thoughts. 🙂
This is such great advice! The Internet is where it’s at today and where you want to be found. Every blog post is an additional page of content that you’re publishing that can be found via search and lead to a potential book sale!
And first of all, it leads to connections and sharing, and that’s the power of it. Thanks Kristen. 🙂
Hi Belinda,
What if you’re not sure what to blog about? The theme of my memoir is (disability/health), and to blog about such a topic I either need a PHD or some sort of health degree.
I’ve already talked about my daily struggles with the disease in my memoir and to blog about them I think readers would get the impression that I was a “sooky la la”.
Do you have any suggestions?
Dahlia 🙂
Hi Dahlia, you need a health degree to diagnose illness or prescribe treatments, but there’s no such requirement if you are talking honestly about what it’s like for you to live with a particular thing. You might be surprised by how many other people out there are dealing with similar things, and could be motivated and encouraged by hearing what you’ve overcome.
I remember reading a blog post by a woman who talked honestly about her struggle with anxiety, and how it affected her daily life. She’d had a huge amount of comments on the post, because so many people felt similar things and wanted to talk about it.
Hope that helps give you some ideas. 🙂
Thank you Belinda :), you’ve given me something to think about!
Great post with plenty of valid points. I wrote a post on my experience on Scrivener and another with details on the best books on writing – they’re regularly resurrected!
And it can take a while for a blog post to become a “classic”, too — it’s rarely immediate. Often it’s that trickle of traffic over an extended period that builds to become quite a stream. Thanks for your comment, Susan. 🙂
Brilliant, Ms. Pollard! You’ve made the whole issue so understandable that I am jealous I didn’t think of this approach first so I could blog about it (lol!). I agree 100%, and I’ll also say that Twitter has changed. It’s not 2011 anymore, when tweeting book sale links resulted in actual sales. Twitter and Facebook are clogged with authors shouting about their wares, and everybody’s tired of it. I actually felt a little embarrassed when I recently tweeted about a 99 cent sale – it just didn’t feel authentic. But my blog post shares feel great, as if I’m adding value to the conversation. Thank you so much for reinforcing why we blog!
Hahaha, Molly, you are my Yoda of blogging. Given me the encouragement to keep going you have. 😀
I confess I am still drawn to the “limited time sale” tweets when I see them. I think it activates the Retail Therapy Gene in me. But the general run of “buy my fabulous book” tweets? Nah. Haven’t paid any attention to them in a lo-o-o-ong while.
I fully agree. I spoke on this subject at a writers’ conference this spring. Some disagreed with me saying FB or Twitter was all an author needed. One writer urged everyone to like her on F B because it made her publisher very happy to see all those Likes. But I don’t think those Likes always create readership. An author needs to build community and find a readership which she can do with a blog. And, as you say, those short snips on FB disappear so quickly. I use FB to draw readers to my blogs and to the sites of other writers i like.
Thanks you for this post.
I’m with you, Glenda. I think FB likes have become very devalued. People have spent so much time urging “like my page” at complete strangers who know nothing of their books and care even less… now, nobody really trusts a “like”.
But as a conduit channelling new readers towards a particular blog post, FB is still a star. Thanks for your comment.
Hi Belinda,
Great article. Many thanks. As I march toward the August launch of Laugh Riot Press, my social media marketing and genre-specific self-publishing company, I’ve been blogging (http://www.laughriotpress.com/blog/) for all the reasons you list above. How awesome to receive professional confirmation from you that I’m on the right track–or at least close to the darn thing. The tricky part of the blogging calculus, I think, is to find your voice, the thrust of your posts, your special shareable point of view that other indie authors might be interested in hearing about. It took me a little time to find it, but I’ve landed on writing about how to live a satisfying, professional writing and self-publishing life when you already have a full life going on all around you–what it means to be a professional self-publishing writer when you’re already a professional something else. I would never have found my footing–or even the courage to look for it–without you and the other excellent, self-publishing trailblazers sharing their thoughts and experiences with the rest of us. Keep it going…
Rich
Rich, it took me quite a while to find my voice and my topics too. It’s not just our manuscripts that are a “work in progress” — we are too! Glad you are finding your way. 🙂
Hey Belinda,
just when I was swithering about the whole blogging thing, you create a post that reminds me of why I do it 🙂 Great post. Thanks 🙂
Marianne, I think we need to be kind to ourselves when life gets on top of us — allow a little blog neglect if necessary — and that makes it easier to keep on bloggin’ the rest of the time. 🙂
I couldn’t agree more, Belinda! If social media platforms leave a thin trail that quickly disappears, blogging is the equivalent of big solid footprints that can be easily traced back to you and your personal space. And if you’ve created a pleasant, hospitable home, the visitor will probably stay to see what’s cooking in the over… Erm, I’m not so sure about the analogy, but you get the point 🙂
Love the analogy, Maria. 🙂 I’ve read about supermarkets piping the smell of baking bread into their stores to make people hungry, and real estate agents often suggest to have bread baking in the oven when prospective purchasers visit a house. So maybe we need to figure out what constitutes “the smell of baking bread” on our blogs, so that when people visit for a particular post, they feel invited to stay around a while. 😉