To Blog or Not To Blog, That is the Question

Writers blog for many reasons: some do it to express their ideas and thoughts, others want to belong to a guild and discuss a variety of subjects, but a big number seek to create a platform through their blogs. My main concern here is whether or not blogging is an effective self-promotion and marketing tool for unpublished writers.

A few years ago every checklist for the author-to-be included creating a platform via blogging, updating it regularly, finding a niche, etc. This advice included fiction writers. I remember the resolute words of an editor I met at a conference a few years ago. She said that a platform was essential for any writer.

“They tell you a fiction writer doesn’t need a platform, but they’re lying to you,” she said. She mentioned celebrities who write fiction and pointed out how quickly and easily it is for them to publish a book, no matter the quality of the writing or the genre. “It is about who’s in your Rolodex,” she repeated again and again. “It’s all about platform.”

Fast forward to last April. I attended another conference and had the opportunity to speak to a NY agent during lunch. I asked her the following question: what is a significant number of blog followers to make it worth mentioning to an agent or editor? Her answer left me cold. She told me not to even bother mentioning my blog unless I had a minimum of 30,000 followers. Kindly peek at the column in your right and you will see that it would take most of us an entire lifetime to achieve those kind of numbers (unless we post a video of us engaging in activities that involve naked body parts!)

Honestly, I’ve never seen a blog with such a large following.

Another agent who shall remain unnamed told me that a blog is NOT indispensable unless you are a YA writer (since teenagers are so in tune with the internet and technology) but no so much for authors of adult fiction. This makes sense to me, but I also see a lot of adults participating in blogs. 

And what do we make of the fact that most of our readers seem to be writers? Do we, writers, represent a following that could truly translate to readership? Or are we just trying to support each others’ efforts? Sure, most writers are also readers, but does that mean we will read anything other bloggers publish?

There is yet something else to consider: competition. According to Wikipedia, two years ago there were over 156 million blogs in existence. Whether we want to or not, our blogs compete for attention. That is why we break our heads trying to come up with interesting subjects, appealing photos and eye-catching titles. If getting an agent or getting published also requires standing above the rest, should we devote the same amount of time and effort we do with our novels to enhance our blogs?

My conclusion is that it all boils down to motivation. Figuring out what you want to get out of your blog is what determines whether or not you should have one. If your goal is to have an exchange of ideas with like-minded individuals and peers, to build your non-fiction resume with articles/interviews or perfect your writing skills, then blogging is the perfect venue for that. If your goal is only to build a platform, then you’d better come up with a very unique concept that will make your blog stand out and attract a substantial readership.  

So my question here today to all of you successful bloggers, published and unpublished, is this: can a blog create a significant platform for unpublished (fiction) writers? Has your blog helped you in your publishing endeavors? Why do you blog?

For both sides of the issue, check out these awesome articles:

http://www.sjlaidlaw.com/blog/why-writers-shouldnt-blog/

http://www.writersknowhow.org/articles/2012/12/27/7-reasons-writers-should-blog.html

http://jodyhedlund.blogspot.com/2012/10/is-blogging-time-suck-for-writers.html

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedershen, Goodbye:Violante Departs with One Last Word on Blogging

It is with a heavy heart that I bid goodbye to the Sisterhood, this blog and my anonymous audience. After two terrific years, the time has come to leave. Due to circumstances beyond my control, it will be impossible for me to continue contributing monthly posts.  So, I must cease being a blogger, which by no means stops me from being an avid follower, reader and commentator.

Looking back with affection, I realize that belonging to the Writing Sisterhood has been an über experience, one that has taught me plenty and not only about writing and writers. It has taught me about blogging and what to expect from it. I am tired of hearing that the Blog Age is over, that only video blogs have any hope in the age of Tumblr. Hey, I once heard Facebook would die with the advent of Twitter, and that blogs would kill forum life forever. Time has proved wrong all those prophecies.

Undoubtedly, there are more blogs than readers out there, but blogging is still a fairly respectable activity, as long as you abide by certain rules. First rule:  never blog about “everything.” The days of blogs that covered every subject under the sun are passé. A blog must always stick to a particular topic, but don´t make it too general or too specific.

My blog Latinas Del Ayer was meant to cover a myriad of issues concerning how women lived in Latin America in the first half of the Twentieth century.  The amalgam of subjects, ranging from fashion to entertainment, turned out to be too broad.  It confused the readers and I never got faithful devotees.

Around that same time, I began to compose another blog, this time I devoted the place to Fantasy Fiction.  Although the posts covered film, books and television series, I soon recognized that “thronies” and “fangbangers” were my audience. I began to pen weekly recaps of “Game of Thrones” and “True Blood.” Even after the seasons were over, I continued increasing my clientele by devoting 80% of my material to A Song of Ice and Fire matters. Since there are several” Game of Thrones” blogs around, I didn’t want to turn mine into a GOT site. My solution was to alternate the ASOIAF entries with posts on fictional vampires, witches and, that ever lasting favorite, Harry Potter.

As a blogger, your most important concern should always be your audience: who do you write for? What do they need? Thanks to Google search terms you may attract tons of visitors, but what matters is to entice them to become permanent guests. I absolutely agree that in order to gather a large following, the blogger has to visit and participate in similar blogs. It´s how I built a nice set of devotees in my first blog, but for some reason it didn’t work with my Fantasy Blog. Either some bloggers were not aware of the “reciprocal visiting card” rule or were not into creating a community.

There are many misconceptions and Murphy´s laws about how to blog properly, but one point that everyone agrees upon is that a blog is nothing without constant visitors. Apparently, there are three steps to achieve traffic and followers:  post often, post brief and post new.  Hogwash!

Sure, tons of people visit blogs every morning to watch the hottest video. In our audiovisual-oriented, semi-illiterate, attention-deficit afflicted culture, videos are fantastic. They demand less time, less intelligence and less attention to enjoy them. However, if a hundred blogs (plus YouTube) are showing the same video, who could want to visit them to watch the identical thing over and over again? It just doesn’t make sense.

This problem applies to written news as well. With so many places devoted to newscast activity, it´s a waste of time to wander from blog to blog reading similar accounts. Back in the early Twentieth-First Century, blogging revolutionized journalism, because blogs added editorial comments to every scoop. Soon users flocked to blogs just to share or challenge the blogger’s opinions. This is what made blogs so popular and so exceptional. Alas! That art seems to have lost its way in the days of up-to-the-minute, condensed, and frequently blogging.

Joining the race to get the “latest” bit in your blog seems like a futile exercise.  I am not an advocate of the “new” especially if your blog is, like mine, a place in search of “unique.” That is a term used in my last job to refer to regular customers who commented regularly on whatever you posted. Those people are rare, precious and difficult to fish. From experience and observation, I can assure you, they don’t care for “the latest.” They crave inventive opinions, a good blogging voice, and shared tastes rather than flashy and bizarre posts. They don´t mind reading a page or more when the content and writing are of quality.

When it comes to length, I have to declare myself guilty. I do tend to get carried away, but I also like to read meaty and comprehensive posts. Although I´m trying to condense my articles, I have come to the conclusion that half-a page posts, regardless of its subject matter, are useless.  An effective piece should take you a page and a half to express it, but unless the topic merits a longer exposition, keep it under the four-page limit.

Regular posts are also an issue. Although, the consensus among the Sisters is that we are extremely proud of our blog and its achievements, I think that if time had let us, we could have posted more often. However, work, family obligations, and the fact that some of us are joggling personal blogs as well as this one, prevented us from bringing more frequent contributions.

Nevertheless, beware of the word “frequent." Three juicy weekly posts are more than enough. Daily long entries will exhaust your creativity and drown readers with too much data, thus diminishing your chances of getting useful sensible comments and encouraging the desired debate.

My last advice has to do with “unique voice,” a rather abstract concept that keeps coming to my mind when I ran into a blog so welcoming that makes me want to tarry. I believe that each of this Divine Blog’s founding Sisters owns a personal voice (opinion, writing style, etc), and that is our greatest asset. But if you are running a one wo/man blog then you’ll have to find your own way of making it an outstanding place. 

Talented bloggers may enhance their place with their own visuals whether is artwork, personal photographs or home-made videos, and then there are those that are constantly coming up with contests and games.

What happens if you are not artistically gifted or lack the imagination to create contests?  Then you have to rely on subtler ways of making your blog unique. Look around at similar blogs.  What are they lacking? What it’s missing from them that could attract customers? What demographic group they are not targeting? Fliling a gap can make your blog stand out among others that address analogous subjects.

One last word before leaving this fabulous spot.  If I learned something from the company of my Sisters, it’s the importance of courtesy and hospitability in running a blog. I was terribly moved when a dear friend and former boss described the Sisterhood as “a cozy, warm place where ladies could drop for tea.” So I strongly advise those who read me to continue enjoying the welcoming atmosphere of this blog and to recreate it when building a space of your own. G-d bless you all!

Do you blog? Share your experience and tips on how to make a blog a special place.

Blogging hazards: The dangers of going public.

Blogging is one of the twentieth-first century’s major inventions. It allows us to express opinions, to share common interests with people all over the world, and to refine our writing technique. It gives the established author a forum to dialogue with readers; agents use it to hook new clients, and for novice writers blogging can be a way to display their work or to kvetch about the apprenticeship’s pitfalls and woes. But as it happens with everything on the net, blogging forces you into the public light which has its dangers.

Several governments are creating policies to restrict blogs that, according to them, promote “social unrest. Since “social unrest” has a very broad meaning, we could all be guilty of such crime. The term already shows us how blogging could easily turn into a high-risk sport.

Recently, a friend of mine told me about her fears of blogging on the subject of an incident involving an agent she was hoping would represent her. Suddenly, I realized that a blog entry could be as risky as posting a compromising photo on Facebook. Anybody could read you: the FBI, your boss, a former boyfriend or your mother-in-law. Anybody could misinterpret your opinions and distort your public image. Blogging unwisely might shorten your chances of getting published or getting a job or might help you lose the one you already have.

Aside from collaborating with the Sisterhood, I own a personal blog and manage a professional blog at work. The three of them deal with different subjects, nonetheless I always use a pseudonym and even in my private blog, I seldom give my e-mail to people. So much secrecy could limit your attempts to expand your social network but in the long run it‘s for the best.

It´s every blogger’s goal to gather a large audience and plenty of comments, but sometimes we draw in the wrong type of visitors. Remember, trolls abound in the Internet. Of course, the blogger has the power to veto them, but what happens when regular and friendly followers become trolls? It could happen. Hear this story. A friend of mine started a personal blog that eventually took a political stand. She called herself a “social observer” and started to treat her blog as a column to discuss current events.

In time, she collected a circle of faithful retainers with whom she debated at a personal level, certain they shared her same views. But one day, she wrote a post that bothered several of them. Something hit the fan, the debate heated up and turned rude, reaching the point where my friend received remarks that amounted to racial slurs. It was an eye-opener for her to know that people she had grown fond off were, in fact, hostile strangers.

Even anonymity has its drawbacks. Many a time, I have been taunted by users who accuse me of cowardice because I hide behind a nick. Whatever! But another friend in her incognito efforts had a bizarre experience. Not only did she blog under a pseudonym, she made an avatar using a snapshot of a character in a well-known soap. Then she met a fellow blogger who started to come frequently to her place. In a nutshell, they became friends, and he began to court her. She was very flattered by the courtship until she realized he had fallen in love with her avatar assuming it was the blogger’s real likeness!

Finally, a word of caution to authors. Beware of growing too chummy with readers that flock to you blogs. We are all very protective and sensitive of our work, so, let´s keep off harm´s way. I know of agents who had been harassed by disgruntled clients; authors’ followers who pester them with requests, and novice writers hurt to no end by biting comments about their manuscripts.

Oh yes, you can block them, but even reading nasty comments is a hassle you don’t wish to endure. I was tickled pink to have a published Argentine writer reading my blog, but I made one thoughtless comment in Facebook, and he departed for friendlier meadows not to be heard from again. That incident forced me to understand that there should be a certain distance between readers and their favorite author, just to keep the balance.

Finally, I came across an article that alerted me of another blogging hazard, one that affects writers in particular. In blogging you might lose, rather than gain, writing skills. Proper language and style are bypassed in favor of quick, brief, witty exchange, pretty much like it´s happening in Twitter. You don´t want to be pedantic, you don´t want to write over the heads of potential followers so you lower your writing standards. Ouch! I never thought of that danger.

I want to hear your opinions, bloggers and readers. In which ways do you think blogging could help your writing careers and in which ways being a blogger could jeopardize your work as well as your mental peace?