The blog thing

It's organic. Having a blog can be a success or failure, like anything else. It's not a prerequisite for anything (as far as I know), but it can be used for marketing, like any other soapbox.

The thing about a blog is that you can do an end-run around the editors. They are not your gating factor, so you write whatever you wish, and if you are a good writer, even the stuff that isn't flashy and sexy will get read. If you build up an audience, you may have a massive enough following that editors start considering you a viable investment, even if they didn't think so previously.

Also, some people (such as myself) will buy a book from a blog writer, just to have the physical object to keep. It doesn't matter that the writing is on the blog already. In most cases, the blog was a 1st or 2nd draft, anyway, and the book has the cleaned-up-by-a-pro-editor version.

And for some writers, they don't republish what is in the blog. They just use the blog as a way to let their 100,000 closest friends know to buy a new book.

Note that a good blog takes a lot of work. It can eat up the time you expected to spend doing paid writing jobs. I have had a hard time balancing work-time and blog-time.

-Tony

I pretty much agree with everything Tony said above, but I have a couple of more points.

Blogs, especially for the newer writer, allow them the opportunity to get used to putting stuff out there. Everytime you write an entry, it is immediately viewable to the rest of the world wide web. If the work is filled with errors and typos, people will see that. Definitely not a way to grain readers.

Blogs are time consuming. Writing and promoting them to others take a bit of doing. It's also a good thing to read the blogs of others, and comment with your own thoughts on the topic mentioned in the blog so others see you. Some will see what you have to say in the comment and want to read more.

Authors use their blogs as a bit of promotion. Getting started with your blog can help build a readerbase, so when you do sell your work, you might possibly have a few fans or supporters that will buy as well.

I think stories like these (people getting big book deals from their blogs, or from their self-published books, etc.) do happen, but they're exceptions to the rules, kind of like winning the lottery.

Effective blogging (such as the ones that get these "book deals") does take tremendous amount of time and effort, and one must have a good voice, a unique view or at least something that is marketable. And I suspect that tyou need to REALLY reveal yourself -- in public -- to attract that kind of attention. Sure, writing a blog about your affair with a politician would probably get someone to notice. But are you willing to go that route to get published/rich/[in]famous?

If you're writing novels, then blogging probably won't help you much. Non-fiction? Anything goes, I guess.

So what's the big deal? Anyone can blog, right? But anyone can "write" a novel, too.

Blogs are just like anything else. Anyone could pick up a pen (or fire up a computer) and write a "novel." But is it any good? Is it marketable? Would anyone want to read it? I'm sure if you're a good writer and you have plenty to say, blogging might be a good venue. Otherwise, garbage is garbage, whether it's a blog or a vanity-published book or a piece of paper with scribbled notes.

One of the good things about blogging regularly is that you get accustomed to producing writing for a deadline. You also are aware that your writing will be read--so you treat it seriously. You do get feedback from your readers. It's a way of writing something with less restriction than your current novel, for instance, and may be a good warm up exercise. But you still need to have something to say, and you need to say it well.

I blog because I want to and I'm interested in something that I choose to share with the everyone else. I may have over looked this in a previous post or something but blogs aren't all public. I'm not sure if all weblogging hosting sites have this feature but some do where you can choose to make your blog public or private. Though some bloggers have to be careful of the copyright issue. I heard that is becoming a big problem lately.

Isn't it true though that if you post one of your short stories or whatever on your blog that it's considered already published and you can only sell the story as a reprint to magazines? I think I read that somewhere.

I think that's mostly true. I know a few workshop sites where your posts are removed after 90 days or so, and in those cases, I don't really consider that publishing. I'm workshopping it. But there are other scenarios, such as posting a short story onto your blog, where it probably counts as first publication. After all, you're blogging for readers, you're leaving it up, it probably (if you're using Blogger or MT) has a "permalink" that implies it will be around forever. If 6000 people in North America have already read your story, how can you sell "First North American rights" to some other magazine?

Personally, I look at my blog as self-publishing. If I decide to put something there, then that's it, it's published. Of course I secretly hope I can get an editor to reprint it as my "collected writings" someday.

-Tony

Sorry I can't input much on the blog thing. I am currently working on getting my own website, though. I'll let you know how it goes, if you want?

Welcome to the board!

I like blogging for practicing different types of writing that I'm not so great at.

For instance, on my blog, I have several columns where I review every video I watch, one for restaurants, one for whiskey, etc. I'm a horrible review writer, but every time I write a review, I probably get a little better at it.

When I'm comfortable with the form, I'll start submitting reviews to the weeklies in my town and maybe have some good clips. Maybe I'll even make a few bucks. However, if my review writing doesn't improve, my friends and family know what's new in my life! For me, those are the two main purposes of my blog.

Oh yeah, and to practice my mad design skillz - word.

Go to www.blogger.com and let them take care of everything for you. They'll even do some minor publicity for your blog if your first few entries are really top-notch (they feature great new blogs for a few days).

-Tony

Thanks for the great information! So if a new blogger who wants to head down the path of getting devoted readers for a possible publishing platform, is there a particular blogging 'program" or whatever it is called that would be better than another? Are they free or does it cost? Thanks again.

Click to expand...

Three ways to build readers:

1. Have great content
2. Publish full RSS feeds
3. Submit links to individual stories to larger sites for links

The latter means that anyone searching for keywords, like, say, 'Publish America' will have them pop right up in PubSub or other such tools.

Your platform has no effect on this.

to the Cooler!