Fill-Me-In Friday

 


Hope everyone had a fantastic week! I'm *thisclose* to finishing the draft of my novella, so I'm thrilled about that. Now in case you've been busy as well, here's the weekly roundup of the best stuff I've come across on the web this week.

 

On Writing and Publishing:

Is Blogging A Waste of Time? by Meghan Ward

Yes, Authors, You Can Respond to Negative Reviews (with hilarious illustrations) by the League of Reluctant Adults

Up the Wattage: Highlighting Your Books and Byline at Cynsations

10 Things You Should be Doing Right Now by Janet Reid--which turned out to be a bit of a controversial post and inspired "kool-aid" responses like...

Jami Gold's How To Avoid the Publishing Kool-Aid

And another related one by Chuck Wendig: The Publishing Cart Before the Storytelling Horse (BEST post of the week IMO.)

Tips for Twitter by Lauren Dane in which she makes this great point: "when you retweet (RT) an entire list of @ from a #FF (Follow Friday) just to say thank you – this ends up in the feeds of EVERY SINGLE PERSON who was in the original #FF tweet. This happens over and over and it’s getting worse. What this means is that even if I don’t follow you, you’re messing with MY feed"

10 Rules for Twitter Success by BookEnds

8 Ways to Grow Your Social Media Footprint by Jenny Hansen

10 Tidbits About Author Platform by Rachelle Gardner (though I do disagree that for an author blog to be worthwhile it needs 15k hits a month. That's a little high IMO.)

25 Insights on Becoming a Better Writer on The 99 Percent

25 Ways to Stay Creative by Moby Picture

Body Language - Reading Signs and Gestures at Learn, Think, Inspire

Build Your Name and Brand Through Networking (great list of sites to network on) by Curiosity Quills

The Secrets I Don't Tell You by Tawna Fenske (on balancing how much of your personal life you share
online)

Just for Gits and Shiggles:

T-Shirts with Classic Book Themes  at Out of Print Clothing

Top 100 Best Movies of All Time by Lifed

How To Read More: A Lover's Guide at Zen Habits

25 Pictures Taken at Exactly the Right Moment at Buzzfeed

20 Sexy Advertising Campaigns at DeMilked

20 Cool Home Library Design Ideas by Shelterness

Celebrities that Could Be Twins by Faithfully Frugal

Awesomely Creative Celebrity Photos

What You May Have Missed on my Author Blog:

 


What You May Have Missed Here:

My Favorite Tumblr Post of the Week:
For a bigger pic, click here


Okay, so those are my picks for the week? What are some of yours? Fill me in via the comments. And have a great weekend!

 

 


"Hot and romantic, with an edge of suspense that will keep you entertained.” --Shayla Black, New York Times Bestselling author of SURRENDER TO ME

 

 

CRASH INTO YOU is now available for pre-order!

Read an excerpt here.


All content copyright of the author. Please ask permission before re-printing or re-posting. Fair use quotations and links do no require prior consent of the author. ©Roni Loren 2009-2011 |Copyright Statement|

 

Fill-Me-In Friday

 

Hope everyone has had a fantastic week. Welcome to Fill-Me-In Friday where I share some of the best links I've come across this week (and also shamelessly update you on what you may have missed here.) :)
But first a quick announcement: If any of you live in the DFW area, I am doing my first public reading along with a few other authors at the Authors' Roundtable at Bedford Public Library at 7pm on Saturday. (Here are the details if you're interested.) Come see me blush profusely as I try to skip past the parts that I refuse to read aloud in public. :)
Alright, now on to the links...
On Writing and Marketing:
Blogging Tips: Make Your Text POP by Angela Ackerman at The Bookshelf Muse
Your Only Real Competition Is Yourself by Cynthia Leitich Smith on Adventures in Children's Publishing
Meet the Maven: We're Here Whether You Want Us or Not (types of social networkers you should know)  by Kristen Lamb
10 Tips For Planning a Blog Tour by Bryan Thomas Schmidt
Flick Chicks by The New Yorker (found via @Jamie_Wesley 's tweet)
Expect To Work Hard by Jody Hedlund
7 Ways Successful Creatives Think Differently than Unsuccessful Ones by Michael Hyatt (link found via Jody's post above)
Writers Must Kill Self-Doubt Before Self-Doubt Kills Them by Chuck Wendig (and Jenny Hansen's post bouncing off that Do Writers Need Validation?)
Have You Read a Self-Published Book? by Nathan Bransford (make sure and read the comments, interesting thoughts from people.)
For Fun:
Swagger Wagon (found via KB Owens' Blog)
What You Missed on the Author Blog:
What You May Have Missed Here:


 


Favorite Tumblr Posts of the Week:
(click here for bigger pic)
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(for bigger pic click here)
(for bigger pic, click here)
Alright, that's what I have for you this week, what were some of your favorite links of the week? Hope everyone has a great weekend!


 

 

"Hot and romantic, with an edge of suspense that will keep you entertained.” --Shayla Black, New York Times Bestselling author of SURRENDER TO ME

 

 

 

CRASH INTO YOU is now available for pre-order!

Read an excerpt here.


All content copyright of the author. Please ask permission before re-printing or re-posting. Fair use quotations and links do no require prior consent of the author. ©Roni Loren 2009-2011 |Copyright Statement|

 

Is Blogging Dead?

Last week I read a post by Wendy Lawton over at Books & Such Literary Agency in which she talked about "What's Not Working?" when it comes to marketing. One of the things that surprised me was that she listed blogging as the first one that is "not working." She even goes so far as to say this:

"I wouldn't recommend a writer start blogging in order to publicize his book in today's climate. It would be tough to picture a scenario where the outcome would justify the means." 

I have to admit, the statement shocked me a bit. Obviously, I'm a bit biased because I'm an avid blogger and really enjoy that part of social networking. But after I got over my initial pause, I read through the post again to think through what she was saying more rationally.

Her argument is that unless you've already built an uber-blog, then you're going to have a nearly impossible task of standing out in an over-saturated blogosphere.

Okay, I can see her point there. The blogosphere IS glutted. And when it comes to writers blogging, we're a wall-to-wall crowded room of writing advice, writer ramblings, interviews, giveaways, and randomness. After a while, click after click begins to blend together and sound the same. I know my blog reading has gone down in the past year because of lack of time and because much of it feels like reruns. It takes a great headline on Twitter at this point to get me to click over to something. My google reader goes neglected.

So how in the world do any of us stand out in that crowd?

I'm not entirely sure. My guess is that it's often like books--it comes down to the voice of the blogger, the freshness of their take on things (even if they are old things), and their engagement with their readers. And even then, many times the audience on the blog is comprised of other writers--so we're still really only reaching a niche group. A fabulous group, but a limited one a best.

Wendy also, by the way, isn't big on blog tours for the same reason. Authors put forth all this effort to write up new posts and interviews for tour stops--which takes a crapload of time--and then "tour" on sites that pretty much appeal to other writers. So you're swimming in the same pond, promoting to the same school of fish.

Believe me, that is weighing heavy on my mind as I try to formulate my plan for my book release. I am planning to do a blog tour, but now I'm wondering if my time might be better spent doing something else. I mean, there are only so many interviews people want to read. And I'm hard-pressed to think of sites that I could guest on that would expose me to a totally new group of people. I honestly think getting reviewed on the book blogger sites is probably much more effective.

So in that respect, I can see Wendy's point about blogging's effectiveness. (For the record, her exception to the "blogging doesn't work" belief is the person who has a particularly unique slant, some previous celebrity, or an already established audience.)

Does that mean I'm giving up blogging? Hell no. I love blogging. It makes me happy and I feel blessed that you guys are still reading me after two years, lol. (Thank you!) And I really do love reading others' blogs. But this post is not about me (shocking, I know.) ;) This post is for those of you reading who are in the early stages of your blogging or who are considering starting a blog or who have been blogging but kinda sorta loathe it. Here's my opinion, take it for what it's worth.

Even "If" Blogging Is Dying, You Should Blog If...

 

1. You just love blogging and don't care if it's promoting you as a "brand."

2. You are a published author who has or will have fans seeking you out online.

(Caveat: If you are a published author and don't like to blog, that's fine. Just find some online outlet where readers can get to know you and interact--twitter, facebook, whatever.)

3. You have a unique slant to offer (like Wendy mentions).

Meaning, you have something to offer your readers that would sustain a popular blog even if you weren't an author with a book.

4. You write non-fiction.

I'd be hard-pressed to imagine how blogging wouldn't help a non-fiction writer.

5. You're not into short-form social networking like Twitter, FB, Tumblr, etc. and feel more comfortable connecting online in long form.

I'm sure there are others, but these are the ones that come to the top of mind for me. Number one is my reason (and hopefully number two will apply to me soon too, lol.)

So what are your thoughts on this? Do you think blogging is dying? Do you find yourself reading fewer blogs, leaving less comments, or do you see traffic on your blog trending down? How do you connect with the authors you love? What makes a blog a must-read for you even when you develop blog reading fatigue?