The Post In Which I Rant About Blogging, Platforms,and the Pressure on Writers

Typically, I am not one to rant. I'm a pretty easy-going, live-and-let-live kinda girl. But this past week, I was pushed a bit to the brink with this whole author blog thing.

I wrote this post last Friday and since then, the lovely Anne R. Allen has tackled the same topic, so I suggest you read her post as well because I'm going to attempt to not be redundant and to come at it from a different angle.

*Warning: This is a ridiculously long post. I apologize in advance. Grab a cup of coffee and a pastry in case you get peckish halfway through.*

Writers are under a lot of pressure to build their platform. We talk about it ad nauseam here and there are posts everywhere you turn in the writing blogosphere. When I read those posts, I try to pull out the tidbits that may help me and let the rest roll off my back.

But lately, it seems like the noise of what we should and should not do is becoming not just loud but cacophonous, contradictory, and oftentimes, unrealistic in my opinion.

Luckily Agent Sara and my lovely editor are perfectly happy with my web presence and never put pressure on me to do any of it. But this doesn't mean I don't put pressure on myself. And I know many of you out there are doing the same.

So let's look at what's being said as of late about blogging...

1. "Writers should not blog about writing." 

Okay, first Kristen Lamb said it and I understand where she's coming from--you want to reach readers, not just writers. Then Janet Reid said it because she thinks writing about writing makes for a "boring" blog. (From Twitter: booooring. your website is about your finished writing, not your process. Its like watching sausage being made: nooooo")

My reaction: I GET it. I understand why it behooves us to have a broader audience than just writers. This is why I bought Kristen's book and started my separate author blog. But I disagree that blogging about writing is boring and something that should be frowned upon. Anything can be boring if done the wrong way. Also, I think for the writer just sticking their toe in the blogging waters, writing about writing and getting connected to the online writer community are not bad things. It can help you find your blogging voice and build a support network. Then you can gain the confidence to experiment to branch out and expand your topics.

So I trudge along with my "shouldn't be doing it" writing blog and my "more for readers" author blog. I'm not on the ledge yet. I'm doing alright.

Then...

2. There's that post by Wendy Lawton that inspired my Is Blogging Dead? post where she says that blogging may not be worth the time because the blogosphere is glutted and it's going to be impossible to stand out.

My reaction: You can read my full post, but basically, I think if you love blogging, do it. If you think it's going to put you on the NYT Bestseller list, you're probably going to be disappointed. I see fellow authors all the time who've built significant online presences, but I don't see there names rocketing to the bestseller list because of it. I'm sure it doesn't hurt their sales, but you have to think realistically. Even if you have 5000 blog followers and EVERY one of them bought your book--which believe me, will not happen, maybe 5-10% will. You're still not going to make any major list (unless those 5k people bought your book all in the same week--also not likely.)

So off I go, still typing my little blogging heart away, but being realistic. Then...

3. People start talking about what kind of stats you should be getting to be considered a decent blog by NY Publishers.

Agent Rachelle Gardner puts out the statistic that a blog should get about 15k hits a month to be considered good. Then Meghan Ward hears from agent Andy Ross that 100k hits is where it needs to be to get attention and an editor says less than that, but 10k Twitter followers is a good range. So Meghan's research reveals somewhere around 30k hits is what they want us shooting for.

My reaction: *jaw drop * *rant starts boiling within me*  I respect all of these agents who are giving this information. However, this is a seriously intimidating bar to set for people. In summary: Blog, but not about writing, and only if you can get a crap ton of hits, otherwise don't bother because it's worthless. 0_o

This blog, which I think most would consider respectably successful (including my own agent who is totally excited by my numbers), has taken me two years and 500 posts to build. I have roughly 2k followers when you combine RSS and google connect. I definitely don't get 30k hits a month. Not even close to any of those numbers thrown out above.

And 10k Twitter followers? You know how you get 10k twitter followers easy peasy? You go follow 10k people. The number of twitter followers can be completely misleading. People who follow everybody and their daddy will get people following back. But are they engaging with you? And are you going to be able to engage with all those people in a genuine manner if you're following everyone just to get your numbers up? It becomes a meaningless number. (Read Kristen's Having the Right Friends for more on that.)

So after all of this piled up in my brain, here is what I wanted to shout at the heavens: "I am not a blogger who writes. I am a WRITER WHO BLOGS!" *insert expletives that aren't appropriate for this blog*

My main goal is not to become one of the uber blogs that gets 100k hits a month. People who are doing that are BLOGGERS. That is their job. MY job is to write books that people are going to want to buy. My blog and twittering and everything else are accoutrements to that goal. If I wanted to be a blogger for a living, I would've gone and worked toward that.

So I'm begging those out there to take the pressure off of writers.

Yes, blogging and social networking are great tools for your platform. Even though, frankly, the jury is still out on whether it actually sells any significant amount of books. (Check out this post on the supposed uber blogger/writers that Anne linked to in her post.) There will always be "break out" cases and hopefully some of us become one, but the reason why people always say Seth Godin, Neil Gaiman, Konrath, etc. is because there are so few who actually reach that level with an online presence. For every one of them, there are thousands who blog and network their little hearts out and go completely unnoticed.

And yes, blogging about something other than writing will give your readers variety. But almost every "big time' author who regularly blogs, blogs about writing sometimes. Readers like to hear the behind the scenes on occasion. So you don't have to cut it out cold turkey.

And honestly, post-publication, readers go to author blogs to get to know you better. Writing is obviously part of who you are, so why not include some of that along with other things you're interested in.

Niche blogs do the best hits wise (i.e. blogs on cooking or celebrity gossip or crafts), but listen--once you are a published author, YOU are the niche. YOU. Readers aren't coming to you to learn how to scrapbook or play checkers (unless you write books about those things.) They want to know about topics related to your books and you as a person.

This idea that you're going to build some crazy big blog and people are going to flock to it for tips on playing tiddlywinks and think--ooh, look, she's a paranormal romance writer too, I'm going to go buy her book!--is unrealistic in my opinion for fiction writers (non-fic is a whole other animal). If you are not blogging about something that is related to the kinds of books you write, the two dots are not going to connect. I could build a cute puppy pics site, but it's not going to make people want to buy my erotic romance.

And even if it's related, it still may fall flat. I enjoy reading historical romances. But I do not have any particular interest in learning facts about the Victorian period. So if you make your blog about that, I'm not going to be interested. You've gone too niche-y. So try to think of things that are appealing to a broad group of readers. Meg Cabot has a great blog. It's just her using her voice to talk about whatever. And it works because she's an established author and people seek her out--then they see her blog is interesting too, so they stick around.

As for those numbers thrown out there, the only reason you'd need a blog with 100k followers pre-publication is if you want to get a book deal BASED on your blog like that Julia Child book/movie. And your chances of that happening are about the same as striking oil in your backyard. I doubt that's what most of us are going for.

In my humble opinion, here is what a writer should be focused on...

1. Write the best damn books you can (duh). Because ultimately, that's what's going to give you a lasting career and draw people to you.

2. Build an online presence that is meaningful to you and that you get excited about. 

3. Blog about what you want but try to find things that you think will appeal to your target audience. If you're passionate about whatever it is, that will come through and people will want to read it. You are introducing people to yourself and your voice first, the topic is secondary.

4. Do not obsess on the number of followers and hits. It's about building engagement with others NOT about a statistic that may or may not be meaningful. (There are even authors like Natalie Whipple who are so frustrated with that focus on numbers that they are deleting their follower gadget.)

5. Be visible to readers  -- get book bloggers to review you, do interviews, hang out in forums. Don't just stick in the little writing corner of the the world.

6. Genuinely engage with others. Be helpful, be funny, be entertaining--whatever works best for you. A thousand engaged followers is way more valuable than 10k strangers.

7. Decide if you want to be a writer who blogs or a blogger who writes. Big difference. We only have so much time and creative energy in a day, where do you want to channel the majority of yours?

Which path do you think is going to be more likely to lead you to a book deal or writing success?

Spending the majority of your work time writing and honing your craft, while doing social networking and blogging in between?

Or, spending all your time building a mega blog and hoping New York will notice you?

I'm putting my money in the first basket for 99% of cases.

So I'm here to tell you, fellow scribes, to give yourself a break. Stop stressing. My publisher didn't even ask about my blog when they gave me a book deal. As long as I have a website and they know I'm on the social networks, they're fine. They are much more concerned about me writing great books and making deadlines.

And my small potatoes writing blog has gotten me a lot of opportunities. I've been invited to speak for groups without even having a book to sell yet. I've been blessed to meet all kinds of people who are willing to promote me without me asking. I've had people recognize my name who I had no idea were even aware of me.

Will it help me sell books? *shrug* Maybe, maybe not. But I wouldn't go back and change it. The people I've met through blogging have made this more than worth the effort. Maybe I'm doing it all wrong, but it's working for me.

That's not to say that I'm not always striving to do better and that I wouldn't love to get those crazy number of blog hits at some point, but that is not what is going to keep me up at night. I've got enough sleepless nights with my characters chattering at me, thankyouverymuch.

*end rant*

So has any of the recent blogging advice gotten you all stabby? What frustrates you the most about the advice out there? What have you found most helpful? What do you want your blog to be? And do you think blogs sell books?

How Can Authors Reach (Non-Writer) Readers Online?

 


On Monday, Sierra Godfrey posted a blog on What Will You Do With Your Blog When You're Published? This is a question that has weighed on my mind often these last few months. I've been blogging for almost two years now and have stuck almost exclusively to writing topics. However, though I know writers are--first and foremost--readers, I also know that the bulk of the audience I'm trying to reach with my books are not writers so would have no interest in posts on adverbs. :) So does that mean I should shift my focus to more reader related topics and broaden the blog's appeal?

Reach Out

Photo by Stuart Pilbrow

 

Hmm....

Well, I don't think so. And here's why. I'm not convinced that your average, non-writing reader is signing up to read their favorite authors blogs daily or weekly no matter what the blog is about. I know there are exceptions and for YA authors, this is probably different because teens may actually want to connect with authors in that way. However, in general, my guess is that most people hanging around authors' blogs are, well, other writers. Even I don't visit my favorite authors blogs regularly unless they are writing-related or perhaps having a contest--and that's saying something because I love blogging like I love puppies. I just don't have the time or the inclination.

So I don't have any intention of changing my blog focus at this point. I like talking about writing. It's what's on my mind and I learn by doing research for posts. However, what's a girl to do if I want to reach readers online or if I eventually have readers out there who want to connect with me online in some way?

Here's my take: Twitter! (and Facebook *grumble*)

Okay, so you all know of my love for Twitter. I haven't exactly made it a secret. But here's the beauty of it. You can be random. In fact, I encourage some randomness. It gives people following you a way to connect very easily.

The Importance of Being Random...

You can have a theme on Twitter. Some people only tweet writing links and that's great. (In fact, I love those people because it's super helpful to me.) However, they are appealing to a certain niche--like my blog is. But if you broaden what you tweet, you can connect with lots of people from all kinds of backgrounds.

For instance, I tweet about writing, I get writers responding and retweeting. I tweet about my toddler throwing a monster tantrum, I get parents responding and starting conversation. I tweet about 30 Seconds to Mars, I get loads of fellow women chatting with me about how yummy they are. I tweet about a book I'm reading, fellow readers join in. It's random, sometimes silly, but I'm amazed at how I'll tweet something totally offhand and that will inspire someone who's never messaged me before to chime in and chat. It's great. I've met so many new people this way.

If someone wants to get to know me online, Twitter gives them a pretty well-rounded picture of my personality. And I think this is what will appeal to a reader. I know that I love following my favorite authors on Twitter and they rarely tweet about writing. But it's fun to hear about whatever is going on in their lives. We get to see that they are real people and even reach out and message them. It's easy, relaxed, and fun.

So that is my plan for now. Keep the writing blog and continue being as random as I want to be on Twitter (and try to keep active on Facebook which I kind of hate but I know many prefer it to Twitter). I think this will allow me to continue networking and enjoying my online time with other writers, but will also provide an avenue for me to connect with potential readers as well.

So what do yo think? If you're published, how do you handle your online presence and blog? If you're pre-published, do you see your blog changing once you have a book deal? As a READER, how do you (if you do at all) connect with your favorite authors? 


And if you're not following me on Twitter, you must rectify that situation immediately. Hit this button in the next ten seconds or this blog post will self-destruct: www.twitter.com/RoniLoren

Authors on Twitter: The Danger of Being Too Clique-y

Last week I talked about ways to chase away Twitter followers. Thanks, by the way, for all the retweet love on that one. :)  One of the things I talked about was that you shouldn't follow loads of people just to get people to follow you back because it's not genuine and makes you look like a spammer (i.e. people will see you follow 40k tweeters and how can anyone really keep up with that?)

 

However, after a conversation with Jamie Wesley about what annoys her about certain authors on Twitter,  I'm starting to wonder about that high "follow" vs. "follower" count. In the Twitterverse, there is this impression that you must be really important/supercool/whatever if you have a high number of people following you, but you personally only follow a handful of people. Basically--everyone wants to be your friend, but you only grant that "privilege" to an elite few. (High school never ends it seems.)

Now most people who do this do it not because they're being a "twitter snob" but because they don't want to be overwhelmed by three thousand peoples' tweets. I TOTALLY get that because I follow about a thousand people and that got way too hard to manage,so I had to start using lists (more on that later). And if you're, for instance, an editor or an agent--where everyone is seeking your attention--it makes sense to limit who you follow only to people you truly have a connection with in some way.

However, I think for an author this practice can really shoot you in the foot instead of helping you. We are writers. We want to connect with readers. We want to sell books and build a fanbase. Right?

So why-oh-why if you're an author would you only follow your "clique" of friends and not follow your readers, the people who are paying their hard-earned money to buy YOUR book? 

I know it's silly, but you know how much better I feel about an author if I @ her/him on Twitter and the person responds? All of a sudden, this author's coolness factor has jumped off the charts. It makes me like them more. It makes me want to support them and their books because they are REAL and FRIENDLY and APPROACHABLE. And if they follow me, then wow, I'm really won over.

On the other hand, if I follow an author and they don't follow me (fine), but then they ask questions of their readers/audience and I respond--and get no response or even a general "Thanks to everyone who commented", then I feel a little huffy. Now if you're Stephanie Meyer or Stephen King or whatever, then it's understandable. Uber-fame gets you a pass. I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about your average author who has a few thousand followers.

When they don't respond or acknowledge, plus don't follow--the impression that is left is--this author thinks they are too important/busy/big-time and doesn't feel like their readers are important enough to acknowledge even after they've asked directly for their help. So when that same author hops back on Twitter and is announcing their book release or contests and asking for retweets--well, I'm just not that motivated to go out of my way for them.

So the question is, as an author, how do you 
a) Make your readers/followers feel important? and 
b) Do so without being bombarded daily with 80 bazillion tweets you're not interested in?

Answer: Lists!

Twitter allows you to make both public and private lists. Then you can use a program like Tweetdeck and have your main column just the tweets of people on that list. For instance, I follow over 900, but there are only about 100 on my "super awesome people" list. It's private, so no one can see if they are on my list or not. But this makes it manageable to follow, while I'm still able to follow "in general" the other 800 people in another column if I want. And if I end up interacting with someone who is not on the list and making a connection, it's easy enough to add them to my super awesome list.

Doing this allows me to have my cake and eat it too. I can have my clique of people who I talk with regularly while not alienating new people who may become great friends or readers or whatever one day.

So what do you think of this method? How do you feel when an author you like interacts with you or follows you? How do you feel if they don't do those things? And do you think someone is less awesome if their follow vs. follower ratio is closer to even instead of lopsided?

Today's Theme Song
"High School Never Ends" - Bowling For Soup
(player in sidebar, take a listen)


 

Twelve Ways To Scare Away Twitter Followers

 

Scared

Photo by Capture Queen (cc)

I heart Twitter. It took me a little while to get the hang of it, but now I'm addicted. I barely even remember that Facebook exists. I think Twitter is a far superior networking tool and makes it way easier to meet/chat with friends and promote whatever you need to promote. The power of the retweet is amazing. So, if you're not on there yet, get thee to Twitter.

 

However, as with anything else, there are ways to do it and ways NOT to do it. For instance, when people follow me, I like to follow them back. However, sometimes people make this exceptionally difficult to do. So please, if you are on Twitter or join up, don't do these things if you want to be followed.

Ways to Scare Away Twitter Followers

1. Protect Your Tweets
Yes, I'm sure some people have good reasons for making their Twitter stream secretive. However, if I can't see what you tweet about, I'm not following you. Sorry.

2. Promote Your Book/Program/Website/Whatever NONSTOP
OMG. So many people do this and I have no idea what they are thinking. Do not be an infomercial. It's fine to mention that you have a book releasing or pimp your blog post for the day. But when every tweet is Check out my book! Read an excerpt! Ten percent off my book! etc. you will drive people away.

3. Only Tweet Inspirational Quotes
I'm not following you to get Hallmark card vomit all day. Stop with your sunshine and rainbows!

4. Never Interact With Anyone (One-Way Tweeters)
This is equivalent to standing in the middle of a party and only announcing things about yourself and not paying attention to anyone else. Twitter is about conversation and interaction.

5. Don't Put Anything in the About You section
If I go to your site and you have NOTHING about yourself, I'm not following. I need to know what our commonality is. Are you a mom/writer/NKOTB fanatic? Who are you?

6. Don't Ever Respond to @ Messages
When people take the time to comment on something you said or retweet you, reach out and tweet that person back. You aren't Ashton Kutcher, you have time to do that.

7. DM (direct message) me right after I follow you to do #2 (no, not THAT number two, the one above)
Nothing will make me unfollow you quicker than if you send me a message right after I sign up to follow: "Hey, thanks for the follow. Check out my new book at lame website dot com."

8. Only Tweet When You Want To Promote Yourself, then Disappear
I see a lot of people do this. They've been told they "should" be on Twitter as an author. (And you should be.) But then they ONLY get on to do that promotion with a drive-by tweet. My book is releasing today! Woot! Then you don't see another tweet from them for a month.

9. Use the words "motivational", "entrepreneur", or "coach" (unless it's of a sport) in any way, shape or form to describe yourself.
All I hear with those words is "unemployed".

10. Be negative, hateful, or rude.
This one's obvious, but I see a lot of people go the negative route. They may not be rude, but they spend all their Twitter time bitching and bellyaching. It's okay sometimes, but if that's all you tweet about, it gets old fast.

11. Follow anyone and everyone just to get people to follow you back. Who can really follow the tweets of 35k people?
If someone is following super high numbers of people, it's a warning sign that they're not really engaging with anyone, probably just trying to promote.

12. Floods of lists of people to follow.
Writer Wednesday (#WW) and Follow Friday (#FF) are awesome, but it's a little much when all day you're pumping out constant lists of who to follow. We all stop paying attention after a while. And it seems like some people do this just to get followed back because oftentimes people who "mention" that you should follow me, don't even follow me themselves!

So those are the main pet peeves I could come up with. Thanks to those of you who contributed some of these when I posed the question on Twitter. What other Twitter behavior is annoying to you? What will make you not follow someone or unfollow them?

**Today's Theme Song**
"I Will Follow You Into the Dark" - Death Cab for Cutie
(player in sidebar, take a listen)



 

Tweeting Interns: Helpful or Hurtful?

 

Want to know who won my birthday contest?  You'll have to scroll down to see.  But first, today's topic--the Twitter Queryfest/Queryslam debate.

 

For those of you who haven't heard about it, here's the gist: there was an anonymous intern on Twitter (InternAmie/Amy Cortese) who would tweet thoughts about the queries as she was reading them. No identifying information was given, but she'd give tidbits like: This memoir has a good premise, but the writing isn't there or sample pages had too much passive voice. It wasn't anything earth-shattering usually, but I know she had a lot of followers (including myself.)

Well, people began to react to it because, despite the vagueness, it still seemed like dangerous waters in terms of confidentiality. It's one of those things that when it's not about YOU, it can be interesting or funny, but then when you start considering it may be your query getting tweeted--well, then it starts feeling a little different. (Just like any other teasing--easy to be in the crowd, not quite as fun to be in the spotlight.)

Agent Janet Reid got wind of what was going on and did a post here on why we shouldn't assume all interns are operating that way and on the inappropriateness of that tweeting intern's actions.

People have a range of opinions. Penelope at Too Cute to Be Very Interesting (whose post sparked mine) found the tweets informative, so was disappointed that InternAmie is now shut down. Others feel very strongly the other way.

Now, for the record, I don't think this intern had bad intentions. I'm sure she thought she was being helpful. But I tend to err on the side of privacy and confidentiality. When I was a management recruiter, I would get hundreds of resumes a week. Therefore, much of my day was spent going through these things. Just like queries, some were great, many were awful. Some made mistakes so glaring that they were laughable.

And I'll admit, amongst my fellow recruiters we did discuss them. i.e. Can you believe this person put SexyHotThing@wherever.com as her email on her resume? Or, look this person's "reason for leaving" for their last job was "my boss was a jerk." Discussing it kept the job sane--it's what people do at work.

BUT, we were discussing it privately amongst ourselves. If we had tweeted that (if Twitter existed back then), we would've been in some serious trouble--written up, fired, etc. because those people didn't give us permission to discuss their information publicly.

Now, hearing agent and intern feedback on queries can be wildly helpful. The workshop I went to at RWA (also called Queryfest) was great. The agents gave honest feedback live as they heard queries read aloud. Some of the feedback was tough. Hearing where agents would stop reading was probably tough on the people who wrote the queries. However, the difference is that those writers VOLUNTEERED. They knew they would be discussed publicly and had given permission for that to happen.

So, in my opinion, I think that's where the line is. Did the person give permission? Because otherwise, you need to put on your empathy shoes and think--if I saw an intern or agent tweet about how terrible my writing/query was, how would I feel?

I think it's fine for agents/interns to tweet overarching things that are helpful. i.e. Too many of the YA queries we're seeing are about werewolves. Or something like that. But when it gets specific, it risks humiliating people and making the agent/intern look unprofessional.

But I'd love to hear all of your opinions. Do you find these kinds of tweets helpful? Did it make you nervous that one day your query would be the subject of that kind of tweet? Do you think people are being too overly sensitive about this issue?

And finally, the winners of last Monday's Birthday contest....

First place: KLM at Cove Awakening 

Second place: Diane at Diane Estrella


Congrats to the winners!!!!  I'll be emailing you about your prize. And thanks to everyone who entered the contest!