Writing, Self-Publishing, Book Marketing

Your BFF: A Blog Is an Author’s Best Friend

August 27, 2009 at 10:44 am angiekp Leave a comment

Blogs are to writers as dogs are to man. What could be a more perfect best friend for a writer than a dynamic public notebook? No matter the status of your career as an author, starting and keeping a blog could be just the thing that will help you advance your career and excel in your unique writing craft. Here are a few reasons why:

Find and develop your voice. A blog can range from extremely formal, to completely personal. But one rule for all blogging applies: let your personality shine. Now, you shouldn’t let just anything fall of out your mouth – eh, mind – online. Just because you can say whatever you want doesn’t mean that you should. Just remember that anyone can read your blog, so think about your grandmother, neighbor and boss reading your work before posting it.

Keep a writing history. A blog captures your work over time and provides a handy catalog of your work for you to flip through whenever you want. Perhaps you touched on a subject that you want to dig into more deeply. You can review your writing and critique it, picking out the parts that you liked and making gagging noises in disgust at the parts you don’t. But don’t be too hard on yourself – by reviewing past work, you can often see how far you’ve come.

Write on a schedule. Blogging requires that you keep a schedule, whether it is daily or weekly. A schedule also means that some of the time you will not be able to wait to post your incredible blog, and other times when you will not want to write, you will not have time and you have nothing to write about. It’s a love/hate relationship, but it will make you a better writer.

Overcome fear of public scrutiny. Putting your work out there in front of others is scary. They will think things … about your work … about you! The more practice that you have putting your work out there, the more natural it will become. Truth is, if you aspire to be an author, you will be judged by others. That’s just part of it.

Receive feedback. One good thing about putting your work on display, is that you can improve your work from feedback that you receive. You should encourage your reader’s direct input. And you should look for indirect cues. For instance, if you get no comments, or minimal views on a particular post, and a lot of activity on another, you can use this indirect feedback to form a pattern of which kinds of posts and writing styles readers prefer. But, no matter what, always remain true to your voice, your heart and your writing goals. Don’t let negative feedback stop you from developing your writing craft and pursuing your dreams.

Develop a reader base. By starting a blog now, and being actively engaged in reading and participating in other blogs, forums and social networks, you are starting to build that all important author platform that will help you market your book in the future.

Escape from ongoing projects. When you are working on a piece that consumes most of your time and concentration, it is helpful to step away for a moment to write something unrelated for a while, in order to come back to your work with a fresh perspective. You’ll avoid burnout and maintain your flexible writing skills (and sanity).

Starting a blog is easy and many are free. The hard part is to stick with it for the long haul and continually churn out smart, engaging content. Are you up for the challenge? Have you already started a blog of your own? Share your successes, challenges, tips and a link to your blog in the comments.

Keep writing.
-Angie Kelly Pheifer

Entry filed under: Marketing, Writing. Tags: authors, blog, blogging, blogging tips, writing tips.