After learning that one Australian publishers is asking its authors to keep a blog, Jane Sullivan in the Age looks whether it's such a hot idea. The pitfalls course include the drain of creative energy which could be directed towards the next book; and the strain of finding something new and interesting to say all the time.And Sullivan notes that :
There's nothing more annoying than an author banging on about their latest launch or tour or reviews and trying to be entertaining, when you know they just want you to follow the links and order their books.She goes alone to a blogging workshop and learns that what readers really want is :
... an insight into the blogger's life as a writer, but that doesn't necessarily mean they want a blow-by-blow diary entry about the writer's day. The most popular bloggers take a creative approach.Some of the Australian authors who have the knack, she reckons, are Penni Russon, Jaclyn Moriarty, Maureen Johnson, while the ultimate blogging author is British author Neil Gaiman (1.6 million hits a day!)
There is no doubt that blogging helps an author build a fan base. Many authors also find blogging a very useful way of getting feedback on content before they publish. (You might like to check out this very interesting piece by Tania Ralli which appeared in The New York Times some time back.)
Of course, closer to home we have some very good blogging authors ... check out the Biblioscribblio links in the sidebar!
(BTW any passing authors who don't have a blog but might like to guest blog a piece here, are very welcome to contact me!)
10 comments:
Maybe a writer's blog is a way to overcome writer's block?
Maybe Chet. But an unguarded comment can really ruin your PR. I think most of the blogs for the really high-profile authors are written by PR experts and not the authors themselves. This frees them from expending unnnecessary emotional capital, and also prevents them from saying anything that would jeopardize sales.
*snort of disbelief*
i still miss dina zaman's blog !!
Me too. It was real in the same way that most writer's blogs are not. But as Dina (and other prominent writers) have found out, it's unwise to have a real blog online because people online can be very strange :)
i add my voice to yours ... she was my favourite blogging author too. but you're right about the strange (cruel, downright nasty) people the blog attracted
I'm thinking of starting a blog. I was going to start today but reading this entry has given me cold feet.
why don't you set yourself the goal of blogging for just a short period? maybe a month. just see how it feels and if you enjoy it. i reckon you'd probably would.
you are always very welcome to guest-blog here too ...
Read John Connolly's blog. Wry, witty and amusing with nary a whiff of self promotion. And you get a Best Selling Authors' view on some of the perils of his profession: like accidentally deleting 30000 words of a new book painstakingly researched over months in another country:
http://www.johnconnollybooks.com/2008/03/hell.html
It's still promotion either way, and half the stuff miight be fake. After all, he IS a fiction writer. You never see any stuff about his personal life, because it's a blog designed to promote a book.
All writers are perfect creatures, you never see them get mad, you never see them think any unsanitary thoughts.
The entry didn't go like this :
"I just flushed 30,000 words down the toilet. How could I have been so STUPID ? I mean, what the FUCK was I thinking ?"
I'd bet that was closer to the truth.
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