Monday, May 7, 2012

Blogging


So, when the husband and I began to research indie publishing one of the tenets was always blogging. You have to, so the research said, blog as an indie author. Why? Mostly for the purposes of marketing but also to display your writing prowess. I get that, but here’s my problem with it: I’m writing a book right now. I am right now, currently, (almost) every day, using any bit of my spare time to write another book. Call me crazy…but I think the next book is more important. It is certainly more (to me) engaging.

Speaking of engaging, here’s the other problem with blogging (as a writer of fiction): my life is monstrously boring. Seriously. It is sedentary, slow, and taken up with the usual day-to-dailyness of work, laundry, cooking, dishes, vet appointments, doctor appointments, oil changes, trips to Target, trips to the grocery store, to Petsmart…the only exciting thing in my life is what pours out onto the pages.

So that leaves me with a conundrum. Redirect time and energy away from the small scraps of time I get to write the books so I can write this blog…or give up the blog (to a degree).  I have mostly been giving up on the blog as you can see from the dates. And that’s not ‘good’ marketing.

The marketing aspect of indie authoring is tough. You’re supposed to Facebook, Tweet, blog, Goodreads,  LinkedIn, Tumblr…and I’m sure there are others that I don’t even know about. But how do other authors do it? How does one keep up the marketing and still get books written? I think the answer, unfortunately, is that one doesn’t. And most authors seem to sacrifice writing another book to the altar of marketing.

Sales, while good, fluctuate wildly. There is no correlation (that I can see) between the marketing I try and do and the sales numbers. I have to believe that eventually my fan base will expand and the sales will expand accordingly. I am going to assume that I am in this for the long haul. The long haul means having a good library. That’s why I am going to keep on the track I’m on. I’ll hit this blog when I get the chance, but mostly I am going to write.

And not feel guilty about it.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you're right. I don't believe marketing in any of these social media avenues is really the key. I think it's a part of it and I think it's a great way to connect with your audience. It doesn't hurt to get the word out about your work.

But, ultimately, it's like you said: You just have to write the stories and let the audience build over time. The people who will love your work will find it eventually. Then you can use Twitter and Facebook and so on to engage with them.

That said, I do have a blog myself. Even before I started trying to build my platform as an author, I considered blogging. But, I never did it before I started the author thing because I knew that I would only update it rarely. I still DO update rarely. Only when something strikes me that I think would be interesting to others, or if there's major news regarding one of my projects.

In short, I don't think you need to worry about grinding out content. If something worth saying comes to mind, share it with the world. Otherwise, just enjoy doing what writers do: writing! :-D

Missy LaRae said...

I totally agree with you. I have four books I'm working on and honestly between the internet and marketing it's HARD to figure out where I'm going to find the time to blog too. Seriously.

Christine Dougherty said...

Brandon and Missy, thanks for the comments! I appreciate you taking the time.

I think in the next year or two we'll see a surge of marketers focusing their energies on capturing the media-exhausted indie authors market. But it will all come down to how much you want (as an author) to invest in marketing dollar wise as opposed to time wise.

Sion Smith said...

Hi. I don't think it's so much about marketing as connecting with your readers. Both Neil Gaiman and Cherie Priest blog about nothing at all a lot of the time. Pets and kitchens included, but sometimes opinion pieces as well. The one thing it does make me do with them is spend time with their brands. Indie or published, surely that's just the way it is. You would make time to do your tax return if you knew you had to so surely this is only another little part of the jigsaw? For me, it's the online equivalent of making a visitor a cup of coffee and it's never a chore. For the record, not a lot happens in my life either but I love blogging. It also clears the head of clutter!