And I’m Reading This Because… ? August 19, 2008
Posted by eviljwinter in Writing.trackback
Following up my last post (from last Thursday. Hey, I was busy, and writing was one of the things I was busy with), I’ve noticed a disturbing trend made all the more disturbing by social networking sites. Comedians aren’t so bad about it, since, like musicians, we’re obligated to point out our gigs to potential audience members. But writers?
There’s a kind of stench of desperation I’m seeing. Blogs that are solely and entirely about whatever the author has out. As I said, authors need to spend less time talking about writing and more time writing. Unless, of course, that’s what your blog is all about. Lynn Viehl blogs almost exclusively about writing. JA Konrath is more about the entire publishing process. There are very few writers like Joe who get off on the entire process from beginning to end, rough draft to book tour. The point is people go to those blogs because Lynn and Joe are dispensing information. You go there to learn something.
What people don’t go to blogs to do is hear some author pleading “Please read my book!” Unfortunately, there are too many there. That’s not to say an author shouldn’t point out when he has a book out or occasionally crow about a review. But stick between something other people want to read about. JD Rhoades, who seems to have as much fun as Joe Konrath hawking his books, sticks such notices between political rants. It’s the sauce, not the entree. Dusty knows he can sell books between the Republicans he skewers. John Scalzi? There’s always a hidden wink and a nod in his self-promotional posts. Besides, with 25,000 readers a day, he’d better let us know when Zoe’s Tale is out. (More importantly, he’d damn well better finish The High Castle.)
On the other hand, I see blogs and MySpace pages and Facebook profiles that are all about Read Me!!!!! And I have to ask…
Why?
OK, you have a novel out. If I read a decent review of it, I may order it. Now, why should I come to your blog?
Crowing about your latest work does not attract readers. (Hence, I no longer talk about WIPs, especially with a fickle publishing industry.) I tell people when I have something out, but basically, this blog is like a newspaper column. Really, would you read Dave Barry’s column if all Dave talked about was how he and Carl Hiassen got drunk at a bar while promoting their latest work at a Coral Gables Borders? (Well, okay, I’d probably read that.) Dave got famous writing about life. It’s Dave’s world, and he sticks it in a syndicated column several times a week. He didn’t get famous pleading Please read my book!!!! I require validation!!!Bottom line, even if all you’re doing is describing how either Obama or McCain will eat your baby if you vote for them, discussing adventures in using the high-tech pooper scooper because you want to be the one person in your condo complex who actually cleans up after their dog, or talk about origami, you need to give people a reason to read your blog, go to your MySpace page, or pay attention to your Facebook. If all you’re posting is My book is out, and I need to earn out my advance RIGHT NOW!!!!, who’s gonna bother reading it?
The blog I dislike most is the one where the writer just reports on sales. Who is this supposed to interest? What’s the point except to make him feel good?
Jim, Fast Lane sold so few copies that I was surprised when I nuked my old blog a few years ago and received emails from fans who wanted to be kept up to date with what was going on with my writing. I realized then that a writer’s blog is for current fans–and not really to attract new readers, just as much as a musician’s or a comedian’s. I buy books from new writers based on recommendations from trusted friends, or maybe from an intriguing review. I might enjoy the mild diversions Lee Goldberg’s site provides with brouhahas over self-publishing and other subjects, but that’s not going to make me more likely to buy one of his book. Similarly, as an independent and someone who sees the hypocrisy of both major political parties, I might find political rants on the left and right entertaining, but again, those aren’t going to make me more likely to buy an author’s book–instead, the dogmatic thinking on display at those sites usually have the opposite effect on me.
To summarize, there’s nothing wrong with a writer’s blog to be a place for his or her fans to know what’s new. But that doesn’t necessary mean it’s going to be interesting reading…
True enough, Dave. However, I think you and I have both seen blogs and MySpace pages that are clearly designed to attract new readers, but are not really doing anything to accomplish that. It’s one thing to keep current readers apprised of your work, as you do. It’s another to think people will flock to you when there’s an almost pleading quality to the blog. You’ve seen them.
If the goal is to attract new readers, you have to give them a destination.
But then everything in its place. I’m not saying don’t do it. Just do it for the right reasons. A lot of people miss that point.
Jim, agreed, although I don’t think blogs makes much sense to attract new readers, at least for fiction. For nonfiction, definitely, but for fiction if you want to attract new readers, write short stories!
The idea of writing on my blog every day, just talking about my writing and asking people to buy my work, bores me to tears. I’m sure it would bore readers to tears as well.
It’s appropriate to put the odd update in, mention interviews and reviews that may be of interest, but if that’s all your blog is, it’s nothing more than a store window display that whines. We have to remember the medium here, and it’s one that allows readers to connect with authors – not for shoppers to fill out lists. The real thing I think we all overlook is that a blog is a chance to showcase your writing. It’s different writing a blog than a book, but we should all pay more attention to the overall quality of posts. And if people are interested in you enough to read your blog, chances are they’ll seek out your work without you running around begging them to spend money on you.
Thanks for the shout out, Jim. And you’re absolutely right. You’ve got to provide some kind of interesting content other than BSP to keep people coming back. Fortunately, I can’t resist shooting my mouth off and I hope I’ve managed to learn how to do that in an entertaining way. I’d be blogging, I think, with no book out.
Dave: attitudes vary, but I have had some people report to me that they bought the book after reading the blog. And some, thankfully fewer, who’ve told me that they’d never buy anything of mine because of my horrible liberal views. On the whole, a net gain, but who really knows? I blog, as I said, because I like to blog.
Patti: I think the reporting of sales figures and the like is in service of the old adage “if you want to be successful you have to look successful. Like it or not, people will buy because they see a lot of other people buying the same thing. But yeah, if that’s all you have, who wants to see it?
Sandra, I think any fiction author is better served writing short fiction as a way to attract new readers than by blogging. Nonfiction is a different beast since there’s a lot you could do with a blog to support your nonfiction work. There’s nothing wrong with blogging as a way to express yourself and meet like-minded folks, but I doubt that will lead to many book sales or new readers. On the other hand, I think authors do owe it to their fans to maintain a blog to keep them up to date with what’s going on.
In general, I’d agree Dave… but I’ve noticed for myself that my short fiction tends to be darker and more disturbing than my books. And I wonder if it sets some people up for disappointment if they’ve liked the short fiction and think I’m writing hard-boiled, and then find out they’ve bought a police procedural.
Still, there are many readers who aren’t that rigid, so I’m probably borrowing trouble there.
I guess the main thing is, when people do these “Look at me! Look at me!” posts all the time, and nothing else, and don’t interact in any way or give a thumbs up to a friend or anything, it comes off as very egotistical, even conceited. I don’t like being around people who are egotistical and conceited, so when it comes to blogs that are all, “Me ME MEEEE. LOOK AT ME!” why would I want to read them?
There are a few people I’ve sworn off ever reading because their posting on lists is so self-centered I’m convinced they couldn’t possibly think of anything else long enough to write a book about anyone else, and I’ve already had more than enough of them.
Sandra, this is the danger. In the past a writer’s life was mostly insular. A writer would write books, and some people would read them, and outside of occasional interviews, and articles here and there, the public wouldn’t have that much of a window into the writer’s life. With blogging, group lists, etc. writers now have a chance of alienating a lot of people, and sometimes through fairly innocuous means. Look at all the commotion a few months back dealing with Tess Gerritson over something taken out of context. People are always going to put their own biases on opinions and statements you put out there, so it’s almost like the more you blog and the more you participate in group lists, the more chances you have rightly or wrongly to alienate people.
Now my chance to alienate some people! The blog posts that turn me off the most are the circle-jerk posts, and there are plenty of those. As writers our integrity has to mean something. Myself, if I read a book that I like, I’ll discuss it on a group like RARA AVIS, or maybe write a review for it for a site, or contact the author privately, but I’m doing this without expecting anything back in return. I’m not going to start praising someone’s book simply because they’re praising mine, and I certainly wouldn’t want anyone to do that for me. Work has to stand on it’s own merit.
I’d like blogs a lot better if they had pictures
haaaaa