Wednesday Writerly Way ~ Blogging

This week I'm talking about blogging. You know how when you take your car to the shop for repairs you want to be updated on the progress. The same is true for readers.

As an author, you want readers to get in touch with you with feedback. You want to hear the raves but also the rants. It takes us, as writers, a while to produce a quality product. Meanwhile, the reader sits twiddling their thumbs waiting for your next book. Okay, maybe not twiddling their thumbs but reading other authors.

A blog is a way of keeping in touch with those readers. Keep your readers updated on your progress. Give them each a personal touch of the hand by letting them into your life. Readers want to know and they want to know before anyone else. :) My blog is also my writing lesson for the day.

Like a newsletter I planning to send out quarterly. Probably starting in the sign up process sometime this Summer with the first "Murphey's Madness~ Suspense with a Soul" going out in the Fall. Why so long and why announce it all ready? Because you all will have a heads up and the inside tracks of what's coming up when and *exclusive excepts* not seen anywhere else of upcoming books. In other words...to give you time to drool and anticipate it. If I get 10 new subscribers, I'll be happy. If I get 1,000, I'll be dancing the Snoopy dance around the room.

As an indie author, building a client list is a hard commodity to garner. A newsletter is a way to start. Not that I don't have an email and snail list started but I want it to grow bigger. This blog has finally taken off as it were with consistent daily hits of over 100 and 3-5,000 hits per month. While the number of blogspot and & the facebook version of followers is low, the hits speak for themselves. I'm spending this month on a logo design for the letterhead and been working with Ali Cross from the conference on narrowing it down. If I'm going to do a newsletter, I'm going to do it right.


Likewise my twitter account is growing leaps and bounds without me being in there much except to post a comment or two a week and advertise my blog. I don't participate in the #WW Writers Wednesday or #FF Fast Follow either. But others do. The screen scrolls too fast for me to read. I most I've been in twitter was the nightly chat session during indierecon, the online indie writer's conference, I attended last month. My mind isn't recovered enough to handle it. By the time I typed in one response there were twenty more waiting to be read. By the time I finished those twenty another dozen were waiting.

Facebook and LinkedIn, I treat like twitter these days. I just don't have the time to spend hours and days there. I've got the email prompt and digests on a weekly basis. So where do I spend my time most? Books & Writers and GoodReads. I'm researching the market and honing my craft. It's a never ending job. Oh, and I spend it here writing my blog and reading other people's blogs. By doing these things I keep current on the writers I read and the industry.

According to the experts blogs should be short and quickly read. I differ because I'm teaching and leading the way for other authors and stroke survivors. Some how it would feel like cheating if I didn't give full measure.

So why should you blog as a writer?

Keep writing and loving the Lord.