Whether you believe in synchronicity or not, a hell of a lot of it seems to be happening to me online at the moment. The latest manifestation is discovering a competition over at Bloggity (a great site all about demystifying blogging) which is all about getting help for the challenges currently faced by us bloggers.
This is more than timely. I love my blog, but I have some hard questions that I need to answer about it, and seeing as the prize is an hour long consultation about blogging goals, I just had to enter.
So, here are the top five challenges this blog faces in its early adolescence:
1. I am a re-drafted query letter away from starting to submit my novel to publishers and agents. I’ve heard that if they are tempted to ask for the manuscript, they check you out online. So now I am getting nervous about my blog. What should I do about the fact that people who I would like to publish my novel might read this? My gut instinct is: nothing different – if they don’t like who I am here, then we probably won’t work well together anyway. Is that right? Is that too risky? One thing I am seriously considering is changing my about and FAQ pages for a start…
2. One day, I will publish “Twenty Years Later” – whether with a publishing house or all on my lonesome. I would love this blog to drive a buzz about that. I’ve had this crazy idea about asking people to help me make that dream come true by signing up to a page if they like the prologue saying “Yay, we want to see this book in print.” I could thank them by sending them the next three chapters and promising to add them to a mailing list to be kept up to date about the books progress. Is that just a dumb idea? How would I pull it off?
3. In the real world, I am about to become a freelance copywriter. I’m going to have a separate site, as this blog is all about my fiction writing. But the business will also be me too. Should there be a relationship between this blog and my business site when it exists? If so, should that be a link? Talking about it here? Ergh, hard decision!
4. I’ve been learning about the “Author Platform” from the ever gorgeous Alan Rinzler. As I am woefully unpublished, with no TV excitement or anything that would leap out and wow a publisher, this blog is my platform. That being the case, it needs to be impressive. I think the kind of thing that would impress a publisher would be saying “xx number of people are subscribed to my blog” or newsletter. So the big question there is: how do I grow the blog readership whilst keeping the authenticity that I like about this place?
5. Lastly, I would love to make this blog more sticky – I’ve started with the related posts and most popular posts widgets, but I do still have the feeling that there are posts that I wrote a couple of months that could do with some promotion. How could I do that with subtlety?
Well, I think that is quite enough for now. It was actually really useful to just think it all out here, instead of leaving it to fester in the dark corner of my mind where Fear sleeps lightly. Thanks Bloggity!
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
My gut feel is that you’d do just fine. You write well and readers will find you. Look, I’ve found you all right. Ok, of course, Terry’s wonderful blog helped me find you. I clicked on the link you’ve left on one of his posts.
I think I can help you spread the word about your posts. I would love to read them and tweet about them. Or perhaps bounce some posts off them. But that will be my assignment for tomorrow as it is 2:45 am here in the Philippines.
Cheer up. The world is watching. And soon they will be beating a path to your door.
jan geronimo’s last blog post..Blog Contests To Help You Become a Better Writer
That *has* cheered me up! Thanks ever so for such warm, positive words Jan, and welcome too!
Wow, Emma. You’ve done some real thinking about this and I know it will all pay off. Glad you’re in the contest; some very strong entries.
Terry Heath’s last blog post..Set Email Subscription Delivery Times
Hi Emma
First off I’d say… don’t worry too much
It makes perfect sense to link to your new professional blog and tell people about it, just as you would in a conversation. It would be odd not to, wouldn’t it?
Same with the links and highlights of older material – if you can see a connection, work it in. But don’t overdo it.
I like the idea of you using the blog (and twitter
) to build buzz, but you can’t do that quickly without turning people off. There’s plenty of time before the book’s available for sale isn’t there? Keep us hooked in, and we’ll be gagging to buy it!
I do think your about page could be redone. The about page should be about the blog, not you. It’ll make it much easier to write. If I’m visiting here for the first, and perhaps only time, what would I like to learn about the blog? What will I find here? What’s in it for me?
You could put something about ‘who I am’ in the FAQs if you wanted, or a separate page (but not on the nav bar if you don’t want to go overboard on it)
I think I might make the FAQs a bit easier to follow & less jokey, in case is is a first port of call for someone who wants to make a quick assessment
Hope that helps – I think you’re doing great by the way
Joanna Young’s last blog post..Blogging, Writing and Community: A Round Up
As a writer who has been maintaining a blog for nearly three years now I thought I might have a bash at answering your questions, with the proviso that in bloggoland there are never any right answers.
1. Checking your blog they will do but it will only be after a long process of examining the MSS and will have little or no effect on their decision.
2. Using the blog to promote your publishing efforts is essential but subtlety is the key.
3.Keep any work sites separate from writing sites unless there is a really good reason to link them. A work site is about controlling the image.
4.The only way to grow the blog is naturally. There is no magic place to drop links. The best way is to comment other people, create a genuine community by sharing ideas and offering encouragement and support. In three years of experimenting I’ve never found anything else that works.
5.To promote old posts, write new ones that develop the idea and link to them from there or create a collection of pages and use the private/public option on the pages to shuffle them around.
There are lots of other ways of doing these things, prompt sites, submitting to ejournals and so forth but time is the only commodity on the internet and success is about offering people genuine value for their time whilst using yours most effectively.
Hope that helps. The absolute number one rule of successfully using a writers blog as part of a larger career is… Have Fun.
Paul Squires’s last blog post..In the absence of evidence
Those are very good questions and I’m sure you will find the answers that make the most sense to you. I hope you’ll share the answers with us when you find them.
A freelancer! Good luck and congratulations!
Emma,
regarding #5: That’s a thing I neglect, too, the linking of certain posts. You could write just a short blog post which has to do with the content of one or two older posts which you want to promote, and then refer to them with a link.
Or a post like “Out of my Archives” in which you tell the reader why you think your older post is important and then the link.
And, I think your blog is fine! I enjoy reading it very much.
Ulla Hennig’s last blog post..Blossoms
There is some great advice here already! I appreciate the time you’ve all taken in passing on your wisdom, and the encouragement too.
The About and FAQ pages were written 3 nights before I launched the blog. Wow, what difference this 3 months or so has made…
@Terry – I’m glad I did this too!
@ Joanna – great advice, to be implemented as soon as I can!
@Paul – this advice means a lot to me as I know you are sharing the same boat as I on this huge sea. Thank you.
@Diana – Yay indeed! And of course I will share the answers
@Ulla – Again, great ideas, thank you – I especially like the “Out of my Archives” – I never thought I would ever be the proud owner of my own archive