Cyber-streaking

Blogging will not make a book, in terms of sales, but it could break it. Authors have far more to lose by blogging than they can gain.

I feel like reposting this post but I’m going to expand on it instead. Look at the things readers said, about what inspired them to try a new author.

How many of them said reading a blog made them check out someone’s book?

Uh, let me give you a hint. Not a single one of them.

I have been blogging for 13 months now. I started for simple reasons. The discipline to write a little something every day. The discipline to write something focused, on one topic, which I hoped would help me improve in the short story department. I’d been working on long form for too long.

And if you look at my hits you can see that some of the same people have been reading my blog all along, or since the very early days. Since I have sitemeter I can monitor that. There are hits that come up on the map that I don’t even need to click on – I know automatically who it is.

And those people… I go and read their blogs. Sometimes I comment. It really depends on how much busy I am, because traveling around to blogs every day is time-consuming.

In fact, I recently compartmentalized all my bookmarked blogs. Some I try to read daily. Some I read 2-3 times per week. Others I have on a weekly reading schedule, with an assigned day, and others are in an “occasional” file – I drop by when time allows. It’s the only way I don’t miss the same blogs again and again.

The thing is, when I go to those blogs I see a lot of familiar names in the comments. People who comment here comment at Anne’s. Stuart, James, Daniel... We’ve all been reading each other’s blogs for months. I comment there, they comment here. I email all of them when the mood/need strikes – all of them have critiqued at least one piece of writing I’ve produced this past year, before it was set upon an unsuspecting public. We aren’t just blog acquaintances – we’re friends.

Blog after blog, a lot of the names I see in the comments are the same. Oh, even here there’s been an evolution over time. Boy Kim hasn’t commented as much since something fantastic happened to him, but he still reads. And we still email. We’ve been friends since before the blog, and will continue to be, even if I ever stop blogging.

Same with Kate. Lord knows my Killer Year cohorts are slamming on book edits, interviews, juggling a myriad of stuff…

I don’t even have the time for blogs that I use to. I try to check in semi-regularly, more to keep tabs on people I know, and I bet that most people who drop by here do so for the same reason.

I must admit that I have had people email and say that they read my blog and like my style and look forward to my book. But those people are few and far between.

What I don’t have any measurement for is how many people drop by and put my name on their mental ”Never Read Anything By Her” list, but I’m willing to bet that for each person who takes an interest in my writing through the blog, there is probably one who is turned off.

I’m not just basing all of this on rampant speculation. I remember at Harrogate in July, so many people said, “I read your blog.” They were authors, interviews, reviewers. Industry people. I hate to say this, but how many books do you think reviewers buy each year? Precious damn few. They get free books.

My point? I’m not selling books here. I’m networking with people in the industry, keeping in touch with friends.

When I was in Edinburgh and someone referenced my blog, cluing me in to the fact that they’d read it, it was the first time I was meeting someone who said they read my blog. And my automatic reaction was that I could stop talking. Anyone who’d read my blog knew what I thought about everything from having curly hair to how much I despise spam. There really wasn’t much for me to say, was there?

I got thinking about all of this because the Chicago Sun-Times ran an interesting article on author blogThe Outfit, which starts:
Should a novelist blog? A few weeks ago local crime novelist Sean Chercover was wrestling with this question, nursing a beer at a downtown bar. "I'm suspicious that a blog sells a lot of books," he says. "I think that the blog helps your publisher to be happy that you're blogging. Publishers want to see writers blog because they think it sells books."

I agree with Sean. Right now, whether or not blogs sell books is the great unknown. Until it’s conclusively proven one way or the other, publishers are happy to see their authors blogging.

It means their authors are working on maintaining a strong internet presence. And with so many other authors blogging, well, nobody wants to take the risk of falling behind if it’s something that works.

The truth is, blogging is an involved process and can be a real distraction from work. Going back to that article in the Chicago Sun-Times, what does Marcus Sakey think about the risks and benefits of blogging? "Any minute you're blogging is a minute you're not writing your book," he says. Still, he adds, blogging is now seen by both writers and publishers as a required part of a writer's efforts to keep his or her name in circulation -- especially since crime writers are usually expected to finish a new novel every year. "There's a little bit of an expectation that we'll maintain an image," he says. "But most of the pressure comes from ourselves. As writers, we're very aware of the odds against us. You're asking yourself, 'Am I out there? Am I blogging? Am I doing enough?' "

Right now, there’s still an idea that blogging is going to boost sales and, as Marcus says, it’s important to keep your name in circulation.

An idea I think some are already starting to abandon as they move on to the next thing. In the past year four bloggers I read regularly have closed shop. Others have taken leave. We assume they’ll be back, but there are no guarantees.

I have sitemeter on my blog. At any point in time I can go and check the hits and see where in the world people are hitting me from, and what’s bringing them. I’ve kept my eye on it and this is what I’ve concluded:

1. The majority of the people who read my blog regularly read my blog regularly. There are the same hits that turn up on the world map on a daily basis, others that drop by every few days, others that drop by every week or so. Many of them I can identify just by looking at the map.
2. A lot of the people who read my blog are friends, like Norby, Boy Kim, Bill Cameron etc. etc. etc. People I interact with outside of blog life. They go through phases commenting, depending on their schedules. Same with me on other blogs.
3. There are people who google my name every day who turn up on my blog.

It’s #3 I find interesting. And it’s also #3 that concerns me.

This might be where some of you would suggest I be less of a smart-mouthed opinionated blogger, but I believe for every person who stumbles across this blog and thinks they’d like to read my book, there are people who stumble across this blog and think they’d never like to meet me.

And I’m not going to change my blogging because of that.

I never started this blog to sell books. In the beginning, I had no book deal anyway. I started it for an outlet, for a reason to write a little something every day in a short, focused piece. I thought it would help me with short stories, because I’d been writing long form for so long.

I believe the blog has helped me do that.

But because I started this before I knew I’d ever get a book published it was not an author blog. It was just me and my life.

And the other thing is, I think that anyone turned off my book by my blog would probably read an interview with me or meet me in person and draw the same conclusion, so really, it isn’t like I lost a sale I might have had. I wasn’t going to get that sale anyway.

Going back to #3 and the fact that people are googling my name, this does lend support to what Marcus referred to, that authors need to have a strong web presence.

This shouldn’t be a news flash, but there are ways to have a strong web presence without blogging and if blogging is something you don’t feel comfortable doing, don’t want to do, or have concerns about, the alternatives are far better.

Google my name. What do you get on the first page?

1. My web site. Good.
2. My blog.
3. My Killer Year profile page.
4. The interview JB Thompson did with me on her blog.
5. A short piece I wrote that’s on Flashing in the Gutters.
6. A story I wrote that’s in Spinetingler (and for heaven’s sake people, stop reading Write to Kill – gawd, that has to be the roughest thing I’ve done...)
7. My blog profile.
8. The interview Julia Buckley did with me on her blog.
9. A link to all of my Killer Year blog posts.
10. Discussion about me on another blog.
11. Comments on my writing on Flashing in the Gutters.
12. Links to interviews I’ve done in Spinetingler.
13. My press page on Killer Year.
14. A blog post I did on the Killer Year blog.
15. My website page about my novel.
16. A mention of me on another blog.
17. The interview Chris Well did with me on his blog.
18. My comments on an author’s forum.

And beyond that there are references to Spinetingler, the In For Questioning blog (new post there, btw), mentions of me on other blogs….

Remove blog and forum commenting, and you have my website, interviews people have done with me, some of my writing that’s online and the Killer Year site.

An author can build a solid web presence without blogging by having an optimized website, submitting reviews/short stories/articles to ezines for publication and linking to those items on their website, doing online interviews and utilizing a newsletter system through their website to update readers and friends about new stories/articles/interviews/reviews that are online.

Every author will make different choices and that’s a good thing. I think that blogging, done poorly, can be incredible harmful. There are some blogs I drop by from time to time, but almost never comment on and I have them filed under ‘occasional’ because the truth is, I don’t find much there of interest to me, and often those bloggers don’t engage the commenters. It was thinking about that that made me realize that most of my blogging time is invested in the community aspect, and if I don’t feel like I can have a dialogue with someone I don’t see the point. I’m not talking about ‘news’ blogs here – strictly author blogs.

You see, it goes back to communication theory for me. What is the difference between a blog and a newsletter? Well, a blog means you come to me, instead of me sending the info to you. Which means you get the updates when you’re ready for them, not when I feel inclined to send them to you. There’s a part of me that really likes that – it isn’t pushy. I make few apologies for what I post here because nobody’s forced to read it.

And if the comments are turned on you have a chance to interact with me about the subject of my post. It doesn’t mean you have to. It doesn’t even mean you should. But you can.

To me, this is just one little “virtual family” – a network of friends using technology to stay in touch.

Biggest thing I worry about now, with the blog, is that there isn’t much more for me to say elsewhere. Like that moment in Edinburgh when I felt like I may as well stop talking, the people who read my blog have heard my crazy stories, they’ve probably had it up to here with my opinions… Why see me on a panel? Why read an interview with me? Don’t you know it all?

Well, okay, you don’t. But the truth is, having a constant regular web presence through a blog means something else. You can always catch up with me. Which means it’s possible for people to get sick of me, or not be too interested when there’s a new feature about me, because they can hear about me any time.

And that, I think, is a real risk of blogging regularly. The only reason I haven’t taken more drastic action is because I’m clinging to the belief (or is it delusion?) that most of the people who come by here are my friends.

Now prove me wrong. How many of you have read a blog and decided to buy a book or try a new author because of it?

And I will read your comments. Right after I wake up properly, which means I'm going back to bed. Evilkev is supremely annoyed at my nightly gymnastics as I do flips and rolls (in other words, toss and turn) all night. If anyone has a cure for insomnia please post that!