Blogging Is Fading Away. Or Is It?

Not mine. Don't worry. I like to blog because it works out thoughts that can interrupt the flow I need for writing fiction.

But I've noticed that a majority of people I used to follow have stopped blogging. The list is down to Lilith Saintcrow and Dean Wesley Smith. And Saintcrow talked about quitting last week.

I think most of the fading away is due to writers being forced by their agents and publishers to interact with their readers. Some writers loved it. Some didn't. The majority of us are introverts, so interacting with anyone isn't a comfortable proposition,

But even the folks who enjoyed such encounters with readers have turned to other social media platforms. Some of them are helpful with communicating with other humans. Other platforms are cesspits of hostility.

Oddly though, I've seen a slight uptick in people visiting my blogs. I'm not including the bots that are obviously scraping my blogs for content. (Really, dudes, if you're using stuff I wrote fifteen years, it's woefully outdated.)

Few people comment anymore, which is fine. I don't like people kissing my ass. But if someone enjoys reading my thoughts about writing and life, then more power to them.

Ultimately, I consider myself an entertainer, and I like to entertain myself most of all.

The 2,000th Post

I started this blog in 2009. Back then, every writer was expected to have a blog. I've tried a few different styles. None of them seemed quite me. So over time, I simply talked about stuff I liked or affected the writer community or irritated the hell out of me.

September of 2009. Nearly ten years ago. I've published twenty books under my own name since then. That's in addition to the 2,000 blog posts, and I-don't-remember-how-many short stories, and the stuff I published as Alter Ego.

So what should I do to celebrate? Anybody have any suggestions?

Blogging in the Writer World

It's pretty obvious I wasn't blogging last week. I blame it on the drugs. And the heating pad wiring could have possibly fried my brain stem.

You see, my back went into major spasms last Sunday. I mean, major. As in DH had to help me up from my recliner in order to go to the bathroom. I finally started to feel better on Wednesday only to be hit with a stomach bug. Nothing feels as good as worshipping the porcelain god with a really sore back.

Just to make it clear, that last sentence was sarcasm.

So we come around to this week, and I'm really far behind. I haven't written anything in a week, nor have I published anything in nearly a year. I owe files to my formatter and cover suggestions to my cover artist. I need to write the next chapter in my collaboration project, only to realize we are WAY off track from our original intent. E-mails flashed back and forth on what to scrap and what to keep and how the hell do we get back on the road to meet our deadline.

Basically, I'm sinking in quicksand, and it's going up my nose. Of course, the stress triggers an unbelievable bout of insomnia Monday night/Tuesday morning. Rather than toss and turn, I come out to the living room and focus on my favorite mind clearing exercise--writing my blog.

I get my very late Monday movie review done. Still not sleepy. So I start poking through my old reading blog list.

It's freakin' amazing how many people I used to follow religiously have stopped blogging. Or now on other platforms. Or have simply disappeared from the internet.

Or in two very sad cases are no longer with us on this plane of existence.

A lot of bloggers were agents and editors. I poked through their most recent posts. In some cases, the old arrogance is still there, but in most, it's gone--either replaced with bitterness or turning to new methods to seduce writers into their clutches searching for ways to provide more value to writers.

Others were writers. Most haven't given up writing, but realized blogging was not their thing.

A few were little things that interested me, like archeology or cooking.

I guess blogging is like all things in life. Each blog has its own natural life span. However, Wild, Wicked & Wacky hasn't finished pissing off enough people yet.

Just like me.

Writers and Social Media, Redux

There's a myth going around writer circles, egged on by trad editors and agents, that a writer HAS to do every, single type of social media available, and if you don't, then your writing career will fail miserably!

(Say that sentence all in one breath. I'll have an oxygen tank waiting for you.)

No, you don't have to do every single one. (Hold the mask to face and inhale.)

There's no measurable, predictable way to know which social media will work for you specifically. None. What worked for Amanda Hocking or J.A. Konrath or Bella Andre may or may not work you.

Why do I say this?

Because Suzan Harden DID everything and couldn't sell shit for her first year. Alter Ego did NOTHING, she had no plans to do so either, and sales took off in the second month.

Why did Alter Ego's sales take off with no social media? I published her first novella the month before everyone and their grandmother went apeshit for Fifty Shades of Grey. And that first novella happened to be a BDSM romance. So all those ladies needed a fix until Book 2 in the FSoG series came out. It all came to down to luck and timing.

As for the Suzan Harden books? Well, frankly, I burned myself out trying to do a zillion marketing things everyone insisted HAD to be DONE in order to be successful. And they didn't do jackshit for me.

So how do I decide what social media to engage in? I go where I am having fun.

Blogs

1) Alter Ego has a blog, but it acts as a surrogate website with announcements of releases, a mailing list sign-up, catalog of available books, and buy links. She doesn't anything more than that.

2) Suzan has two blogs. One is publishing business and other things she finds cool (i.e. the one you're reading right now). The other is for readers, where she posts short stories and samples from current wips. She also comments on the blogs of other folks actively involved in indie publishing.

Facebook

1) Alter Ego has a very active FB account. She loves talking to readers and other writers!

2) Suzan thinks FB sucks. Her husband insisted on creating a fan page. She tries to post something funny once a day, but often forgets. Even then she gets nasty messages from people she doesn't know (and sometimes from people she does know) who think she sucks. She'd chuck it all if a handful of fans hadn't started visiting the page this year.

Twitter

1) Alter Ego gets on Twitter once in a while, but for the most part has her FB posts going to her Twitter account.

2) Suzan has given up on Twitter because the only folks who follow her are other writers hawking their books and third party vendors trying to sell her their overpriced services for indie writers.


Yep, that's it. That's all I do. This isn't a slam against other social media you might enjoy.

Well, wait. That's not true. I won't do LinkedIn because they have a very bad habit of harvesting e-mails from your address book. (Or they did. I'll retract that last statement if someone can prove to me they've stopped.) I also won't do Pinterest because they made a blatant rights grab in their original terms of service. If that's changed, send me the link. But I refuse to go back to their website because they seriously pissed me off the first time.

The big thing you need to remember to BICHOK, aka Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard. (If you don't use a computer, then change the fucking acronym!) The best publicity/marketing is putting out a new story. All the promotion in the world won't help you if you do gain fans, and there's nothing else for them to buy.

Which means I need to get back to work!

It's a Joke!

There are times in your life when you're going to put your foot in your mouth. It's inevitable. And I'm hardly innocent in this matter. (I used the word "crippled" to describe a character with quadriplegia. A reader called me on my offensive behavior.)

But it's how you handle the dumbassery when you're called on it that really matters.

You start by apologizing. Not excusing, not back-handed apologizing. A simple apology. Maybe with a promise not to do it again.

WRONG: I'm sorry you were offended.

RIGHT: I'm sorry.

The worst one though is "I was just joking."

Yesterday, I read another blog post that was so sexist that it made me literally nauseous. I protested in comments. The response I got from both the writer and the blog host, both women by the way? The writer was just joking, that she was being ironic. In fact, the blog host went as far as comparing the post to Stephen Colbert.

Um, no. Pointing out hypocritical absurdities in our culture isn't the same as saying Ellen Ripley (starship officer trying not to be used by an alien as a baby incubator) and Annie Wilkes (psycho who delights in cutting off the limbs of her favorite author) are the same type of woman.

In fact, it's all too close to someone making a racist/homophobic/religiously offensive joke, then looking at the offended person with a blank expression. "B-but I can't be a bigot. I have friends who are black/gay/Muslim."

As one of my favorite authors would say, once you've put your writing out in the world, it's up to the reader to interpret your meaning.

If you did your job correctly as a writer, the image in the reader's head will be very close to the image in your head.

If you failed miserably as a writer, well, you're going to get called on it.

Blog Traffic and Sales Growth

Wow!  You folks blew me away.

Why, you ask?

Because
last night, y'all beat my second place monthly record for visits to my blog.

You see, I started WW&W on September 6, 2009.  Slowly and surely, readership grew, but I had two major spikes in my monthly stats.  The first, and still number one, record was a contest for Christie Craig's book Shut Up and Kiss Me back in April of 2010.  The second was the contest for a quartet of Carly Phillips books in July.

More people visited WW&W this month than July of 2010.  No gimmicks.  No contests.  Just me laying it out and hopefully y'all getting something entertaining and educational out of my ramblings.

What can you take from all this?  If you've gone indie or are planning to, you've got to be patient.  Sales won't happen overnight.  I'm only repeating J.A. Konrath and Dean Wesley Smith's wisdom, but you have to focus on the long tail.

And damn, I'm looking at an eighteen-month tail where only DH and my crit partners looked at that first post.

So, don't get discouraged, folks!  If I can grow this blog's readership, you can grow yours for your books.

Thank you so much for your support!

First Amendment Vs. Privacy

Currently reading - Kitty Raises Hell by Carrie Vaughn

Nathan Bransford's This Week in Publishing pointed to an interesting article in the NY Times about whether or not bloggers should do away with anonymous comments. This gist of the article was the rash of incendiary, crude comments on news organizations' blogs.

I'll be the first to admit there are times when anonymous comments can yield valuable information without jeopardizing the anonmyous commenter's livelihood. But many sites have turned into out-and-out brawls. Recently, several agents, such as Generous Janet Reid turned on moderation because of the crap being spewed on her blog's comments.

That's one reason I post comments under my own name. If I don't have the balls or the tact to stand by what I said, then I shouldn't be posting, should I?

But the issue is moving into a whole 'nother arena than good manners.

Yes, the First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech, but only in a public area (and even then there are limits, like not shouting "Fire!" in a crowded movie theater). Guess what? The internet isn't a public place.

I can hear those shocked gasps, but it's true, Virginia. The internet is, for all intents and purposes, a private place owned by private citizens, just like a store, which invites citizens to visit. If you run into Wal-Mart and start screaming obscenities, they can throw you out. The store is on private, not public, property.

Do we treat the internet as a public place? Sure. Just like when I meet with my critique group in a local eatery, we talk about anything and everything under the sun. Could we have been thrown out if someone had seen what was in the purple box I gave Jody? Yep, the staff had every right to remove us. Part of the privilege of remaining is acting in a reasonable manner.

On the other hand, why do we expect privacy when we tell the world everything? Christie blogged about the purple box incident, so now all six and a half billion people on earth know (theoretically anyways).

Oh hell, I know more about people's personal lives than I care to just sitting at my local coffee shop. Yes, blond buffant lady, I'm talking about you. I really didn't want to know about your son-in-law's ED, how you'd just die if your daughter adopted one of those little Haitian babies, and how it (melodramatically) destroys any chance you'll ever have of grandchildren.

Now, if I know all of this by listening to some middle-aged chick talking way too loudly on her cell, imagine what I know about the rest of you.

Heh, heh, heh.

Shows How Much I Pay Attention

Cyber wave goes out to Lisa Amowitz, who join my blog followers while I was adding all the 'the's I left out of AVT the last couple of days.

(Told ya I have to add words to my ms.)

It makes me feel good that people find my twiddlings interesting and worthwhile.

Or am I an example of what not to do? (Don't say it, Faye!)

Huh? Moment

You know the universe is full of strange coincidences when you discover the marketing line for your blog (and potentially your books) is already:

- the title of a newspaper in Zimbabwe

- a gay catamaran boat trip

- a children's reading hour at a public library

- a list of adjectives used to describe actress Kristen Chenoweth on TMZ.com