It’s Time for Writers to Stop Blogging by L.L. Barkat.
This article is an interesting take on the subject of platform building for an author… not that I’m likely to close my blog down – I find it useful in so many different ways.
I might not be able to stick to a schedule – I do have one, but it’s ignored when I’m working on something (like so much on my timetable *grins*) – but if I find something interesting or useful, I’ll blog about it.
I try not to talk about my books all the time; I wouldn’t want to bore people, but when something interesting or exciting is happening, I’ll blog about it.
On my blog I’ll interview other authors if they want me to. I’ll review people’s books if they want me to. Why? *shrugs* because it’s fun to do something for someone else and if it helps them get their name out there, then the threefold law comes into effect.
Do I have an audience?
Well the WordPress stats say I have a few people who read my posts. Not everyone comments, which (if I’m having a dark grey day) can be a little depressing, but that’s the way of the world. I myself read a lot of things and don’t always comment.
True, it would be nice if my audience went and bought my books… yet I am not going to insist on it by sticking in links to Amazon etc in my posts, because my work may not be to their reading taste. I will allow them the courtesy of finding me on there and making their mind up.
I have a Twitter feed – that you can hear the tumble-weeds on; I don’t get on with Twitter, I find it boring. I have lots of fun on Facebook and have lots of “friends” on my list…
…in fact you might say I have too much fun on FB…
*looks at amount of time spent playing FB games and shudders*
…but it’s not for the sales potential that I go on there. It’s for the people I know on there.
I’m on Pinterest and when I allow myself to go in there, I find lots of beautiful, inspiring things which get pinned on my boards and eat up hours of my time. I get a few repins – which is nice.
I have a Linked In profile as well – but I’ve forgotten the password so I don’t really use it much. I have a graphic blog on Tumblr – but it’s a bit like Twitter… *wind whistles through the trees*… for me, I’m a word person, not a picture person.
So in answer to the question, “Should Writer’s Blog?”, I say – it’s up to the individual writer what they do… the important thing is to do it because you find it fun, not because you want to sell your work.
The World of The Teigr Princess 
Quite right, Mandy. I’ve only recently started blogging, not especially as a marketing tool (I wish I had a marketing tool!) but just because I had some random bits written down here and there that I wanted to do something with! I’ve no intention of making it something I must do regularly, just when I feel like it!
Good – I’m glad it’s not just me… I almost got hooked into the whole “Building a Platform is essential to sales” theory and it wasn’t until I burned out last year that I realised I was going the wrong way about things…
Burnout is no way to go! I have to keep reminding myself that the essential reason I’m doing this is for fun! Johnson said that ‘No one but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money’: actually, only a blockhead gets into this expecting to make money. (Unless they’re a celebrity already, of course, in which case they get someone to write for them anyway!)
Which doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t like to make a bit of money as well!