How many times have I heard the discussion, should authors blog, It's a hard question to answer. Some people love to blog others hate to blog. It can be fun, if you blog only when you want to, or when you have something really good to blog about. Let's study this question and see what we learn.
Blogging can be a great way to become well known. It's a great way to post little ideas that you have and leave them out there like little breadcrumbs on google for others to find. People can follow you, comment on your blog. It's kind of like writing a book, it's out there floating around in this big world we call the internet, just waiting for someone to search the right terms and find your blog and hopefully read it.
Another thing about blogging. It might not always make you a sale, but it can make you some friends. People know me because of my blogs, they appreciate the time it takes me to write helpful informative blogs. Maybe, they won't buy my book, but they tweet something for me when they see my name. They share my book when it's free because I helped them with Microsoft Word formatting. There is more to this blogging/indie path than you think. It's about helping others, and making some great friends in the process.
When to blog
I like to blog when a wonderful idea hits me, or I have a soap box moment when something just has to be said, and I just have to let people know my opinion. We're writers, we like to write, so why not blog? I blog when ideas hit and they just have to come out on paper. It's a way to help others learn something useful. It's kind of fun to know that I'm typing something and that a year from now, some new kid that just is itching to know about blogs, might google and find my post. Wow, isn't the Internet just amazing.
This is a loaded question. It's really hard to know today what makes a book fly off the shelves of Amazon into someone's kindle. I think that blogging is just another venue that is out there to help Authors become more well known, more respected, and yes maybe in the end it might just help us sale books. 500 or more people come to my blog a month. They find old posts through searching something on google, they find a link on my website, but they are coming.
500 people a month seeing my name, seeing my books, reading what I've written. How could that NOT equal a book sale here or there. It's just one of those things that you have to wonder about. After all, there is no little Google man that looks like the Pillsbury dough boy that's going to pop up his head and say, today you sold a book because you blogged about e-book sales last month.
The real question is what do you want to do
Do you want to blog. Do you have ten minutes every three or four days to spare. Do ideas come to you that you'd just love to share, then by all means blog. Start sharing your little tidbits of information with the world. If you enjoy it, does it really matter if it equals a sale, or does it really matter if everyone is doing it.
Blogging 101
Please take a tip from me, don't do forced blogging. Don't tell your awaiting public that you are going to blog every day, if you don't have time, or that much information to share. No one is going to like boring blogs. When I first started blogging, I thought I needed to blog every day, or even once a week. I started out trying to blog every Monday, and that just didn't work. I finally just stopped worrying about the audience and if they were checking in every day, and wrote about things that interested me, when it crossed my mind. Sometimes it's months between my blog posts. Amazingly, people starting hitting old blogs I'd posted, and now I'm up to over 500 a month, and that is just amazing!
I always try to remind people that you can blog or write anywhere, so take some time and get a laptop and go out in the sun, when winter is over, of course. Get out in the backyard, and blog or write, and enjoy life while coming up with some of those great ideas. I call this my outside office, and I just love it. Blogging or not? It's all up to you, but whatever you do enjoy life, every day is a blessing from God.
Now get out there and Blog, or write?
Samantha Fury is the author of the Popular Street Justice Series
she's written many articles on book covers, for Indie Authors.
She operates several Indie Groups. Editing Services, Cover Artist,
Helpful Indie Facebook Groups, and a wonderful Forum
just for Indie Authors.
