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Let’s face it, blogging takes time out of your day that you could spend writing your next manuscript. For some it is a stressor as they try to think up something witty to write about, and for others it’s a nagging task required by the publisher and the apathy that the writer feels comes through in the content.

We’ve all seen it, and some of you have even been in that position, so allow me to say something that might sound radical and totally contradictory to what I’ve previously stated here on Bookseller Chick:

You don’t have to blog.

You don’t have to do it daily.

You don’t have to do it weekly.

You don’t have to blog at all, at least not in the same way everyone else is doing it.

I’m a big fan of author blogging mostly because I’m a big fan of blogging software* that makes it possible for even the more techno-phobic author to update their fans without waiting for their webmaster to update their site. By importing blogging software into the website design or incorporating it under the news link, the author can control how the blogging software is perceived.

Instead of using it as a place to record what you feel you have to, you can use it to update readers about book news, post excerpts and answer reader questions. By enabling RSS feed, your readers can keep up on your updates without having to consistently visit your site.

If you decide to blog, I’m a big fan (but not exactly a practitioner) of the idea that your blog have sort of mission or plan: What do you plan to use this space (to cover book news, life news, writing advice, all of the above)? What do you not want to cover in this space (politics, religion, fights with friends and family, or the current state of your bathroom)? How often do you plan to update?

If you’re a planner this can help make the whole blogging experience less stressful as well as help outline what to post next. If you created your blog specifically to help promote your book as well as to let your readers know who else to check out, then write about books you like, who influences your writing, what little quirks you notice in your writing process, and your research. Think about interviewing other authors (you can use the same general set of questions if you want), or guest blogging at other sites (while never forgetting to link from your own).

Your blog is a marketing tool to sell your book to readers and to sell yourself as an author. That doesn’t mean that it has to be so blatant that “buy my book” appears in each post. Buyers are savvy people and they don’t like to feel like they’re being played. Give them something for their time and energy. Don’t be afraid to let them read excerpts before the book is released.

Do a quick survey of author blogs that you like, or blogs by authors whose books you buy, and see what they are doing. What works and what doesn’t? What could you borrow, bend, or meld into something you can use at your own blog?

Whether or not you blog, you do need a web presence to help direct your readers to where they can buy your books, and inform new readers who you are and what you right.

A good website is key, a great blog is just a bonus.

*I don’t mean just Blogger when I talk about blogging software; Livejournal, Wordpress, Typepad and others provide a great opportunity for an author looking to update quickly.

Thank you all for your response to Kevin’s question. I’m going to break things down into a few different categories and we can take the discussion from there. In what will probably be a several post piece, let’s start with the basics:

Why Blog in the First Place?

“I think the primary benefit of my blog is for keeping the existing readers fired up to go spread word of mouth.” Shanna Swendson

You’ve written the book, made a contract with the publisher, and survived the editing process, but your job still isn’t done. To counteract the ever decreasing marketing budgets at the publishing houses, you’ve got a find a way to grow your readership and keep them coming back—whether it is for the next book in a series, or a new book all together. Blogs can create that direct sense of connection between writer and reader, and they cost nothing to create. Well, nothing except time, effort and creativity…but we’ll get to those in a minute.

First let’s focus on what a blog lets an author do:

• Connect with readers by sharing their thoughts on the book process, the characters and proving they’re just like everyone else (Authors! They’re just like us! A new feature to found in the writer’s version of US Weekly).**
• Create an up-to-date presence on the internet that with tagging can increase your presence to the Google algorithm (given that 60% of the population uses Google as their first choice search engine, this is a good thing).
• Offer up advance excerpts, answer reader questions, and let readers know when the next book is coming out without waiting for your webmaster to update a website. Just write and hit post.
• Talk about other books that are similar that the author like, or direct the readership to other authors of note.
• Connect with other authors, direct readers to advance reviews, and network, network, network!

A successful author blog creates a community led by the author that allows readers to connect and builds on the loyalty of the readers. As Kalika said, “it makes authors seem less like strangers and more like people I know, so I'm more likely to want to buy their books instead of borrowing them from a friend or the library.” This loyalty and excitement from the blog transfers to readers going out to the bookstore to find the book or jumping on one of the online sites to make their purchase. Then on their own blogs, or in conversations with store patrons or friends, this reader will spread the word about this author’s work. The sales might not be able to be traced directly back to the author’s blog, but it acts as a strong link in the chain that gets people to read your books.

Author as Essayist?

One of Kevin’s points with this question (which I didn’t include, but he thankfully reiterated in the comments section) is that not everyone has what it takes to be a successful blogger—one who “can take the mundane or the complicated and make it interesting, funny, and readable. But that in itself is a particular writing talent, and not every writer will be good at doing that as opposed to their normal mode of writing.”

Back in February, I asked why people read any blogs at all in “Writer as Blogger, Blogger as Writer.” The answers I received cited Voice and Content as the two biggest reasons for following a blog. These two things working alone and together accounted for the loyalty most readers felt towards the blogs they followed. In many cases people cited finding a blog looking for some sort of content, and sticking with it for the voice.

But how does this affect an author’s blog when taking into account Kevin’s definition of a successful blogger?

Voice

Just as the acquisitions editor must consider the voice of your manuscript when deciding whether or not to purchase it, so does the passing reader when they decide whether or not to make a commitment to your blog. This voice is especially important for the fiction (as opposed to nonfiction writers) writer as you can’t always rely on content to bring new readers to your blog. Links from other authors might drive people there, but it is the voice you bring to the blog that keeps new readers there and old readers coming back regularly.

Blogging, with all its informality and immediacy, creates a sense of closeness between author and reader that you can foster with the tone or voice that you use for each post. By assuming an approachable style, you invite the reader to put aside their shyness and interact. Narrative prose, however, often differs from how a writer might sound in a conversation. I write this blog in the same way I would converse with a friend in real life (to the point that back when I was anonymous a friend warned me that anyone who knew me and read Bookseller Chick would know the identity of the writer immediately). This blog voice shares little to no resemblance to any fiction writing I’ve done, which is fine as I’m not attempting to use this as a forum to promote myself as a writer of fiction.*

If the voice of your blog sounds nothing like your narrative writing, that’s fine. It’s you, the author, conversing with your readers, not your characters. There’s a hidden danger that comes from sounding too much like your prose. I’ve come across many a reader complaining that they can’t think of the character as their own entity because the voice they know from the author’s blog intrudes too much in the narrative. These people may represent a small portion of your readership, but it is something you should be aware of in your blogging and writing.

Although the reverse is also true, as Random Ranter states, “Blogs give me a chance to get to know a person's writing style before I plunk down my bucks.” Finding out that the author who writes humorous little essays about his/her cats, actually writes gore filled books with dark plots may throw a new reader off.

Given this “damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” how do you walk the fine line in between?

Well, that’s where content comes in.

Content

As an author, you have to decide what your blog is going to be to you. The best author blogs cover topics that both the author and the reader care about. As Lectitans states in her response to the “Writer as Blogger, Blogger as Writer” column, “The best blogs are conversations. I don't want to read a blog where the blogger writes only what she thinks her readers want without putting any of herself into it. That kind of writing is dishonest and uninteresting. Still, I don't care to read a lot of navel-gazing. A blogger should be aware of her audience and keep them in mind without giving herself over to them completely.”

When blogging, ask yourself: what are you blogging about? And why are you blogging about it? If the majority of your blogging is just to have a place for a personal diary with no relation to your writing, perhaps blogging isn’t the way to go. Same goes if you are just blogging by rote, and don’t really have any interest in the topics you’re covering. The content of your blog is strongest when it is a balance of what appeals to you and what appeals to your readers.

I draw a lot of people to this blog due to content. People searching for different authors, bookseller opinions, books, etc, stop by thanks to this search engine or that. Sometimes they like what they read and stay (or search more), and sometimes they move on, which fits with the nature of this blog and what it has become. The ongoing “mission” of this blog has changed multiple times over its lifetime, but one thing remains consistent: I write about topics that interest me and they are ones that I hope interest you as well.

As an author, you’ve got a built in hook with your blog readership as they want to find out about your books. Don’t be afraid to post excerpts and answer questions readers pose about this character or that. It may lead you to other areas of interest to write on and will also help you create content to reuse on your website (for example: questions from readers about certain characters can be collected and turned into a Q&A for their books).

Content Meets Voice and Produces Comment Babies

In my mind, the ideal mixing of content and voice happen when an author takes a general topic of interest and finds a way to approach it through an example from their own experience. Everyone may have outlined the publishing process, done a signing, gone to a con, worked with a writer’s group, or been called by their agent about a deal, but how an author tells their own story on this subject is what makes it unique. The factual content may remain the same, but the little details, the emotional journey, etc are what makes the author’s telling unique. It’s what makes your blog different from so-in-sos blog.

It’s what makes your book different from the others on the shelf.

Connecting content with voice makes a blog approachable and will bring people back. Balance those topics that seem more authorial navel-gazing with those directed straight at the reader, and your readers will let you get away with a little “me-time” introspection.

(Oh, and try to keep all of that shorter than this blog post has turned out.)

Your Thoughts

Agree? Disagree? Never made it to the end because the length made you fast forward to the end?

Bring on the discussion, and while you do so, keep these questions in mind as well:

How do you avoid only writing about the mundane? And can you get away with using your prose/character voice on your blog?

*Although the two people who visit this place who’ve actually read anything I’ve written can feel free to argue this point.

**In proving approachable via a blog, you are offering up validation to your readers. According to eight million websites I have found (who give no straight answer to where this information comes from), a 2005 survey found that 82% of Americans feel they should/could write a book. By appearing like a normal person you validate the idea that they too can write a book as well. I do believe that this correlates into more book sales.

The speakers at the Denver Publishing Institute ranged over a wide variety of topics from copy-editing to magazine publishing to college publishing to marketing and more(all of which I hope to touch on in the next few weeks), but today I’m going to focus on the world of publicity. Our faculty member for this presentation was Scott Manning (of Scott Manning & Associates) who gave a wonderful presentation complete with examples of publicity work he’s done in the past.*

While Scott had a lot to say on the state of publicity**—the who you know aspect, the importance of targeting your audience, and using the combination of new media and old to find success for your book—I’m going to focus on something that occurred to me during his presentation: getting inside the head of journalists.

What he meant was, to get your book covered by the press you need to give the reporters everything they could possibly need. How does your book relate to news they are covering or what is going on today? How is it relevant? What do you need to provide for a story to be spun from the platform your book provides?

Once you know these answers, you build your publicity statement and kit accordingly.

I’m not telling you anything that you haven’t heard before. Obviously this is easier to do for nonfiction since not many fiction authors can claim to be an expert in the field of study they write about or one that can get them on the news, but that does not mean that you can’t take the concept and apply it to your own book.

Specifically I want to apply it to how you represent yourself and your book online.

Why online? The future of a successful will become more and more dependent on the successful mix of New and Old Media. With the shrinking of review sections, etc, New Media (the internet) allows the author and publicist to find other forums to better target their audience, and enough coverage can gain Old Media attention. In the reverse, massive Old Media attention often triggers New Media’s interest.

New and Old Media work on different schedules though. A successful Old Media campaign means having all reviews and mentions of the book coincide with the release date. If the review or interview drops too early, the people who go into the store and are told your book is not out yet will be just as likely to forget about it as they are to try again, something every publisher wishes to avoid.

Unlike with Old Media, you do not want to hold off until publication day to get people online talking about your book. A well-placed Amazon link means that a reader can easily add it to their wish list or pre-order the title. An early review can generate buzz with each person who comments mentioning how much they want this book, or how they’ve already pre-ordered (and you want this, you want this bad. Readers like reassurance they are spending their money on something they will love, and they get this by seeing others excited about the upcoming release).

Also, to successfully manipulate the Google algorithm you and your book need to have created some sort of backlog of information. You need to have a website that is coded correctly so that it comes up on the first page. You need to start getting your name out there pre-publication.

Which brings me to why you need an online publicity kit.

(Eventually I do get to my point.)

Say you see a call go up for guest bloggers here on Bookseller Chick. Knowing that I’m interested on the changes in the publishing industry, the bookseller/author relationship, the writing process, and the world of your book (and how you came up with it), you would ideally email me with something on one of these topics. Since we’re working in an ideal world here, let’s assume that I got back to you immediately with a date and time for column publication.

Excellent, but what do you want to go with your column? What does this blogger know about you?

I mean, we would all like to assume (me included) that I’m going to have enough time to do my homework on your background to come up with some sort of intro, but the truth is that I often get these posts ready in the morning when I don’t have a ton of time to go searching for links and definitive information.

Enter your online publicity kit.

When you send back your column you should also include:

• An author’s bio

• A (small) jpeg of your cover

• An author photo if you want one included

• A link to your website

• Links to any other places you’ll be doing interviews/columns (as well as dates if you are doing a virtual tour)

• Links to any reviews you may have received

• Links to your book on Amazon, B&N, Borders, Powells or any other place you want your readers to shop

• Jpegs of past book covers if you want those included

Seems like a lot, doesn’t it? Kinda feels like you are doing all the work for this other person (me), but the truth is that this is the only way you can guarantee that everything you want is included and shows up correctly. I automatically default to Amazon when I’m linking books, but maybe you would rather have people shop at Powells or your local Independent. I don’t always have the time to pull together all the information I want to on an author, and I don’t have any idea what you are doing or writing next.

You should also keep all this stuff fresh on your site. Doing an interview or guest blog does no good if you don’t link to it in a place where people can find it. Receiving an excellent online review means nothing if it gets mentioned once and disappears into the archives of your blog. These things need to be easy for your readers to find. With most newspapers making their articles accessible online, this gives you a chance to place New and Old Media side by side. People can read your book’s review in the LA Times online as well as check out what different readers had to say. People can check out articles and op-ed pieces you’ve written, and then check out your online interviews and opinion pieces.

The internet (and your standing on Technorati, Ice Rocket, and all the search engines) is based on how many people link back to you, so you need to get out there and you need to do it early. You need to become the online authority on you and your book so that when little ol’ me comes along, totally in love with your last novel and wanting to interview you (or ask you to write a column), I have all the information I need available directly from your site.

Questions? Thoughts?

I realize that I’ve rambled on, and I’m willing to focus in on any one point and expand if asked (or follow you off on an unrelated tangent).

Tell me what you think.

*(Scott gets double points because past publicity work meant getting Mark Bowden on the Colbert Report, and that meant we got to watch a clip.)

**For those of you who might be unclear on the subject, publicity differs from marketing in that it is the act of getting something for “nothing.” “Nothing” gets quotations marks because really what you are trading on connects and information instead of money, unlike with marketing where you are spending funds on tchochkes and advertising and co-op space.

I’m one of those people who hates unsubstantiated book snobbishness.* You want to hate something and tell everyone around you that it is part of the ever growing corruption of Literature or the female mind or the male mind or a child’s mind. Great. But the biology major in me says prove it. Back it up with facts, figures or something beyond your subjective thoughts and conclusions drawn from a complete lack of scientific evidence. If you can’t do that, then stick with what you can back up: why you did or did not like it. Which means, of course, you would have to actually read something that represents what you claim is corrupting.

It’s like writing a high school book report:

“I did not care for the use of Melville’s Billy Budd in this A.P. English curriculum because the heavy reliance on the reader to grasp Melville’s Christ allusions, which requires the reader to be of, or have a passing familiarity with, the Christian faith. In a country that houses a multitude of different religions and many non-practicing people, I feel that this is a novel’s narrow focus…yadda…yadda…yadda…spend the next two pages supporting argument.”

Notice the paper starts with an “I,” singular, and proceeds to outline the thesis (which, if it’s a good essay, will also address counter arguments), and does not attack the whole of English Literature. The essay is not calling for the removal of Budd, simply supplying the thoughts of the reader on its suitability for high school classroom use after having read the whole damn thing. And I’m cool with that, just as I’m cool with reader reviewers. I like hearing readers’ thoughts and opinions on novels. I’m interested in reading what different people liked and disliked, what allusions are obvious to some and not to others, etc. That’s interesting. We’re all going to take something different away from a reading experience—some of it universal and some of it not—and not all of it is going to be everyone’s cuppa, which is why an informed reader may seek out many different reviews on the same subject to form their own opinion about whether or not to give this book or that one a try.

Denigrating an entire genre, sub-genre, or type of book when you’ve barely read any of the titles housed there-in? Not interesting, just sloppy. Very, very sloppy.

So when I first read the Independent’s article on Horror that I outlined in my last column, I was more than a little taken back on the bit (and yes, I mean that with all British connotations) tacked on to the bottom addressing the popularity of “Para Porn.” This would be Urban Fantasy or Paranormal Romance for those who might be wondering. Two different sub-genres (actually three as they throw Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight into the mix) all smashed together in a derogatory way because, according to the experts, this does not deserve to be mentioned within the same breath as Horror.

How derogatory? Well let’s see:

“Horror expert Steve Jones says that "Para Porn" represents a new genre, though he regards it disdainfully as women's fiction rather than horror. "It's aimed at a different audience to traditional horror," he says, with the hint of a sneer.”

Wow, it’s not Horror because it’s Women’s fiction, not because it doesn’t contain traditional Horror elements, but because it is aimed at women or has female protagonists who have sex. Gotcha. I see the light! You have converted me to your higher purpose! And, gee, thanks for clearing that up for me. If I still worked at a bookstore I would put up a sign warning all my male customers away from buying the Kim Harrison or Kelley Armstrong novels (because men did indeed buy them), and instead direct them to the more Manly novels of King and others. Because women surely do not read Horror! Gads, no, nor do they make up a large percentage of the book buying population. Obviously these books need to be placed all together and quarantined away from serious Horror.

Sarcasm aside, I’m slightly amused by the fact that even as it’s considered porn, the publishers admit that “they are starting to sell really well over here.” And that even as they denigrate the influence that Buffy that Vampire Slayer may have had on this growing trend of kick-ass heroines, they praise it for resurrecting the Horror genre (see the first part of the article). I think this is truly the definition of a back-handed compliment, or maybe they’ve been reading The Game and this is really a come on. Hiding a compliment in an insult will really capture a girl’s attention, you know.

But I’m willing to give the British publishers a bit of a pass in that they recognize what people are reading and that it is a boon to what had previously been a dead genre. Maureen Dowd does not get the same kind of treatment. She had to go and resurrect the old “Is Chick Lit sucking the brains out of the female population? Why yes it is” argument and then proceed to make mistakes all over the place, which are addressed here, here and here. I wouldn’t even mention Dowd (and why she chose to discuss a four year old argument now since other writers have done a much better job of covering the fiasco) except for the fact that her argument echoes that of the British pubs in the whole “it’s focused towards women and therefore has no redeeming value” opinion, which saddens me.

It’s 2007, folks. I realize that I’ll never be able to wrestle the classics from the cold, dead hands of a bunch of old white guys, but can’t we open our eyes a little? Can’t we begin to realize that everyone brings something to the table? The people read for a myriad of reasons and therefore will be attracted to a myriad of different genres and reading levels? That we cannot command the reading public to like one thing and dislike another just because we feel that it is not up to our superior standards?

And why, WHY!, does the fall back insult/argument still have to be about women? Oh, you know, only women read that. It’s Women’s fiction, and not worth my time. This will only appeal to women.

Well, guess what, buckos. Readers change. The reading environment has changed. And while it is still hard to get men to pick up a book written by a woman, I wonder how much of that is a negative feedback loop we, as a society, have created by telling them they won’t be interested because it’s “Women’s fiction.” If I, as a woman, can identify with a male spy/playboy is it really that hard for a man to read a story told from the point of view of a female lawyer or cop?

I’m not asking them to walk a mile in a Chick Lit heroine’s Manolos (if that heroine even owned Manolos, a shoe stereotype that owes more to Sex and the City than any Chick Lit novel I’ve ever read), nor do I think it’s necessary for me to shove my size eights into one of Don Pendleton’s character’s army boots to understand what some men see in his novels. Some books will play out better to a more masculine audience and some to a more feminine, which is something I accept.

That doesn’t mean, however, that one book is better than the other or that you can even compare apples and oranges. Had Maureen Dowd sat down with those thirty-odd Chick Lit novels and discussed why she, and solely she, couldn’t get into them, then maybe I would have understood where she was coming from. Maybe. But she seems to be missing the point that the Horror publisher’s at least got that any fiction genre and its popularity hinges on the public’s need for escapism of some sort (whether it is escapism with a side of trying to understand the world around them or simply to fully escape the world around them). Chick Lit at its best fulfills that same need by taking the pressures many women suffer under (trying to do well at a high-pressure job, find someone to spend their life with, and achieve some type of economic stability even if it can only be measured in shoes) and discussing it a fun, one-on-one manner.

Telling someone that their time would be better spent reading The Red Badge of Courage misses the point. My time, and what I do with it, is my time and until it affects the great and judgmental you in some detrimental way you don’t have a right to infringe upon it. Maybe my time would be better spent writing my own memoirs, or cooking up enough dinners to freeze for the next few weeks, or helping the homeless, or (in my personal case) finding a job. And maybe most of my time, or your time is spent doing this, and worrying about that, and dealing with that other thing.

But maybe we need to channel that tension of all the things we should be doing or having to do into some sort of release, find something to open that pressure valve and let it all out so that we can continue to function as proper members of society. And maybe we find that in books that let us relax, escape our world for another or teach us in some funny, distant way to handle it. If it educates us at the same time, great, but what stands for education is subjective as well.

If it expands my vocabulary, does it count?

If it educates me in pop culture, something that our world trades upon as heavily these days as solid facts, have I wasted brain space or increased my knowledge in other areas more accessible to those around me?

If it gives me a breather, takes me away from this world for 400 pages, and allows me the distance I need to later revisit what is going on around me and perhaps deal with it critically, is it not performing the greatest public service of all?

There is a reason fiction—of all kinds—exists, and it is up to the reader whether they choose to read to learn, to think, to escape or all three. And beyond introducing new titles and authors to try, there is nothing you or I can do about it. So stop trying to tell someone what they shouldn’t read, and pick up a new book.

You might be pleasantly surprised when something that constitutes Para Porn or Chick Lit appeals to you. And if they don’t, well then, you have something slightly more empirical to back up your arguments when someone asks you why not.






*I’ve been doing pretty well with my own snobbishness when it comes to role-playing books and game, thanks to some wonderful customers I had that were very open but their thoughts and opinions on the subject.