Are You Still Putting Off Your Blog? Smart Tips by Midge Raymond

Well, the tips are to actually get you started blogging. Or to reinvigorate a blog that's become stale. I hope to follow at least half the good advice presented here. My one quibble is with the emphasis on staying on topic. However, since my blog is meant to cover the creative writing life, that leaves a great deal of room for new ideas. I especially like the idea of essentially having a weekly column like January O'Neil and Kelli Agodon do for Confession Tuesday or Thankful Thursday. Maybe I will try this.

  
 Since today is Thursday let me say I am thankful for smart writer friends like Midge, Kelli, and January for their generosity of spirit and their best words in the best order. Happy day!

Book Promo 101: How to create a successful blog

by Midge Raymond

The first bit of advice most writers get about book promotion is usually: “Write a blog.” And it’s great advice. Yet writers often think, “Wait…I’ve just spent six years on this novel, and now I have to write more?”

Well, yes.

Of course, some published writers are published solely because of their blogs (there are too many success stories to name, but surely you’ve heard of Sh*t My Dad Says and Julie & Julia). So if you’re writing nonfiction, you’re at an advantage; whether it’s cooking or travel or advice for moms, nonfiction lends itself well to blogging. If you’re enough of an expert in something to write a book about it, you probably already have a blog, which means you’ve got a platform and you’ve got great stuff to take to agents and editors.

But if you’re a fiction writer or poet, you may not have considered writing a blog. You may be far more interested in writing drafts of stories and poems than in trying to create content for blog posts and worrying about building an audience. And I feel your pain; I put off blogging as long as I could, until I finally gave in and started a version of this blog back in 2006.

When I began my blog, I was juggling a zillion things and barely had time to write as it was — and I wondered why I should write a blog when I could be writing stories. To continue reading click here...