Friday, October 14, 2011

Author Blogs - Wrong Audience? No Way

Did you read Wednesday's post? If not, you may want to read it now because I'm not in the mood to recap.

Oh, okay, here's the post in a nutshell: Author social media guru, Kristen Lamb, reaffirmed in a recent post her long-held belief that author blogs that are about writing do not target the people who will read your books (unless you also write about writing). She maintains authors should blog on topics related to their books to pull the right audience. Wednesday I posted why I strongly agreed with her.

Today I'm posting why I strongly disagree. (Yeah, I'd be a bad politician - too waffley). Here's my thoughts:

Writers Are Readers Too.  Would you believe it? I'm a writer AND a reader. Weird, huh? I read a lot of YA and MG - I have kids and I like those books - and I pick a lot of my books by reading blogs. Blogs on writing. I buy books based on writing blogs. If someone who purchases books is the "wrong audience" then I don't understand what the right audience is. A purchase is a purchase

There's Strength in Numbers.  So maybe the writing community is small compared to the whole slew of readers that are out there. But we are a community. A very giving and supportive community. And most of us who blog also Facebook and Twitter. And most of us feed our posts on to these other social media vehicles where we all have non-writer friends. Lots of non-writer friends. Lots of blogging writers with non-writing friends. That's a lot of people who we are connected to through blogging. And...

People Buy Books They Recognize.  Perhaps the non-writers we connect with on FB don't actually read our blog posts but they see the picture and the title of the books that we are reviewing or the guest author we are showcasing on our FB page and it makes a connection for them. So the next time they are standing at the bookstore trying to decide between Book A and Book B, they choose B because they saw something about it somewhere even if they don't remember what it was. In marketing we call this creating/maintaining a presence. Coca-Cola and Pepsi do it with ads: TV ads don't sell Coke and Pepsi, the taste does. But the ads remind us of them so when we go to get a pop we say, "Can I have a Coke or Pepsi?" rather than "Can I have whatever cola you have on tap?" We buy what we recognize. Having a community that is so willing to promote you increases your chances for recognition.

You Can Have More Than One Blog.  It is a lot of work, and we should make sure our real writing comes first, but we can have more than one blog.  One for each book, one for our writing. And the "On Topic" notion can really work well here.

You Don't Have To Blog To Sell Books.  There are many social media mediums, and one size does not fit all. You don't have to use your blog to sell books. Personally (do you want to hear my personal opinion?) I like websites for books or published authors - interactive websites. Perhaps they can include a conversational area for interaction, but a blog isn't absolutely necessary.  

And most of us didn't start blogging because we wanted to build readers, did we? Most of us wanted to build community. We wanted support groups. Places to turn for advice. A place to practice writing. A place to voice all the words in our head! A place to say, "I'm writing a book" and not be laughed at and feel more committed to actually doing it because we said it out loud on blog.  And if we are lucky, we carry that support group from first draft to post-published.  And maybe our followers become readers. But even if they don't, I don't actually believe that writing blogs gain the "wrong audience".  No, it's exactly the right audience, I think.

What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Both? Why did you start blogging? 

15 comments:

Joanna Marple said...

I was thinking this morning once again that Writers are readers and how many authors I have met and or/read about this year whose books I have gone out and bought, And in whose genre I am not writing!

i actually do try and blog about topics related to my books BUT at this point my main reasons for blogging are, as you said, to build community and connect with others, and to work on writing!

I agree with you, Laura!

Krista said...

I agree Laura. I don't have any published booms yet so I don't see a point in blogging to readers. And when I do get to that point I will start a second blog.

I really enjoy the blogging network of writers. It supports and inspires me. I would not want to give that up.

Tricia Conway said...

I feel like I'm still too "junior" in the blogging and writing worlds to know exactly how to feel about this topic, but it has been fascinating to read. Currently, I blog for myself, in hopes that my friends/followers can offer their two cents. So in that aspect, I blog to other writers. However, I can absolutely understand the idea of blogging to your readers, or at least, on topics more relevant to my books and the genre.

There is no right answer for me at this time, but the fact that it has prompted me to rethink how I approach my own blogging seems like a good first step.

McKenzie McCann said...

Yeah, and my books are all pretty different from each other, and I surely don't want to run five different blogs. That would be the death of me.

Michelle Fayard said...

I think agents and editors hope we are blogging to attract readers. :)

LauraBarnes said...

Great point! I was going to bring that up and totally forgot! First I was going to say that blogging is a great way to connect with agents, and that is a benefit even if it isn't for readership afterward.

If I were an agent, yes, I would be interested in whether or not an author's blog had followers because it would show the potential of that author of sustaining a project for a period of time and dedicating themselves to writing and marketing themselves. I do think that an agent gets that out of writer blogs. But agents and editors should know as well as anyone how well writing blogs attract readers. If they aren't concerned with us writing "on topic" than we shouldn't be either.

bigblackcat97 said...

I both agree and disagree - yes, I started my blog to get my name out there, but I also wanted to help the unagented, unpubbed aspiring writers out there, b/c I played in that pool for a decade, and let me tell you - the water is warm. So I originally started my blog to talk about writing, and to attract writers. And so far, it seems to be working. I agree completely that we are a community and as members of the community we support each other, wholeheartedly.

Now, if I ever get a book deal and a readership I will start doing more self-promotion and title-promotion on the blog. Right now, I don't have a product to sell. I don't have a readership. What I do have is a separate site (bought, but not constructed yet) that will be about the book, about me, and be for readers.

But my writing blog is so much damn fun. I don't regret the focus.

Susanna said...

I guess I sort of already answered this with my question on Wednesday :) But my feeling is that, as a blogger I love being part of a community of writers - they are supportive and wonderful and share the same interests I have. Maybe some of them will turn out to have kids in their lives for whom they might, at some point, want to buy one of my picture books, but that's not the main reason I like the writing community, that would just be an added bonus. That said, my publishers would certainly like me to have an audience that was buying books hand over fist... but I don't know how to get that audience :)

Coleen Patrick said...

I agree! I even have bought a book from an author I connected with on Twitter, mostly because after interacting via blogs and Twitter I was not only interested in "helping" her out, but interested in her fiction. So it's not just collecting followers, but interacting with them like you (and Kristen Lamb) have said. :)

LauraBarnes said...

I am so glad that I am reviewing your blog on Monday. Hopefully I can get you some suggestions that work for you. Thanks for commenting.

LauraBarnes said...

Thanks, Joanna!

LauraBarnes said...

It's good to not make any firm decisions about a specific direction until you are sure which way you want to go. It sounds like you are approaching blogging exactly as you should at this stage of the game. Thanks for your comment :)

LauraBarnes said...

Can you imagine?? I can barely keep up with this blog!

LauraBarnes said...

Some agents and pubs will argue that you should build up your buyers, so to speak, before you have the product. But most interviews I've read from agents say that while good blogging stats are nice, it doesn't determine whether they sign you or not. Great comments, thanks!

LauraBarnes said...

I have read so many books I never would have because of writer blogs. Some have been checked out from the library, but some I've purchased both hard copy and for my nook. I've found books for my children from author blogs as well. If I don't count as a reader, who does? Thanks for the comment :)

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