So everyone says you have to be known before you're pulblished - have a blog, have a facebook page, twitter, etc.
My question is, what good does it do to set up all of this stuff. If no one knows you, they are not going to read a blog, etc! How is all of this supposed to help???

I think the idea is that you then have a ready-made network of friends and acquaintances who can be the seedcorn for the word-of-mouth which is so crucial to getting people to buy your work.

I certainly wouldn't blog if it doesn't come naturally - it's quite a commitment if you're going to do it properly, and if you're not, as you say, there's not a lot of point. If it does come naturally, of course, then it's true that it's a great way to begin to build up a readership.

Emma

It seems to be something that's come over from te US - the belief that a writer needs to have a self-publicising 'platform' to springboard off to become an author.
The trouble is, firstly a lot of UK agents don't like writers putting up extracts of their unpublished novels online, and, secondly, some people spend so much time building up their online presence that the writing suffers. And at the end of the day it all boils down to how good the writing is, and whether or not the publishers want that type of novel at that point in time.
If you've had a lot of short stories published, or competition wins, then having a website where you can showcase that work can be useful. But, otherwise I wouldn't bother doing any of it before you've had your first novel published.



- NaomiM

Must say, I've never exactly seen the point, either, before being published.

Rosy x

I wonder if they look longingly at the writers who were bloggers first, and got a book deal on the back of it, with umpteen thousand blog-readers rushing out to buy it, and started thinking that the rest of us should do it.

I do think ones energies are better spent on working on the book, and plugging away at getting it (or the next one, or the next one) published. As Rosy says, once it is under contract it really is worth having some kind of online presence. Though I must admit I only have a website and a blog (which is bloomin' 'ard work, and I wouldn't do it purely for the publicity), and don't FB or Twitter, professionally speaking.

Emma

I'm probably not the best person to defend blogs for the unpublished as I haven't blogged for ages but I do think they can have some merit. It all depends and why you are blogging.

I decided to start a blog because I wanted to have a presence on the web that was not necessarily linked to my WIP. More because I felt I had a lot of opinions and I wanted to air them anonymously. So I first started a blog without putting my name to it. I wrote about the things that interested me such as African/black writing and its very low profile, white writers who write from a black POV, I wrote about Ghana and interviewed some people when I went there on hols. I also blogged very loosely around the issues that I want to write about. It's been great and I've had loads of hits from all over the world. I then decided to use my name on the blog and don't feel at all exposed. People have contacted me for online interviews (which I've declined as I don't have a book to sell). One of the people I interviewed in Ghana received two business proposals from me. I met people in Ghana who mentioned my blog to me without knowing that it was mine. I look at my stats and I see some agents and publishers looking at the blog. No one has made contact but it's nice to know. And now I don't push it at all because I think there's enough there for me to blog when I feel like it. The blog helped me exercise my writing muscle when I got fed up with my WIP. And importantly because it's taking me so long to have anything published, it's there for anyone who wants to know what my writing is like. And who knows? When (please God) I'm published I may have a ready made audience who knows exactly where I'm coming from. Hope this helps to give another view. S

Shika, I think you're a great example of someone whom blogging suited for all the reasons you suggest - I love your blog! I think the mistake is to think that you MUST do it in order to be noticed (let alone in order to get a book deal) even though you don't want to. I don't think duty-blogging ever works: for a blog to be good to read there needs to be as much of a desire in the writer to write it, as there does for anything else to be good to read.

Emma

I wonder if they look longingly at the writers who were bloggers first, and got a book deal on the back of it, with umpteen thousand blog-readers rushing out to buy it

....which is, like - what? - three people, ever?

Hmmm.

I was thinking smugly the other day how great it is having been a fanfic writer, because of all those people who read my fanfic and will then (naturally) rush out and buy my books. I was thinking, I get maybe two or three requests a week from people wanting to be send my fanfic novel by e-mail (as it isn't online anywhere any more, but is listed on the relevant fanfic site(s) as available by e-mail request). It seemed a lot of great publicity. But then I got real. What is that - a hundred, hundred and fifty people a year? Say one in five goes out and actually buys one of my published novels. That's, oooo, twenty or thirty sales a year.

For most of us - published or otherwise - a web presence is somehting we maintain either for fun, or as a courtesy to the teeny-tiny number of people who might read one of our books and be curious enough to google us, or because our publisher thinks we 'should', or because it makes us feel good to think we are doing something - or even just because everyone else does and it seems rude not to. The notion that it is a way of making a serious name for ourselves or selling books in any significant numbers is, I suspect, for 99% of us, pie in the sky.

Rosy x (feeling cynical)

Aw thanks, Emma. We should have a virtual love-in because I learn so much from your blog! And can't wait for it to be turned into a book??? S

....which is, like - what? - three people, ever?

A bit more than that - The Friday Project, albeit with a few lurches, was founded purely to do that, and have some successes. And Belle du Jour, Girl with a One Track Mind, Julie & Julia - surely the n'es plus ultra of the blogger's dream.

But I agree, for the rest of us it's just part of being a professional, to have that kind of presence. Impossible to quantify what it does, or doesn't do, for actual sales.

Emma

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Where I do think a web presence is probaly important is for non-fiction, because your platform to promote that is much more important.

This post made me smile - WW timely as ever. I created a blog over the weekend actually! I've been reticent online since I've been searching for that ever elusive first book deal. Recently though I've thought about building up an online presence in a (probably vain) attempt at building up readership. Don't laugh! I'm sure I'll probably forget about it in a couple of months' time, but at least I have a space where people can read my writing!

http://www.writewords.org.uk/forum/45_297798.asp

I think blogs are a great way for an unpublished writer to have some sort of web presence and for the albeit very small percent of agents who might be interested, i think it's useful to have some place to visit, where they can get a sense of who you are and how serious you are about your writing. As long as you don't end up blogging about what you ate for breakfast.

It's also a superb way of brushing up your writing skills and making them more diverse, especially if, like me, you rarely write short pieces.

It's also a boost to the old moral - us unpublished writers have little enough to make us feel like proper writers. I find it a little exclusive, the idea that blogs are only worthwhile for those you are published.

Go for it, i say - it's free and entertaining. Just don't let it distract from your serious writing.

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They are also a great way of networking - i've made a lot of contacts through doing interviews and inviting people to guest blog.

I must say - apart from the annoying technicality of arranging widgets on a blog and having to deal with layout issues - I felt like a writer today after reading chapter one of my novel online! And I haven't felt like a writer for five years.

I think a blog is great for any aspiring writer. I generally use mine to update those few interested parties what I'm up to, if I have a story out and to occasionally talk about the craft. I don't update mine often, but it's there, and I like it. Most of all, I like it as it will serve as a sort-of-diary of my endevours and maybe something I can look back and smile at one day.

What I increasingly loathe is that everybody and their dog is promoting themselves these days, whether they have a product or not. Twitter, to my mind, is a risible exercise in human vanity. It's a symptom of the Big Brother generation where everybody and their dog fancies themselves as a star. It has cluttered an already cluttered market.

Facebook isn't bad as it's more personal and a good way of connecting with old friends you've lost touch with and keeping abreast of social events etc. I'm getting to the point of creating a seperate Facebook profile for my writing because it's getting increasingly confused and I'm not sure my agent and other writers need to know about my personal life to that extent. Not being precious, but I don't want to mix business with pleasure. It worries me.

If you have something to say, say it. Don't hide your light under a bushel. Just be prepared for the fact that these days, everybody and their dog considers themselves to have a light. Even when many could do with recieving some healthy sized bushels. Sorry if that sounds sniffy, but I think it's true.

JB

Thanks for all the thoughts everyone!

I recently went to a writing conference where the main thought was that you have to get known before you get published. But all that they suggested you do would suck up your life! If you have a job outside of writing, you would have no time to eat or sleep, let alone write anything because you'd be on line all the time "making yourself known."

The opinion was that if you have no online presence, you are not serious about your writing, and no editor will take your work seriously if they can't google you! One guy at the conference suggested a writer could make a career of writing blogs for other writers, lol.

Patsy