I love writing. Well, duh, right? I write novels after all. But I also write blog posts–lots of them. If I write a “think piece” as most of the work on this site represents, it takes me about an hour to get done. There is almost no editing, or you would be treated to a much shorter version of my work each week. Unfortunately, there isn’t time for the polishing, so you’re stuck with 700-900 words instead of a more palatable 500. Thanks for your patience as my mind wanders through topics.
Few digits-infinite message
When I write for other publications or blogs, the same article takes about two to three hours, as I often do research and interviews to get the job done. Then there is the thank you note to interviewees after the post is up. This is a subtle way to try to drive more traffic to my client’s site.
Yesterday, a post I wrote about critique groups went up on my writing friend, Catherine Dilts’ site. She told me she had more hits than I can imagine. Whoopee!!! Hoping some of those friends will come over to my site on occasion and I can garner more readers over time.
NEW PHENOM–BLOG HOPPING
Catherine has also invited me to be part of a “Blog Hop,” where a group of authors visit each others’ websites and answer some basic writing questions. This is a pretty new event that helps individuals who write promote themselves and their stories to new groups of people. It is marketing inexpensively (very important to writers everywhere), with just a few hours of effort.
If you’re writing an author’s blog and want to join the fun, please let me know. I’ll see if I can get you connected.
I’m excited to tell you that two author friends of mine will join Catherine and me on this adventure. Donnell Ann Bell writes best selling suspense and crime novels and Pamela Nowak writes award-winning historical romance. I hope you’ll make a point of joining them as they post on August 18th. I’ll be sure to post their links once again, when I post on August 11th (Yes, this is a Monday, and not my usual Wednesday, so please watch out for this).
BLOG INTERVIEWS
Another blog I write for is the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ blog. Once a month I try to interview personalities in publishing. That is a whole new adventure in that I need to come up with people willing to talk to me about subjects around publishing and books as opposed to writing. Next month I will be interviewing the great Douglas Preston (25 books written so far, and co-writes with Lincoln Child). He has particular expertise and interest in the current controversy surrounding Amazon and mega-publisher Hachette. I am so excited for this! If you have a particular question you’d like me to ask Mr. Preston about what’s happening with the two book giants, please let me know.
BLOGGING FOR A CLIENT
This blogging is so cool. I’m constantly writing and honing skills, obviously, but blogging for clients expands my own circle of friends and opens me up to learning so much more about the world than I ever thought possible. One client, DeckTec, builds decks and patios for homeowners in the metropolitan Denver area. For over 25 years they’ve built this business and a great reputation. So when the opportunity came to write a blog on “the art of outdoor living,” you can imagine how excited I was. For over a year now, I’ve been writing about decks, gardening, wildlife, pet care, and all things backyard for the company. How cool is that?
Thing is, all this blog posting has lots of advantages and only one drawback. The advantages:
- Meeting lots of people
- Expanding your own subject expertise
- Generating ideas for stories and characters
- Building a readership and author platform “without hardly trying”
- Learning to write better and faster
- Learning the basics of social media
And the one drawback? I work so much on these blog posts, I’m finding a challenge in making time to write my novels (Does this sound like “the dog ate my homework” to you too?)
Happy writing week, friends.
