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| SFReader Forums > SFReader > Ask The Expert > Good blogs: what? how? | Forum Quick Jump
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crystalwizard
Forum Moderator
      
Date Joined Nov 2006
Total Posts : 5004
| Posted 9/19/2007 8:10 PM (GMT -5) |   | | | |
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von Darkmoor
Small Press Publisher (and Dancer still)
Date Joined Dec 2005
Total Posts : 3056
| Posted 9/19/2007 11:07 PM (GMT -5) | |
Hermit said...
I'm experimenting with blogs these days - along with some other things.
So, questions have bloomed:
What makes a good blog?
What makes a popular blog?
What should an author include on a blog, and what omit? Targeting, as Crystalwhiz pointed out, is important. If you care, you should have a target in mind.
A 'good' blog gives its readers something new every 24-48 hours they say, otherwise readers move on to the next happening thing.
A 'good' blog gives its readers something they want to read every 24-48 hours they say, otherwise readers move on to the next more interesting thing.
I suppose 'good' and 'popular' to those who are doing the reading mean the same thing. In my experience there have been 'popular' blogs I don't find much good in, and I regularly read some 'good' blogs that don't seem very widely popular. So to those not reading a specific blog, these terms do not signify the same thing.
I guess 'popular' would mean it gives its readers incentive of some sort to return.
An author should include his/her biography, publication credits with links when possible, serial characters with their own pages/links/bios/publication histories (see Steve Goble's blog for i.e.), editorial/advice/opinion pieces (see E.E. Knight's blog for i.e.), what they're reading and/or like to read, links to sites they use or respect, and news about current and future projects. George RR Martin has a pretty good author's site with all these things.
I'm undecided if author's sites should include bits of writing or not. For those authors I don't know and am trying to know, I'd like a bit of writing on their blog that I could see and read. On the other hand, those pieces on author's blogs/sites tend to be either (a) the things they couldn't sell or (b) such well-worked pieces obviously crafted for such high public consumption that they are no longer truly representative of the author's normal novels, or (c) very much older works that are no longer proper representatives of the author's current talents and tastes. So the jury's still out on that one. For me at least.
I suppose I'd be less interested in an author's site if it also spent time preaching at me on any subject outside the realms of writing, editing, publishing, and reading. I really couldn't care less what XXX thinks of politics, religion, sports, war, monopolies, guns, whatever. I think authors that do present all these opinions on their sites forget that, at least when selling a product, ignorance is bliss. The ignorance of the consumer, that is. If I don't know you're a pinko commie liberal socialistic anti-this ant-that son of a bahitch I buy your stuff. Once I know all that about you, I am much more heavily inclined not to. Human nature - why should I line the pockets of someone who has zero in common with me, or is, perhaps, in direct opposition to me?
Only my thoughts, David. Does my blog adhere to them. Probably not so much. Hence the 'If you care' in the first line. Mine didn't start out with any aim other than recording my thoughts on all the books I read. But because of it, I've landed some reviewing gigs, met several others whom I now interact with almost daily (wishing I lived closer to some of them for some drinking card game nights), and walked into two editing positions. So my blog seems to be doing its job just fine.
So, the long and short of it is, what do you want back from your blog? Knowing that, who should you target to generate that desired response/result? And knowing that, what should you provide that 'who' so they deliver back to you your desired what?
~~~~~~~~~~ Jason M. Waltz Fantasy Acquisitions Editor Staffs & Starships MagazineAssociate Editor Flashing Swords~~~~~~~~~~ Ever waltz with the Devil? Visit von Darkmoor's thoughts to find out (and read a review or two). ~~~~~~~~~~ Critical Eye of the Dragon Avatar courtesy of crystalwizard | | Back to Top | | |
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von Darkmoor
Small Press Publisher (and Dancer still)
Date Joined Dec 2005
Total Posts : 3056
| Posted 9/20/2007 10:28 AM (GMT -5) | |
Dave Panchyk said...Picayune question: moderate comments? Insist on "enter the semi-legible code" for entries? Where's the balance between discouraging spambots and discouraging legitimate users?
or is that a Panchyk question 
Yes! I feel your pain. I hate that I've been forced to demand 'semi-legible codes' from comment-wielding visitors, BUT I've been hit with a mega-spam attack that clogged my email for days and I never want to experience that again. So survival of my sanity trumps ease of commenting.
~~~~~~~~~~ Jason M. Waltz Fantasy Acquisitions Editor Staffs & Starships MagazineAssociate Editor Flashing Swords~~~~~~~~~~ Ever waltz with the Devil? Visit von Darkmoor's thoughts to find out (and read a review or two). ~~~~~~~~~~ Critical Eye of the Dragon Avatar courtesy of crystalwizard | | Back to Top | | |
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Dave
Master of the Domain
Date Joined Aug 2003
Total Posts : 684
| Posted 9/20/2007 6:24 PM (GMT -5) | | | | |
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von Darkmoor
Small Press Publisher (and Dancer still)
Date Joined Dec 2005
Total Posts : 3056
| Posted 9/21/2007 2:05 PM (GMT -5) | | | David, you've pretty much summed it up. Blogging eats up your time. But so does forum posting. And reading forum posts. Especially reading forum posts. To be honest, I'm not sure the work/rewards ratio will ever balance out. Blogging is just what David B. said: a tool. Use it as you will, but know in advance that, while it may never return reward equal to the labor, it will return reward of some sort.
There's only 2 author's 'blogs' I regularly visit. Two 'main-stream/large press' authors, that is (sorry Steve): GRRM and E.E. Knight. GRRM has a cool site that contains tons of info on him, his life, his writing, etc., - but I'm damn tired of reading his latest reasons for delays so I rarely visit now. But I still think it's a great site.
E.E. Knight's site I just discovered, courtesy of reading comments on Black Gate's editor's blog. I've taken full advantage of the fact Knight and HAJ are friends and capitalized on not only the BG blog and comments by both, but by reading Knight's blog. He's got a lot of great stuff to say in my opinion. In fact, I'm trying to get him to do an appearance here in Milwaukee.
So check out those two sites, David, and see their commitment levels to their blogs, before you discard - or embrace - blogging.
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Swashbuckler
One-man sword-and-sorcery machine
Date Joined Mar 2006
Total Posts : 1276
| Posted 9/21/2007 3:10 PM (GMT -5) | | The thing that keeps me coming back to any particular blog is intelligent discussion. The best blogs seem to have a core of regular readers who comment on the topics at hand. A variety of viewpoints, if expressed well and with courtesy, can be illuminating and entertaining.
I'm probably not a good example of a "good" blogger. I don't post every day, or even every other day. Half the time I post about writing, but the other half I post about whatever the hell is on my mind that day. (I justify this to myself with the thought that any topic or idea might well be fodder for fiction, and often I'll try to illustrate that in some way in the original post, or via comments.)
I have quite a few regular readers, and I encourage discussions and comment, so the blog seems to be working out for me on some small level. I also include tabs for lists of published stories, stories coming up and (thanks to a great idea from HvD!) short bios of my serial characters. Those incorporate outgoing links to places where people can buy the fiction or read it if they are so inclined. I do know that at least a few people have followed those to check out the fiction, but I don't know how many.
Anyway, whether it's a good blog or not I find it useful for generating ideas, and I greatly enjoy the regular doses of conversation.
Steve Goble
Visit my blog, Swords Against Boredom, for news on published fiction and upcoming stories. | | Back to Top | | |
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crystalwizard
Forum Moderator
Date Joined Nov 2006
Total Posts : 5004
| Posted 9/22/2007 9:57 AM (GMT -5) | | | | |
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Jordan Lapp
Top 5 Poster
Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 2806
| Posted 9/23/2007 6:57 PM (GMT -5) | | I'm learning more and more that blogging should be left up to authors that have a book, or multiple books already published.
A blog is a nice way for your fans to get connected to you, but I think they are very poor tools for >gaining< fans. For that reason, if you're in the short story market, I think you're much better off writing fiction than writing blog posts.
Think of all the authors you've met. Nearly all of them have blogs, but these blogs often have very few readers, and of those, many are the authors personal friends. Small time authors with dedicated fans following their blogs are the exception, not the rule.
As for creating a successful blog, subscribe to many OTHER blogs to see how it's done.
Howard Von Darkmoor's blog survived my blog purge last month, as did Steve Goble's. www.dailyblogtips.com is awesome for technical stuff and you can't beat Scott Adams' blog for content (dilbert's creator).
Jordan Lapp
Managing Editor
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Hermit
Diavhrati Luminary
Date Joined May 2007
Total Posts : 1729
| Posted 9/23/2007 7:40 PM (GMT -5) | | Thanks for all the feedback, folks.
Jordan, I think you can tell at this point that I am not a short author. I'm a poet and novelist. Pretty much unpublished as either, though I've had a tease of publication in the poetry markets.
Crystalwizard: I am still a bit confused as to your thinking I said anything about having problems writing. SUBMITTING, oh gods help me, yes! But no problem writing. Some trouble focusing on one particular project, but none overall in writing.
As far as creating a fanbase . . . That's a bit down the road. Right now what I need is perceptive readers. Preferably those who can get past the whole blindered genre myopia thing and see my fiction from multiple distances. I use a fair amount of flat characters as forces of nature, and that seems to really jam some folks up. I also tend, as I write primarily epic fantasy with crossover into ........something akin to urban fantasy. I need readers - not writers who like to regurge workshop BS. To some degree, this is because I'm much more literary than pulp. But I also write with a great deal more action than most literary sleepers. I'm marginal. I know that. Is there a market for my fiction? I think so. I think it's damn good story telling. But writers get caught up in the details and BS and forget to look at the story because I'm so far ahead of them on technical aspects of writing. I'm daring. I'm dangerous. But I am damn good. I need readers who can appreciate that, and still tell me, "David, that is brilliant. But this part of it doesn't work. What about doing this instead?"
I'm also using my blogs to put stuff out there that's pretty unlikely to find a market, but that I think some folks will appreciate. And things from my past that others have commented on.
Again: Thanks so much for the feedback. I really appreciate it everyone.
Putting the pun back in punisher! | | Back to Top | | |
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von Darkmoor
Small Press Publisher (and Dancer still)
Date Joined Dec 2005
Total Posts : 3056
| Posted 9/24/2007 12:02 AM (GMT -5) | |
Jordan Lapp said...
Howard Von Darkmoor's blog survived my blog purge last month, as did Steve Goble's. www.dailyblogtips.com is awesome for technical stuff and you can't beat Scott Adams' blog for content (dilbert's creator). Don't know as I'd call my blog successful, but I certainly do appreciate the comment Jordan. I find Goble's blog to definitely be an enjoyable and regular read, and darkbow often makes me think, study things beneath a different light.
My blog may be somewhat self-defeating, anyways, as it is all done behind another persona. If I ever do find publication, it will be under my real name and linked to a different site. The question then will be whether I will be able to blend the two websites and rely upon a joint fanbase. It should work, but there's no way to test this theory in advance.
Anyhoo . . . David, I'm working on getting to your stuff. Only half of another person's manuscript ahead of yours. Thanks for the heads up on the "you're brillant" part, though. Good looking out, man. 
~~~~~~~~~~ Jason M. Waltz Fantasy Acquisitions Editor Staffs & Starships MagazineAssociate Editor Flashing Swords~~~~~~~~~~ Ever waltz with the Devil? Visit von Darkmoor's thoughts to find out (and read a review or two). ~~~~~~~~~~ Critical Eye of the Dragon Avatar courtesy of crystalwizard | |
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