What does blogging do for a writer? at Tobias Buckell Online

Journal Entry

What does blogging do for a writer?

February 27th 2007 at 12:50 am

Paolo Bacigalupi asks the title question.

I see some people blogging quite successfully, but often it seems they developed their blogging brand before they developed their writing brand. They had something to say, a dead horse to beat, what have you, and they built an audience around it. I’m wondering if people either have experience with blogging as a promotional tool, and/or if anyone’s done any analysis of the value of website/blog traffic in terms of conversions to loyal and ongoing (and dare we say, paying?) readers.

I don’t know if blogging is for everyone, if anything now that it’s considered hip by some now would be the time to do something different (ed: like video blogging, me: why, yes indeed) just so that people don’t respond by saying ‘oh crap, not another blawg.’

But for what it’s worth I did start blogging before becoming published, but I have no dead horse to beat. I just meander around pointing out things I think are cool, and hope people join me on a journey who also find those things cool.

I’m not the most hip, the funniest, or whatever, but I enjoy what it is I do. As I’ve said before, I know I could become controversial and start arguments and see traffic explode. I prefer laid back and moderate. Hardly a shining beacon of excitement.

But the blog has been a lot of fun. Because I know a ton of people through it. And I imagine what little success I do have (making a living blogging, freelance opportunities, and the what-looks-like solid book sales) is quite often traced back to someone encountering this blog and seeking me out.

Share and Enjoy:

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Filed in Tech: On Blogging. You can subscribe to the RSS feed for this entry to keep track of comments. You can also use to trackback.

7 Responses so far

1. Ray Dotson on Feb 27th, 2007 at 6:42 am

Hey Toby, I totally agree that there are many benefits to blogging other than just monetary. Like you, I’ve met lots of people through my blogging and formed valuable relationships. I’ve also been able to share ideas with people I never would have come across in my offline life. It’s really been a great thing.
2. Ryan on Feb 27th, 2007 at 8:02 am

When I mentioned that reading eBear’s blog made me enjoy and interpret her book Carnival a little differently, it spawned an in-depth discussion of how author-reader relations are changing, which I found pretty interesting.
3. Joseph Charpak on Feb 27th, 2007 at 10:16 am

keep up the good work, blogging and otherwise.
4. Steve Buchheit on Feb 27th, 2007 at 10:47 am

It’s just a different way to communicate with a lot of like minded (or even not so like minded) people. I’ve found that they ehance my experience of books (have more of the author’s “voice” in my head when I read). And I use my own as both a way to say hi to a lot of people (all the people I know and have met, writing individual emails soaks up a lot of time), as a way to solidify my own prose voice (as an extension of a newsletter I used to write), and as a whip (it gets very embarassing when I don’t have anything in my “In Submission” column). With my recent short story I also used it to post my progress, which was fun (and somewhat stolen from our host), and was also a whip to get the words out (OMG, I posted my word count an hour ago, I’ve got to show progress, write, write like the wind) and I beat a deadline I was worried about missing.
5. Mark Terry on Feb 27th, 2007 at 2:10 pm

I agree. If I wanted to drive my blog numbers up I’d either start a political blog where I turned my inhibitions off or, I suppose, a sex blog where I turn my inhibitions off.

I just don’t see what that does for me in terms of my booksales, which don’t have anything to do with politics (much) or sex (at all, sorry; tight timeframe thrillers–does Jack Bauer get laid? I think not).

So I’d rather keep things relatively relevant to my books and not have the tail wag the dog.

Best,
Mark Terry
www.markterrybooks.com
6. Todd Wheeler on Feb 27th, 2007 at 4:07 pm

Ditto on a lot of points (networking, keeping one honest). I’d think the “analysis of the value” would be tough to quantify precisely, but perhaps not on a wider scope.

How many promotional tools get the audience, for lack of a better word, involved? People value contact and interaction. Compared to other means (advertising, mailings, book signings, etc.) blogging, v-blogging, and podcasting seem to provide much more value for the time, energy, and money spent.

In terms of interaction, does video blogging and/or podcasting have more value than text blogging? Have to plead ignorance as I haven’t played with either.
7. Tobias Buckell on Feb 27th, 2007 at 5:17 pm

I do think it is an interesting new time for interactions, as you all note. I personally get a kick out of it, and I think while it’s hard to quantify, it’s easy to say that this has added value to my life as a writer. Older writers ask me about ‘the burden’ of updating, hell, it’s more a burden to not update and blather and talk to you all!

Mark, I think I agree. Plus, I just don’t mouth of all that much about that stuff in real life. Although I do want to blog more about technology and futurist topics than I am doing these days…