"As an author, I've always seen my blog as much more than an online diary. It's about keeping in regular contact with your readers and giving them something extra. Ultimately, it's a brilliant and beneficial marketing tool... I'd go as far as saying that in today's marketplace, a blog is a necessity for any writer, and the very nature of being published means you're already one step ahead of the game. In order to get published in the first place there's a requirement for your book to be a little bit different from the rest, and if you can capture some of this uniqueness in the blog, it can only help to raise awareness of you and your work."
I think it's a good article, but it does seem to have a tone of "if you don't blog, you'll fail", which isn't completely true. I think it's particularly useful in genre circles, due to the nature of fandom—and I suppose those who read this are already converted to that school of thought. And we're all fan boys in the Solaris office, and are frequently tuning into see what our favourite writers are up to.
But I often wonder what new writers think of the requirement to be seen to blog. Also, are readers beginning to think the effect is diluted if every writer wants to have a blog? What do people think of writers who don't blog? Are they less likely to buy books if a new writer doesn't have much of an online presence?
2 comments:
Robin Hobb has a blog which she hardly ever posts to. I still buy her books. ;-)
Well there's one!
You know, I think the Internet audience often forgets there's a rather massive book-buying crowd who don't play around much online, and either don't know or care about blogs. They're quite happy to go out and buy the books when they're out. That percentage is getting smaller as technology becomes more central to our lives, but they're worth remembering from time to time! :)
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