Old Moon

Saturday, August 4, 2012

To Blog or Not?

Someone I met online insisted I must blog to put myself out there where I might find a buyer for my books. From other bloggers I have gathered that one is expected to keep at it, week in and week out. I'm amazed at the number who keep to a strict schedule, producing weekly or monthly, or whatever. I've also read that if a blogger wants readers, s/he must offer something a reader wants or needs. "Aye, there's the rub."

In my opinion, many bloggers offer tips and hints and glimpses at inside tracks to help their readers sell or learn something. From day one, I've known I don't have that kind of thing to offer. All I can put out there in the blogosphere is what I can put out there in articles or novels or stories or poetry:  what I hope might touch a sympathetic vibration in another human being. I might as well be trying to sell an essay to yet another uninterested agent or market. Makes a person wonder if it's worth the time invested.

So herewith a list of tiny successes thus far in 2012:

Two poems in www.lowestoftchronicle.com; one in Lucidity Poetry Journal; one in Red Poppy Poetry Reviewone for an anthology to be published by the Poetry Institute of Canada; one for an anthology to be published by Inner Child Press; and a dozen or so reviews and essays for www.seniorwomen.com. An essay has been published in an anthology called Heartscapes by Spruce Mountain Press. I'll spare us all the number of rejections or simple non-responses.

What I'd really like to know is whether this blog has helped. If a reader responds, it's encouraging. If no one does, it's discouraging. But the latter is the result of 90% of what most of us send out, isn't it?

2 comments:

Glenda said...

I have been told by editors of anthologies and journals that he/she always googles an author to see if they have an online presence. By having this blog, your name will automatically come up when your name is googled. The editor will see your writing and see what you have already published. I am sure your blog is beneficial to your being published. Don't worry about the lack of comments.
Try ending your blogs with a guestion to stimulate comments on your blog.

www.roughwighting.net said...

I enjoy your blog. I admit, it's hard as writers to be told that we 'have' to have a writer's platform and we 'have' to blog. I was surprised to discover that I enjoy blogging and sharing my writing once a week, as well as meeting wonderful people in our writing community. So for all these reasons, it's worth it. Keep up the good work.