Saturday 22 March 2014

BLOGGER WRITERS BLOCK AND THE ART OF SELF PROMOTION

I have a confession. It's been over a month since my last blog. I didn't mean for it to be so long in between blogs, but it kinda just happened. I swore to myself that when I started this page it wouldn't be just a couple of blogs and then left to waste with no updates. But this, sadly is what has happened to me. It's not that I haven't wanted to blog, I have, I just wanted to make sure what I wrote was worthwhile and meaningful. After all, as an author, I need to ensure that what I write is always engaging and entertaining. Anything less than that I would be doing a disservice to myself and my readers. In order to create an entertaining blog, I need an entertaining topic. One that I think will engage readers and promote awareness of myself and my book. Finding a topic is harder than it sounds. It's not like when I write fiction. As a dreamer, pictures and words are always flowing through my mind. In fact I currently have four manuscripts on the go, all partially written, ranging from 16,000 words to 1600 words, and at least three other story ideas written down. Each and every single story line is different, ranging from Contemporary Adult, New Adult, Young Adult Contemporary and even a couple of Middle School ideas. So story ideas aren't the problem (finishing them is, but I might leave that one until the next blog. That way I have a new topic).
I subscribe to a number of different author pages, and to be honest they love to self promote and will blog so much that it kinda gets monotonous. Blog tours, blog hosting, guest blogger etc etc. Is there such a thing as too much?  I've even unsubscribed from some pages because of their over sharing. Would worthwhile sporadic blogs and updates be more effective than posting blogs every week and Facebook updates three to four times a day about word count or who they have been signed to this week? I know it's important to self promote, but where is the happy medium? Is market saturation a good thing? I've read so many articles in pro blogging and just as many anti. Is blogging even necessary when we have other forms of media such as Facebook or Twitter? So many questions, that I'm sure through time I will learn.
Promotion for a newly self published author is a full time gig, especially when said author (me) has another job, a family and a time consuming past time. I forget how many times I've stumbled onto a new author and fell in love with their work and then went to their webpage, or blog page to find out more about them and their work, but then was greatly disappointed when their page hadn't been updated for one to two months, or on the flip side, they have blogged so much I haven't wanted to read past the first couple of entries. But every person is different in what they want and expect from their online experience. So I guess for now, I'll continue on my road of self promotion, which means I'll see you in another month when hopefully I have something important and engaging to discuss.
In the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback on blogging and posting.