Tag: blogs

To blog or not to blog. Is that really the question?

On By Lily Iona MacKenzieIn Blog2 Comments

Blogging has become a major part of my writing process. Each Monday, I publish a new blog post that is related in some way to reading and writing. Today’s is no exception, but it’s about the process of creating a new blog. In 2009, I took advantage of WordPress.com’s free blog templates and platform. I felt satisfied with the theme I’d been using. I also appreciated not paying a monthly/yearly fee for using it. A newbie to creating a blog, I needed something simple so I could teach myself how to set it up, and WordPress offers online guidelines for doing so. Over the years, I became somewhat adept at publishing my posts and keeping my pages updated. Continue reading “To blog or not to blog. Is that really the question?” →

Blogging into Visibility

On By Lily Iona MacKenzieIn Links4 Comments

One of the first things my publisher told me to do before my novel Fling is published in 2015 is create a fan base. I don’t think he was referring to the kind of fan I’m used to, a mechanical object with rotating blades that whirl around and stir the air. In a way, though, I suppose the kind of fan my publisher was referring to can stir things up and call attention to our work.

Yet for someone of my disposition (I don’t love big parties or crowds; I prefer quiet intimate dinners with close friends and enjoy spending time alone), making the kind of outreach that marketing a book requires is hard. Not only is it all consuming, taking time away from the precious little I do have for writing itself, but I also must enter a world totally different from the one I’m accustomed to.

I’ve had to learn the language of twitter (I still haven’t a clue how to make that networking approach work); tumblr (not sure exactly what this does); and Facebook (I’m a neophyte, but I’m learning how to add “friends,” many of whom I don’t know, and I’m very good at liking things that stand out); triberr (can’t figure this one out); and Pinterest (not sure how to employ this tool). I’ve signed up for blog rolls and blog hops. I’m investigating virtual book tours since real ones don’t do much for unknown authors. At the moment, I have a 15-page marketing plan, and I’ve only scratched the surface! It will be a book itself by the time I’m finished.

This sounds like sour grapes when I should be grateful that my novel will be published (and I am!), but how will all of these activities make people like my writing or become a “fan”? This marketing madness is an aspect of writing I hadn’t anticipated. While I was familiar with the demands of researching publishers and publications for long and short work, both poetry and prose, the business side of what we writers do, this other aspect of publishing has totally changed my life.

It’s also one of the reasons I am writing this blog (as so many other writers are doing), trying to make my presence as a writer known beyond my immediate friends (who must hate receiving all these posts!). At times I wonder if I’m just preaching to the choir since most writers have the same goals: We’re enrolled in Goodreads and Librarything. If we’re women, we try to keep connected with Shewrites. We’re all trying to sell books, but are we actually reaching those readers who aren’t writers themselves, the ones we want to attract?

I would like to hear from other writers who are also going through this process and have advice on how to survive it. Meanwhile, here I am, stirring up a little air on the Internet in my search for fans.

 

 

 

On Blogging

On By Lily Iona MacKenzieIn LinksLeave a comment

Full disclosure:  I started this blog so I would have a “writer’s platform” I could show agents and potential publishers.  But it doesn’t come without a cost, and that is one’s privacy.

The idea of public and private has shifted in this new century.  While some people still keep private diaries/journals, others are blogging their hearts out for all the world to see.  Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, chat rooms, etc., have conditioned a new generation to spill it all on the web, to not hold back.  Some even set up webcams in their houses so strangers can follow their daily routine.

Has the isolation we experience in our neighborhoods caused this overreaction on the world-wide web?  When I was a child, I knew everyone on our block.  I walked to school, which allowed me to see my neighbors, both coming and going.  People sat on porches in the summer time and shared produce from abundant gardens.  We formed neighborhoods, not these individual units that make up most communities today where few people know their neighbors or interact with them.  Even the words neighbor and neighborhood sound quaint now.

What is the effect on our consciousness of such willingness to turn ourselves inside out for anyone to see?  We won’t know the answer to this questions immediately, but we can speculate.  Of course, writers learn early that they can’t hold back.  They must be willing to expose their private selves, whether in fiction or non-fiction.  Even the most objective academic or journalistic writing can’t conceal entirely the person behind the prose.

What is the effect of blogging on our consciousness, on our relationships with ourselves and others?  What does it mean not to have a private self any longer?  What are the drawbacks to this kind of exposure?