How to find an audience without publishing a book

[Svrtnsse]

I have noticed my "word count" posts tend to get lots of positive feedback. I guess people are happy with my progress or showing support.

I think that once you've got someone reading your blog that kind of post is something they'd like to read. They're happy to hear you're doing well and that your novel is coming along fine. It's a little bit of positivity and through being readers of your blog they're sort of sharing in your success - it makes them feel good.
The trick then would be to get them to start reading it in the first place which may require different kinds of posts.

 

[Philip Overby]

My top 3 blog posts were the following:

5 Ways to Write Engaging Fantasy Characters (which got shared by Black Dragon--definitely helped the amount of hits I got)
Interview and Excerpt of Legendary Sidekick's "Awesome Warrior" story
What Fantasy Writers Can Learn From Breaking Bad (a somewhat timely post and one I'm most proud of)

My three lowest viewed ones were story posts from my Writing Prompt Blitz-o-Rama I did a while back. Not sure if it's the way I posted them, but they just tended not to get as many views. Not that views=happiness for me, because it doesn't, but I'd just like to figure out how to capture that different audience. That said, I'm proud of all my posts, but I just see trends in the way people view things. Of course I'd love to change that, but that's just how my particular blog is structured. I've considered starting a new blog that focuses on my story aspects only and keep my other blog for reviews, interviews, writing topics, etc.

Maybe I'll do that!

 

[PaulineMRoss]

My top 3 blog posts were the following:

My writing blog hasn't been going long enough to generate any interesting numbers (I'm happy when the daily page count gets into double figures), but on the review blogs, the popular posts are invariably the ones that get mentioned on some other, much bigger, blog. Mostly chance. It's quite fun when the page count soars but it really doesn't mean much.

 

[Philip Overby]

My writing blog hasn't been going long enough to generate any interesting numbers (I'm happy when the daily page count gets into double figures), but on the review blogs, the popular posts are invariably the ones that get mentioned on some other, much bigger, blog. Mostly chance. It's quite fun when the page count soars but it really doesn't mean much.

Yeah, I've noticed the same. My blog isn't big enough as of yet to get big numbers by itself. I'm lucky if someone who has loads of followers likes something I write and shares it with other people. My current blog has been going since August 2013 when I had been only doing a Japanese based blog before. I ran out of stuff to talk about when it comes to Japan and I didn't want to keep posting things like "Best Ways to Learn Japanese" or "Best Travel Spots" so I decided to start a blog about a topic I never run out of things to talk about: fantasy.

So far I'm not sure how successful this has been, but I've enjoyed it a lot and have met some cool people through Google+ that way.

 

[Jackarandajam]

My reasoning is this.

1. Writers will certainly buy your book, but it will be readers that make up the majority of the numbers.

2. It's true that people crawl blogs searching for advice and answers to queries more than fantastical ramblings, but PERSONALLY i would struggle with considering every hit an applicable one. to give a highly exaggerated example, i could call my blog "Export Beiber" and probably get millions of hits, but would they buy my book, or just scan my posts looking for the content that brought them there?

granted, of course bringing fellow writers together on your blog is infinitely better and more applicable than a bunch of Beib Haters, so please pardon the exaggeration and try to see my point.

3. I think fantasy writers are looking for a whole bunch of people that want to be transported out of their world, and into a more exciting one. Therefore, it's the execution of that transportation that i will try to accomplish with my blog. (Note: will try, haha. this is something that I'm still putting together, so i'm curious about the results of it myself!) I won't be just throwing up articles on cool plants and animals.

I'll be posting bits of exciting history and mystery, in short enough posts that you simply CAN'T read just one.

Philip is very correct. its extremely important to be known as a writer among writers. If you can become a writer that others flock to for advice, that is HUGE for your progress as a successful author. That is INVALUABLE networking for your career.

I'm simply trying to figure out how to snag the others.

I was considering this morning, since I'm using a huge library as my setting, adding excerpts from a book on writing, or a scribe of a king, that perhaps is even writing the account of the story my book is about. that way i can put out a little advice or progress reports without leaving the world of my making. it will take some creativity, but i love a good challenge.

 

[Atlaxa]

Wow, I'm really surprised that my thread is still going on.

What surprises me is that some are still replying to me as if I was actually suggesting to market your book before writing it.

Yet again; this idea was something that I've read AND strongly opposed to. The title of the thread was meant to be sarcastic.
I started this thread because I thought that the idea was ridiculous. Nevertheless, I've been told repeatedly that it's the way to go. And again; I do not agree.
I think that you should have something to promote before you can start marketing it.

Apart from that; thanks for all the input.

 

[PaulineMRoss]

What surprises me is that some are still replying to me as if I was actually suggesting to market your book before writing it. [...] I think that you should have something to promote before you can start marketing it.

You make the assumption that what an author is marketing is a book. It isn't (necessarily). For fiction writers who have (or plan to have) a trilogy or series or several series, what is being marketed is a *brand*. It's perfectly possible to build brand awareness before having anything on the market to sell. It's also commonsense, if a release is scheduled for some time in the future, to set up a base (ie a website) which will act as a focal point for the book, and all subsequent books, when they're out.

So while I take your point, promoting a product that doesn't yet exist isn't quite as daft as it sounds.