• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Is Blogging Worth It for Authors?

Ned Marcus

Maester
It's not just about selling your book, it's about selling yourself as an author. You have a series of books? Put them all up! Write about why you wrote the book, what inspired you. Talk about yourself so that a reader who read one book feels more connected and willing to try another, maybe from a different series...

The notion that you have to write every day or twice a week or whatever to call it a "blog" is nonsensical. Write however often you feel like adding content...

In my experience, it was easier to add content and build a regular readership for non-fiction than it has been for fantasy. People were already looking for the non-fiction materials that I posted mini-articles on. That made it a lot easier to be "discovered", and to leverage the blog or website to promote sales. For fantasy, the blog or website is really more of a landing site right now: a way to connect with readers and hopefully encourage them to buy subsequent books.

I think the selling yourself part is important, and something I'm trying to do, but it takes time to learn how to do it. I agree with the second point, too, but I think it's useful to be regular, as I mentioned before. Certainly agree with your point about nonfiction. I also write nonfiction (and have a separate website for it) and it's so much easier to think what to write, and much more SEOable (if that can be a word).

I'm not sure how I missed your post before (I must have been in a rush the day I posted), but some good points.
 
I've been a consistent blogger for over ten years. I've found an entire network of bloggers who will promote my work when I have a new book published. It does take some time, but I've been at it so long that I know what I want to write. I have at least two guests per month so my fellow bloggers can promote their own work. I enjoy reading the blogs of writers I enjoy like Michael J. Sullivan.
But...you have to enjoy blogging to make it work. If you hate it, better to spend your time on other social media. Also, a good blog can fill in as your website. Marketing is hard, so find what fits you, be it blogging, Facebook, Twitter, or something else.
 

zoey

Acolyte
I like visiting author websites only if there is interesting fresh content. I have heard some authors hire bloggers to write on their behalf. Whatever be the case, maintaining a blog year on year is mighty hard.
 
Top