| Welcome to Monday, folks! Grab some coffee, time to wake up! So this week we're delving into why authors blog... where I'll address why I do since I'm apparently an author...go figure! I'm gonna go with two great reasons here: writerly support and publicity. First, support. Technology has give us many a fine thing. When I started really writing, it was on an old Selectric typewriter in the mid-80s. It was the pinnacle of technology... I could backspace a WHOLE LINE back, erasing it... and that was about it. Think of how easy we have it now when we can cut, paste and move whole selections to anywhere in a story with a few simple keystrokes. How did writers ever edit before computers, right? Then when Nobel Prize winner Al Gore invented the Internetz for us, I wonder if he knew the great neuroses calming tool he gave the common writer? Think of all the support we can get from going online. We can bitch to our fellow writers about problems we are having with our work.. we can even get solutions to them! We can vent our frustrations without having to take the life of a nearby loved one. We can calm our nerves by hearing similar tales of woe from our fellow writers. Before we could blog, writing must have been a much lonelier business than it already it is. The support from blogging is manyfold and the amount of jailtime I haven't served for Hulking out in frustration over writing issues on those around me is simple proof of the benefits. My second reason for blogging is because I'm an attention whore or to put it politely, it's one of the best ways I can think of to get publicity without spending scads of my own personal cash. As the new kid on the block of urban fantasy, there's only so many dollars my publisher can put at risk on me so it's up to me to do as much as I can to help myself. So I spend as much time as I can making friends, joining the right communities, finding out where I should be going... all of it thanks to my blogging. For me, blogging about the upcoming release of Dead To Me is like that Pantene commercial... and he told two friends and they told two friends and so on and so on... Of course it's ironic that with twenty odd days left til I go on sales that I've regressed to using blogging as a support system for the wait keeeeling me... but that's a post for another day... |
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I'll gladly post a comment here now and then if it will make you continue not to Hulk out. :)
WRITER SMASH!!
Fortunately, the sedentary lifestyle of most writers prevents much damage from occuring during the rare rampage. I hear Margaret Atwood once picked up and threw a semi across town, though.
As a reader, I'm a huge fan of writer blogs. When I was but a wee lad, one of my favorite bits of each new Xanth books (don't judge) was Piers Anthony's author's note at the end. He'd discuss writing, real life, etc., and it was the only view I had into what the life of a real writer was like. Now that I can view it during blogs, it makes reading the books a more personal experience and helps me as a writer to see you're all as maladjusted as I am.
tm- never think we're as bad you.. NEVER!!!!!!
Except maybe Mark...
Not even Mark would "view it during blogs."
Apparently, I learned English from mail order videos produced by people who learned from mail order videos.
The Maladjustment Stakes: a new League contest, coming on 03/08...
*chuckles* The other thing I love about writer blogs is that it gives hope to us aspiring writers that we too can one day finish and find someone to publish our work.
All good points. I think blogging also helped me get in touch with my voice. My early entries reek of trying too hard, but I think now if you read my blog it's like having a conversation with me.
So, Anton, it's for publicity? Here I thought it was because you wanted to be closer to me...
Stacia- I ALWAYS want to be closer to you. Please see me in private...
Just whistle when you want me.
You know how to whistle, don't you Anton?
Of course I know how to whistle!
I have this plastic one from a piniata from last year.
TWEET! TWEEEEEET!!!!!! TWEEEEEEEET!!
Wow...that's so sexy.
I ruin everything.. I know...