How Often Should I Blog?

The answer, of course, depends on you, on how much time you have available and, most of all, on what you want. I began to blog a few months ago and started off posting about once every two weeks. (Little did I know that I was fostering an addiction, but that's a post for another time!) I had no idea if anyone was reading my posts; it felt as though I was tossing them out into a void. Then I found Google Analytics. It was one of those moments where you feel warm light fall on your shoulders and hear the sound of trumpets.

Now at least I knew whether anyone was coming by my site; at that time, about six people a week, but still! That was okay; heck that was great! I was excited that six people were reading my blog.

My excitement lasted for a few days, until I found out hundreds were visiting the blog of a friend of mine. I wanted that kind of readership (I know! Greedy, aren't I?). But what to do? How could I increase readership? I read and studied and schemed. I tried blogging more frequently (once a week), blogging about different topics, I even tried leaving a reader participation 'hook' at the end of my post to encourage feedback. And you know what? It worked! Traffic on my site began to increase and, slowly, even the rate of increase began to increase.

And then it all came crashing down. I was using Wordpress at the time and loved it, especially all the different styles, and then, mysteriously, the site that was hosting my blog died. All that work! All those posts! Everything was gone.

After a fair amount of hand-wringing I decided to start again from scratch. I decided to use Blogger.com this time, so I wouldn't have to deal with any technical glitches, and because it was easy to customize and was free (love free!). This blog would be about everything and anything to do with writing, with a special focus on topics relevant to people at the beginning of their writing careers.

Today, although I can only dream about Joe Konrath's numbers, I'm happy to be able to write that more than six people read my blog, but I only saw a significant increase in numbers after I began to blog four or so times a week. That said, I think that the number of posts it takes to start to build a platform likely differs for different people and different blogging styles. John Locke, for instance, advises blogging once a month and that strategy certainly has worked for him.

If you are wondering how often you should blog, I sincerely hope you find out what works for you and, most of all, I hope you find the journey enjoyable.

Selling A Book: Getting Noticed

When Walter Ellis told his brother-in-law he was going to publish his book, London Eye, on Amazon, he said: "Make sure you price it at 99p like that fella who sold a million."

Yes, John Locke has definitely raised the bar for what self published writers can accomplish. Walter Ellis, though -- like many of us -- is far from the million book mark. It is comforting to reflect that John Locke too started off with a dribble rather than a bang.

Ellis calls for:

... a proper grown-up site, possibly run by Amazon, in which hot new arrivals, bestsellers and chart climbers are featured as if they mattered, and not as if they were the products of small-time eccentrics who really out to get out more.

Personally I think we need a site for big-time eccentrics, forget all that penny ante stuff.

Thanks to Roy Greenslade over at the Guardian for bringing my attention to Ellis's article.

Common Editorial Rates

This comes from the Editorial Freelancers Association.

Thanks to PG and Maril Hazlett for the link.

Building The Perfect Facebook Page

Tim Ware, owner of HyperArts, recently posted on Techipedia about creating the perfect fan page. I have a fan page, but I took the link off this blog because I wasn't happy with how it looked and, as a result, I was wasn't using it.

I've been searching for a great article on how to build a better fan page and I think this is it. Hope it helps you too!

By the way, if anyone would like to leave a link to their fan page in the comments section, please do!

Lawrence Block's Afterthoughts only 99 cents on the Kindle

Yesterday, after reading a post by Passive Guy in which he discussed a literary gem he found in his spam filter, I raced to check mine to see if it contained similar literary gold.

It did! But not the sort I expected. I found an announcement that Lawrence Block has a new book coming out on the Kindle and for -- drum roll please -- only 99 cents! That is an amazingly good deal.

Here is a description of Afterthoughts:

A collection of afterwords from Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Lawrence Block’s most acclaimed works

In a career spanning more than fifty years, Lawrence Block has produced over one hundred books, ranging in genre from hard-boiled detective stories to pseudonymous erotica. Collected here for the first time are more than forty-five afterwords from the works that made him a master of modern fiction.

Each afterword is an insightful reflection on the experiences that have brought Block’s fiction to life, from the lessons he learned as a reader at a literary agency to the unlikely—and semi-autobiographical—origins of the acclaimed Matthew Scudder series. Witty and inspiring, Afterthoughts is a must-read for Block fans and mystery lovers alike.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Lawrence Block, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

Afterthoughts is available to pre-order for August 2nd.

It's amazing how fast times have changed. Even a couple of years ago when I wanted to buy Lawrence Block's latest book I would have to pay thirty dollars for a hardback or wait six months and pay ten dollars for the paperback (and his books were well worth the money, but money is often hard to come by). Now I get his latest book the day that it comes out for only 99 cents. Wow! That is incredible, and, even in these times of inexpensive ebooks, an amazingly good deal.

If you want to know why I'm raving about Lawrence Block's writing, read some samples from his other books or go on over to his blog and read his posts.

Grifter's Game
Eight Million Ways to Die
The Sings of the Father's
Telling Lies for Fun and Profit

In Defense of Genre

In A Genre Writer Accepts Himself, Will Lavender writes:

There is a war against popularity in many MFA programs in America, and in my 20s, I was on the front lines. I wrote literary fiction, the only work serious and relevant enough to be worth my time. I cut my blue jeans off at the knees and called everything ironic. I read John Banville's "The Sea" by an actual sea. I wrote the kinds of hard-bitten, muscular novelettes young men are supposed to become famous for writing.
....
In those first thrillers I read, I actually found a common bond to the experimental writers I'd once mimicked; in some of these books -- Abrahams' "Oblivion" is certainly one -- the writer looks to unmoor the very literary style he has invoked. Abrahams' novel is a detective novel, but it is one that slowly becomes unhinged; it is Raymond Chandler held up to a fogged, cracked glass.

If Lavender's books -- Obedience and Dominance -- are as interesting and well written as this article, then I think they would be well worth a read.

Trusted Intellectual Property (IP) Lawyers: A Directory

Thanks to Dean Wesley Smith, I've learnt about a directory of trusted literary lawyers created by Author Laura Resnick. A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of attending a conference where Laura was the keynote speaker. In that one day I learnt more about the business of writing than I had in the last decade.

Laura writes:

I was getting so many requests for referrals via private email, I decided to put a directory of literary lawyers on my website. Just posted. These five lawyers can all be considered personal referrals from me, if anyone’s interested. I will update the list as I get more recommendations from friends who’ve dealt with other literary lawyers.

Here is a link to the Directory of Literary Lawyers.

Dean's comments on Laura's announcement are here.

Congress says: Amazon must pay tax

Congress is getting involved in the vexatious dispute over Amazon's refusal to collect state taxes.

On Friday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) introduced legislation that would require Internet-only retailers to add sales taxes to customers' bills, just as their competitors with bricks-and-mortar stores do. Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) plans to introduce a similar measure in the House.

The congressional effort is aimed at closing a legal loophole created by a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision that freed online and catalog sellers from the obligation of collecting sales taxes if their businesses had no physical presence in the state where a buyer lives.

Excerpt taken from, Congress takes up Amazon sales tax issue, by Marc Lifsher, reporting for the Los Angeles Times.

Stephen King On What A Successful Novel Should Be

Stephen King has written an introduction to a new edition of Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Here is an excerpt:

To me, Lord of the Flies has always represented what novels are for; what makes them indispensable. Should we expect to be entertained when we read a story? Of course. An act of the imagination that doesn’t entertain is a poor act indeed. But there should be more. A successful novel should erase the boundary line between writer and reader, so they can unite. When that happens, the novel becomes a part of life – the main course, not the dessert. A successful novel should interrupt the reader’s life, make him or her miss appointments, skip meals, forget to walk the dog. In the best novels, the writer’s imagination becomes the reader’s reality. It glows, incandescent and furious. I’ve been espousing these ideas for most of my life as a writer, and not without being criticised for them. If the novel is strictly about emotion and imagination, the most potent of these criticisms go, then analysis is swept away and discussion of the book becomes irrelevant.

I agree that “This blew me away” is pretty much of a non-starter when it comes to class discussion of a novel (or a short story, or a poem), but I would argue it’s still the beating heart of fiction. “This blew me away” is what every reader wants to say when he closes a book, isn’t it? And isn’t it exactly the sort of experience most writers want to provide?

Nor does a visceral, emotional reaction to a novel preclude analysis. I finished the last half of Lord of the Flies in a single afternoon, my eyes wide, my heart pounding, not thinking, just inhaling. But I’ve been thinking about it ever since, for 50 years and more. My rule of thumb as a writer and a reader – largely formed by Lord of the Flies – is feel it first, think about it later. Analyse all you want, but first dig the experience.

Read the entire article: Stephen King on 'Lord of the Flies'

Google Plus Widget

A few days ago I was invited into the Google Plus beta. I was so excited, not much writing got done that day! There was, and is, a lot to learn but I'm enjoying it. Facebook never worked for me, probably because I have very diverse groups of friends.

Today I went looking for a Google+ widget but it wasn't easy to find one. "Ah!" I thought. "This is a topic for a blog post!"

The widget is called Google Plus Widget and if you'd like to add me (does that sound desperate? lol) here's a link.

If you scroll down this page a bit and look on the right margin you'll see what the widget looks like on my page. It was too big at first so I made the background transparent.

It was very easy to add the widget to my site. If anyone has trouble let me know and I'll do a blog post that steps through it.