As a writer, you’re always trying to find new ways to connect with readers. That connection should not be plastering that you have a new book every five minutes on your social media or website. It should be trying to establish a bond with your readers, not simply as consumers but as a community. The buzzword today is a tribe.
If you do a search online for “should a writer blog”, you will find that the general consensus is that they should not. I agree. Blogging can be a time-sapping and stress-inducing endeavor. As writers, we already have that built into the profession. We don’t need to add to it.
When I speak of writers I’m not speaking of people who just write articles or for other websites. I’m talking about people who through blood, sweat, and tears write books or are endeavoring to write books as their life’s calling.
Having said that, I still blog and plan on increasing my blogging. That might seem odd given the previous paragraph. But the reasons I blog are reasons I believe any indie author should blog. There was a time when I didn’t know why I was blogging but now I do know. That should give you a hint on whether or not you should blog as well because if you don’t know why you are blogging, you probably shouldn’t. If you plan on blogging, it should probably fall into one of these categories I’m about to mention. There are others as well but they basically are expansions on what I’ve written here.
So here are four reasons I still blog as an indie writer.
TRANSPARENCY – Blogging allows my readers to get to know me a little better. Being a writer is a solitary profession. As writers, we work in a closed-off environment from other individuals. Many writers are introverts so they are comfortable with that. But in the present age of indie self-publishing, people are interested in the authors they support as human beings. We might not think that they want to hear about us and who we are but they actually do. I fell into that category early on, thinking people were just interested in the books and weren’t really interested in me as an author. By and large, that’s true. People are interested in my books first and foremost but they are also interested in the person behind the book. I don’t know how many times I have read someone’s book and then went online to do research on that person, not just the rest of their books.
When I blog, I blog about several different things. I may blog about my superhero novel collection (that post is coming up this week) or about a book I just read. Or I may blog about a movie I’ve seen. I do this because I want to be transparent with my readers and for my readers to connect with me. There are several things I can write about on my blog so I generally don’t have a hard time thinking about my next blog post and what it’s going to be about. But it’s all a way to be transparent with my readers so that they know more about who I am.
BRAND – Another reason I blog is to establish my brand. For anybody who knows me, my brand is wrapped up in the RIU (Reality Imagination Universe). One of the aspects of that is the Veiled Athenaeum. I’ve set up at my website, which I call RIU HQ, as the place where readers can find out more about my universe by gaining access to the Veiled Athenaeum. So it functions as a hub for that special content strictly for my audience.
NETWORKING – because I write book reviews, I use those reviews to connect with different individuals in the industry. That means that I’m using them to connect with other authors as well as publishers to see those reviews. In addition, I use my blog to potentially build a community and network with my readers.
ENJOYMENT – Believe it or not, I just like to blog. There was a time where I obsessed over whether I was getting enough page views and visits or whether I should post more. I don’t do that anymore. My goal now is to post twice a week and enjoy the process in the midst of all the other things I have to do. I use it as a place to decompress by writing posts where I can let my mind go and talk about whatever it is that I want to talk about.
So, those are my four reasons why I still blog as an indie writer. If you have no drive or inclination to blog for these reasons, don’t. Use that time to write your books instead.
Until next time, I will see you in the Tapestry!
