Sunday, November 18, 2012

3 Reasons I Hate Blogging and 1 Reason I Won't Stop

  • There are too many "rules" for blogging
When I started blogging years ago, my blog was a personal journal that was me just blathering on. I "met" some neat people on that blog. When I started publishing my novels, I started this blog. I read up on using blogging as a marketing tool. I have tried to follow some of the advice, but I tend to still just blather on. I like using my blog to share whatever has caught my attention, in the hope that my readers might find it interesting, too. If you find my blog interesting, maybe you'll click over and buy an e-book. If not, too bad for me, but if you found something of interest hopefully you'll at least come back to read more another day. (Which will give me another chance to put my e-books in front of you. I'm so subtle!)
  • Blogs are all starting to look alike
I especially hate blog posts with numbers in the title and bullet point lists. I also hate blogs that have no paragraphs with more than two sentences. I like blogs that reflect the personality of the blogger, with colors, and their own writer's voice. Fitting that into 1, 3, 5, or 7 bullet points doesn't work for me, as a blogger or as a blog reader.  Even some of my favorite bloggers have started to really annoy me with their slavish adherence to he preferred format.
  • Blogs have turned into Info-mercials
A blog is supposed to provide valuable content, preferably for free, in order to get readers to buy the stuff the blogger is actually selling.  That may work if you're selling merchandise or "how to" books, but I think selling fiction is a totally different matter. A lot of novelists write blogs that are oriented at educating other writers. Who reads that? Other writers. Isn't the idea to have readers visit our blog if we're selling novels?  There are a bunch of totally awesome sites for writers, and I subscribe to a bunch of them. I have nothing to add to that conversation, except occasionally in comments on their blogs. I write my blog with my target reader in mind. If she likes what she sees here, she may very well like my novels.


I won't stop blogging, however, because I like blogging -- my way

I liked the blogosphere better when it was messy and personal, when everybody did their own thing and we were all making it up as we went along.  That is the kind of blog I like to read. That's the kind of blog I want to write.

Note to Reader: This is my first, and I promise it will be my last blog post with numbers in the title. I don't promise to never use bullet points because they do have their uses occasionally, but you won't see it often here.

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