And I also find Paul Michael Murphy delightfully entertaining.

See?

After reading this post several times, I came to the conclusion that I was not utilizing my blog to it’s full potential. I used to post short stories for my readers, but after hearing about some controversy over whether posted stories were considered published, I stopped. (I can’t seem to write anything that doesn’t want to be a novel.)

Instead of posting updates, I wrote about the writing/editing/revising/agent finding process and what it entails. This morning, fifty of my 137 readers had sent messages or comments about wanting to hear more. I am floored. I really didn’t think anyone would care much about that. Thanks for the tip. I already thought you were smart, now I think you’re a genius!

I am not a daily blogger, barely a biweekly one, and that goes for my reading of blogs too. I don’t read them on a regular basis, maybe once a week (or more when I’m procrastinating!) but I do try to read my friends’ blogs since they are loyal readers of my dribble.

I did want to point out, however, that as important as it is for writers to “dive right in” to the blogosphere, it can also be a career killer if you aren’t careful. At the SCBWI LA conference a few weeks ago, a well-known editor talked about the things that can cause a rejection of a manuscript. She said that the first thing she does when she likes a project is to google that author, read his blog, website, etc. If she sees someone whining about being rejected constantly, or bad-mouthing agents/editors/authors, or slamming a book that she edited, she’ll reject the project.

Several people hurried to their rooms after this speech to erase material they’d posted in past blogs.
I am careful not to bad-mouth or drop names in my blogs, but this did give me pause because I do write my opinion about books on Goodreads without thinking about who may read them. Does this mean I will censor my opinions in the future? Not sure, still on the fence about that – but my point is, it is easy to forget that others can and will read what you are writing in your blogs, so save any negative stuff for your journal!

Beth- great advice about the folders!

I think blogging is important to lots of writers not just for networking purposes, but because it allows us- whether through our own blogs or by leaving comments on others- to connect to people in what can be a very lonely profession.

And that Simpsons pic made my day.

For a couple of years, I blogged every day. But I didn’t get any books written because blogging satisfied my need to create and my need to connect with an audience.

Now, I don’t blog every day. But with so many ways for people to subscribe, you don’t need to blog every day to keep an audience.

I do read blogs every day. (It’s especially helpful when blogs I love offer an email subscription option, hint, hint) I read about five publishing related blogs daily, and on weekends I go to several more, and I skim the titles to see if there’s anything interesting.

Great post, thank you!

I allot myself a half hour to read blogs–even though I typically have over a hundred posts to read. I click on each folder, skim the titles, and only open the blogs that look interesting. I go in order: agents and editors first, because I’m more interested in and value more their information. When the half hour is up, whatever I didn’t read gets marked as read, and I’m done.