I've been reading a few up-and-coming authors' blogs for a while, paying particular attention to the topics of their posts and why they have hundreds and hundreds of followers and get more comments than any other author blogs that I've seen.
And here is what I have concluded.
People like funny.
People like perky.
And people LOVE witty.
I actually talked to one of these authors recently about her blog's success, and she told me what I had suspected all along.
She works at her blog. She is intentional about what she puts out there, and only shows the world a very narrow slice of the pie of her life. She knows people don't want to read negative stuff. People don't want to read about depressing stuff. And people *really* don't want to read all-promo all-the-time-time stuff. They want to be informed or entertained. And so that's what she does, over and over and over again.
I'm guessing writing a funny, perky, witty blog post five days a week takes a lot of effort. Will it pay off when the book hits the shelf? My bet is yes, it will. Because you read these blogs that are thought out and well written, and they show us these wonderful people, and we want to be THEIR FRIENDS. And guess what? We like reading books our friends write!
My personal blog has been lacking in good content lately. I've been doing other things - exercising, hanging with the kids, making muffins and pies, going on walks, reading books. I've been blogging for 5+ years now, and I think perhaps I'm a little tired. Okay, a lot tired. And so I'm giving myself a break. But when I see what these authors are doing, how they've hooked readers to keep coming back for more and how that will most likely transfer to book sales, I start to wonder if there's a way for me to do that.
Except there are kids to play with, walks to go on, books to read and workouts to do. In the end, is there a payoff for the time spent blogging? Like, a big payoff? What do you think?
~Lisa, Miss Crafting a Career
Interesting perspective! I must agree with most of it - except I really think that some of the honest posts about writing can often be un-happy but are the ones I find most helpful. (You've written a few, as has Stephanie Kuehnert and they're always good to read.)
ReplyDeleteThis is a very good question, Lisa. That's why I could never imagine posting 5X a week. It's so much easier to be witty on a less demanding schedule.
ReplyDeleteHarmony, I agree with you that sometimes we like to commiserate with others since it's unrealistic that everyone is happy all the time.
ReplyDeleteKate, you are so witty it makes my funny bone ache with jealousy.
Lisa, I, too, notice when writers who even barely blog get tons of responses to their posts and it is interesting to see that perhaps it is wittiness/honesty, but I still think there's something else....