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If You Build it, They Will Come: On Blogging, Service and Platform-Building
I started my blog almost two years ago after attending a writers’ workshop on publishing in the digital age. There wasn’t much talk of e-books or self-publishing from the presenters. Instead, they hammered a single message into us all day: you, as writers, need an electronic presence . . . preferably a blog. It’s how you control the message of who you are and what you do. Your site is Google’s gateway to you and your work.
Like many writers, I long resisted self-promotion, finding the very idea distasteful and embarrassing. But I’d learned from the experience of publishing my first (mostly overlooked) book, Silence is Death (oh! the irony of that title in this context…), that if you don’t advocate for your own work, no one will.
I knew that this time around, I had to swallow pride and do things differently. So, in preparation for the publication of my second book, Epistolophilia, I decided to take the workshop’s advice. I bought a domain name (my own name as well as my books’ titles), and started a blog.
Despite my initial reticence, blogging quickly brought unexpected rewards. From the very beginning, I enjoyed the discipline regular posting required, and the way the site grew slowly, like a garden or a manuscript. I'm obsessed with archives, so I love the way blogs are keepers of their own histories. Finally, I have been delighted by the community-building opportunities that a blog creates.
A long time ago, I sat on an academic board that organized a biannual conference whose participants' median age was going up and up. Board members worried constantly about the organization's impending death and wondered how to attract younger attendees. "Offer them something," I suggested. "An opportunity to win a book prize or a shot at a fellowship. Offer them something, and they will come." So, that's what we did. Once the association started a modest fellowship program and book prize, youthful scholars began returning to the association (and the financial investment quickly paid for itself).
The same principle works for a blog: offer something, and readers will come.
Blogs need not be navel-gazing, self-aggrandizing, or mean-spirited. When setting up the parameters of my blog, I asked myself how I could serve fellow writers. I decided on a ratio of 1:2. For every post about myself or my work, I featured at least 2 items about someone or something else: a review of a book or essay; a funding announcement or call for submissions; an author interview with a fellow writer of creative nonfiction.
By shining the spotlight (small as mine may be) on another writer, or by giving her a platform to talk about her work, I not only gain traffic on the blog (for every other writer brings friends and fans with her), I also gain insight, contacts, friends, knowledge and the occasional free book.
The more I extend myself to other writers, the more they reach back.
Writers are also readers. We are each other's colleagues, but also each other's audiences. Serving writers means reaching readers.
Be brave, be bold, and build. Then open yourself up to others and share.
[Originally posted at http://julijasukys.com]
[Photo: Shoeless Joe Jackson, by John McNab]
Views: 525
Tags: Blogging, Countdown, Electronic, Friendship, Marketing, Networking, Platform-Building, Pubication, Publicity, Publishing, More…
Comment
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Comment by Julija Sukys on January 24, 2013 at 11:52am -
Thanks Sunny! Your words are much appreciated.
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Comment by Sunny Frazier on January 24, 2013 at 11:04am -
I stumbled across this a bit late, but love not only what you say but how you express the thoughts. One of the best I've read on the subject. As an acquisitions editor, I constantly talk about platform building. This is one of the most important tools. Thanks, Julija!
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Comment by Doreen Pendgracs on December 29, 2011 at 5:00pm -
Great post, Julija. You and I seem to be on the same path as it was in Feb/09 that I attended a writer's conference (in Richmond, BC) at which we were told by an online expert that EVERY writer should have a blog.
I immediately went home and launched my writer's blog. I must say that I've really enjoyed learning the ropes of the blogging community and now have 2 blogs. My writer's lifestyle blog is at http://doreenisthewizardofwords.blogspot.com/. I have the same formula as you in that I try and invite different writers/authors to guest post and mix it up with external forces and thoughts vs something that originates from within my own head. It seems to be working well, as the posts written by guests have been among my most popular.
It's certainly a whole new world out there, and as you say, we as authors, really need to put ourselves out there, build that platform and hopefully make enough noise to get noticed by readers and the publishing community.
Good luck with your new book, and all the best in 2012.
Doreen.
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Comment by Theresa Varela on December 29, 2011 at 8:13am -
After a year of blogging, I've come to enjoy the connections with others that I was missing as a solitary writer. Blogging as a different type of writing experience has helped me to define my voice- or what it happens to want to say at a particular time. One of the most enjoyable aspects has been to allow myself to change my ideas, embrace new ways to create and share these with people I would otherwise have never come to meet.
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Comment by Cora Ramos on December 28, 2011 at 4:18pm
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Your comment to Julija hit home, 'It's hard to be bold.. . Figure out what you have to offer and where your expertise lies, and go with that." I've recently started a writer blog and finding my 'voice' for blogging is challenging. More on this area would be helpful. Thanks.
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Comment by Marja McGraw on December 28, 2011 at 3:26pm -
When starting out, I detested self-promotion, and in many ways I still do. However, since I've had others post on my blog, and I've learned to be myself, I've started having a good time. Our blogs are a place for people to learn about us, and they're also a place to showcase our writing style and let others do the same.
Very nice blog. I'm glad I stopped in today.
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Comment by Patricia Gligor on December 28, 2011 at 2:40pm -
Ah, "The Field of Dreams." I loved the movie (I visited the site when I lived in Iowa) and I believe in the philosophy, "if you build it, they will come." I'm seeing that happen with my own blog and it's exciting. Sometimes in life and in writing we have to take a leap of faith!
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Comment by KAROLINE LUCAS on December 27, 2011 at 4:08pm -
This article was helpful, I do want to learn more how to increase traffic to my blogs, and even get some feedback on whether I'm even doing it right. I have no clue how to develop it further...and I started a couple blogs a while ago. I do know that I don't write and add to them as often as I should, but I also need to learn things like how to put pictures and advertisements, and where to get things that will add to the look of my blog, and get more people interested. Thanks for the insight.
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Comment by Julija Sukys on December 21, 2011 at 6:26am
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Hi Nissi,
good point about being personal. Some of the comments here have articulated a reticence to give too much away, to say too much, or to let others in too far. Each of us, I suppose, has to figure out where her line of privacy is.
I must admit that I'm not overly personal on my blog, though I do like using personal experiences as a jumping-off point. My rule of thumb is that I don't write anything in my blog, here on SheWrites, or on Facebook that I wouldn't publish in a newspaper. When I do write about deeply personal experiences, like conversations with my son or my father's death, I do so with a kind of literary veneer. By this I mean, I work over the episode or anecdote so that the blog post (or mini-essay) becomes about something other than the personal (I do this in essays and in longer nonfiction in general), and the "I" is so distanced from me and the other characters so removed from the real versions of them that (at least to me) they are no longer themselves.
So, yes, I agree that it's important to be human and perhaps even appear a bit vulnerable. But I also think that we writers (and our loved ones who are so often fodder for our work) need to be allowed to keep some secrets.
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Comment by Nissi Mutale on December 21, 2011 at 6:04am -
Great post!
I started blogging last year and have found that the more you reach out, people do taake to you better. I have a literature blog and a separate lifestyle blog and have learned a lot by blogging in two very different ways. Just to add to what you have said, the key discovery I have found so far is that people like it when you are personal and open up about yourself.
Nissi.
Nissi.
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