A couple of months ago, I joined a forum for writers. I figured I’d have some good thought-provoking conversations about the subject, and maybe pick up a few tips and tricks when it comes to self-publishing, marketing, etc.
What I found instead is that there is an epic holy war going on between people who are published by (or hope to be published by) trade/commercial publishers and those who self-publish. Yes, there are rich opportunities for trolling in an environment rich with emotion-filled polemics against the evils of one type or the other.
All self-published works are amateurish, poorly-written pieces of garbage filled with spelling errors, and are not good enough to have been commercially published. All commercially published works are amateurish poorly-written pieces of garbage filled with spelling errors, and are not good enough to sell without the resources of a commercial publisher. The discussions get very interesting.
All you have to do to get a shitstorm abrewin’ (if you’ve self-published a book) is call yourself an “indie publisher” or an “indie author”. Recently, that brought the owner of the forum into a thread where he outlawed use of those terms by people who self-publish, in spite of the fact that the media has assigned the term “indie publisher” to mean someone who has self-published one or more works. Wow.
Also, if a poster makes a claim that self-publishing is the key to success, the wave of the future, etc., and that the end of commercial publishing is nigh, that will also start a feeding frenzy. There are usually several threads with heated arguments (aka “flame wars”) going on at the same time on the sub-forum for self-publishing discussion.
I also found out that writers, from the experienced, been on the bestseller list multiple times for decades, to the people who are working on their first novel, are all supposed to have a blog where they write…about writing.
They post bits and pieces of their deathless prose. They write about the writing process. In. Great. Detail. They whine and kvetch about the process of submitting what are called query letters to agents in the hopes of finding one who will represent them and hopefully get their book published. They seem to be an art form unto themselves. I saw someone post their 53rd version of a query letter on the forum for critiquing. 53rd. Seriously. WTF?
The problem with all of that is that their blogs are absolutely interchangeable. And, only of interest to other writers. Not to their readers (aka “fans”)
What’s wrong with that? Everything. Their hope in having these writer’s blogs is that they will be an effective part of their marketing efforts and help them sell books.
To make it worse, they include all sorts of details about their daily life, giving you play-by-play and local color about what they had for lunch and bought at the grocery store. Cool story, bro.
Protip: Unless your books are about writing, don’t blog about writing. In fact, unless you write non-fiction, and thus can blog about the subjects you write about (but not in detail about how you wrote this particularly difficult chapter) and show that you know your subject, blogging might not help you at all. Especially if you also talk about the details of your life at the same time.
For a novelist, the best thing to do is to update your fans about upcoming releases and events, share a few funny stories, and keep your private life private.
Otherwise, you are just engaging in a lot of self-absorbed navel gazing, and along with the other writers who are doing the same thing, you are just having a big circle jerk, wanking away on each others egos.
Except for the guy who wrote “Should I self-publish, a mother fucking checklist.” The best blog posting about self-publishing evar. His blog about writing is made of awesome because it’s funny, obscene, and isn’t identical to every other one out there. It also includes his spectacular macro photography.
Protip #2: A blog, especially one that is part of your professional marketing package for your book, is not your diary. If you must chronicle the most mundane and trivial details of your day, use LiveJournal for that and keep it private. Please.
And one last protip: If you use Blogger, do not use the theme with the background that looks like a bookshelf. Most writers do, so not only is the content interchangeable, but all the blogs look alike.
Happy blogging.
Laura Adams
