So far each of these posts have dealt with changes that happened in 2015, but this one is dealing with a current change. Some of you might have noticed? Probably not, though, which is why this change is happening.
Let's revisit the topic of blogging. Or, more specifically, commenting.
Since I started my blog way back in... wow! That was five years ago! Suddenly, I don't know how I feel about that...
Anyway...
When I started my blog, it was with a dedication to being interactive and all that goes with it, but that was mostly because the rhetoric around blogging (still) says that that's how you grow your followers and your audience and all of that. And it might be true for when you're first starting out with absolutely zero followers; I don't know. Part of that, the being interactive, at least for me, has included always responding to comments. I've sort of taken some pride in that...
But!
See, the thing is, most people, as in almost all people, who comment never come back to see if the blogger responded. Which is fine... except when people comment with a question or a lead into a discussion but never check back about the answer to the question. That's like when one of my kids (especially my daughter) asks me a question and, while I'm answering it, will start talking about some other subject entirely, usually to some other person. Annoying, to say the least.
What it really all boils down to is a matter of focus. If I want my focus to be my blog, spending lots of time on comments and commenting totally makes sense, but I am not my blog, and that's not supposed to be my focus. The blog is only here to support the writing, and responding to all comments, even if it doesn't take a huge amount of time on an individual basis, is not really profitable. Time-wise, that is. I mean, it doesn't make sense to respond when that response is never going to be seen.
So, from now on, my responses will be... well, let's say "at my discretion." If the comment is interesting or there's a question that I feel is worth answering for its own sake, or if I just feel like it, I'll respond. And I get that that might seem... uncouth to some people, but most people don't comment at all, so it's not going to affect them one way or the other.
It's all about finding what works and finding what works best.
And not doing the same thing over and over again if that thing isn't working.
Change can be good...
All of that to say, "Don't be offended if I don't respond to your comment. It's not you; it's me."
Showing posts with label followers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label followers. Show all posts
Monday, March 28, 2016
Monday, December 29, 2014
The Great Twitter-ass Experiment
The idea of Twitter has never been my thing. It's just too, well, short. Any of you who have been around here for any length of time will know that about me. Brevity is not exactly my strong suit. There are reasons for that, most of them having to do with the lack of anything meaningful that usually accompanies brevity. Still, there came a point when I thought I should probably give Twitter a shot, so, almost a year ago, I did.
I have to say: I have not been impressed.
Before I get into that, though, I heard some interesting research the other day about followers on Twitter and other such things, actually about the value of purchasing "followers" by the thousands. This was in the wake of the Instagram purge and the resulting conversations about all the followers that Beiber (and others) lost and, actually, what it meant that Instagram was willing, now, to purge all of those fake accounts. Interestingly enough, the research shows that the numbers really matter even if people know that the numbers are fake. Basically, if you have 10, 017 followers and 10,000 of those are fake, people will be more willing to follow you than if you have 100 followers who are real even if they know that the 10,000 followers are fake.
Because people are weird that way.
At any rate, my view of Twitter, which I've said somewhere or other before, is that it's like being in a cave, somewhere back in the dark, and yelling at people as they pass by and hoping that someone will stop to listen to you. The problem is that everyone else is busy yelling from their own caves, and no one is listening to anyone. At least, that's the way it seemed, so I decided to see if I could figure out if that was true.
For a while, I had been considering writing a twitter story, which is not a story about twitter but a story told in 140 character bursts via twitter, but I wanted to pre-write it so that I would have every tweet prepared ahead of time. Yeah, I'm not a pantser. But I've been busy with other things and hadn't come to any decision about story ideas for a twitter story, so I kept putting it off. BUT...
Back at the beginning of December, my cat did this thing, an interesting thing, and I decided to just start writing the story with that thing as the catalyst and, yes, I pantsed it.
A few times a day, for three weeks I added to the story about a cat that started with this thing my own cat did. It was more fun than I thought it would be. BUT...
As far as I can tell, no one noticed. Maybe some people saw some tweets here and there, but there were no comments or reactions at all. Which, actually, is something I have found to be the case in general where twitter is concerned.
All of which leads me to my general conclusion about twitter: Unless you are a celebrity and are giving your fans some sense of connection to you, twitter is completely worthless. Okay, maybe not completely worthless but pretty close to it. It makes a good texting substitute for short directed messages to people, and that can be nice, but it's not necessary for that, because you can always send an email. Twitter just allows you not to have to know the person's email by just following them instead. Overall, it's not a better tool than, say, Facebook; Facebook is much more versatile.
None of which is to say that I'm going to drop twitter, but it's certainly difficult to take the thing seriously. It's lousy as a marketing tool and generally worthless as a vehicle for even saying stuff. Not if you want anyone to notice, anyway. If I want that, I'll go out in my front yard and yell stuff.
I have to say: I have not been impressed.
Before I get into that, though, I heard some interesting research the other day about followers on Twitter and other such things, actually about the value of purchasing "followers" by the thousands. This was in the wake of the Instagram purge and the resulting conversations about all the followers that Beiber (and others) lost and, actually, what it meant that Instagram was willing, now, to purge all of those fake accounts. Interestingly enough, the research shows that the numbers really matter even if people know that the numbers are fake. Basically, if you have 10, 017 followers and 10,000 of those are fake, people will be more willing to follow you than if you have 100 followers who are real even if they know that the 10,000 followers are fake.
Because people are weird that way.
At any rate, my view of Twitter, which I've said somewhere or other before, is that it's like being in a cave, somewhere back in the dark, and yelling at people as they pass by and hoping that someone will stop to listen to you. The problem is that everyone else is busy yelling from their own caves, and no one is listening to anyone. At least, that's the way it seemed, so I decided to see if I could figure out if that was true.
For a while, I had been considering writing a twitter story, which is not a story about twitter but a story told in 140 character bursts via twitter, but I wanted to pre-write it so that I would have every tweet prepared ahead of time. Yeah, I'm not a pantser. But I've been busy with other things and hadn't come to any decision about story ideas for a twitter story, so I kept putting it off. BUT...
Back at the beginning of December, my cat did this thing, an interesting thing, and I decided to just start writing the story with that thing as the catalyst and, yes, I pantsed it.
A few times a day, for three weeks I added to the story about a cat that started with this thing my own cat did. It was more fun than I thought it would be. BUT...
As far as I can tell, no one noticed. Maybe some people saw some tweets here and there, but there were no comments or reactions at all. Which, actually, is something I have found to be the case in general where twitter is concerned.
All of which leads me to my general conclusion about twitter: Unless you are a celebrity and are giving your fans some sense of connection to you, twitter is completely worthless. Okay, maybe not completely worthless but pretty close to it. It makes a good texting substitute for short directed messages to people, and that can be nice, but it's not necessary for that, because you can always send an email. Twitter just allows you not to have to know the person's email by just following them instead. Overall, it's not a better tool than, say, Facebook; Facebook is much more versatile.
None of which is to say that I'm going to drop twitter, but it's certainly difficult to take the thing seriously. It's lousy as a marketing tool and generally worthless as a vehicle for even saying stuff. Not if you want anyone to notice, anyway. If I want that, I'll go out in my front yard and yell stuff.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Breaking the Blogging Bubble (an IWSG post)
I think blogging is somewhat essential for a writer these days. Well, non-literary, non-bestselling writers, anyway. I'm sure Stephen King has no need whatsoever of any kind of blogging or anything else. But it is probably especially essential for new writers. That's the theory, anyway. And it's what publishers and agents seem to be saying to writers. Get online. Okay, so maybe not necessarily a blog, but some form of online presence, and, as far as I can tell, a blog, tied with twitter or facebook or whatever, seems to be the best way of doing that.
But blogging seems to also create a... bubble... around the blogger. Not a soap bubble, either; a hard, impenetrable, survive-out-in-space kind of bubble. Initially, this bubble is a good thing, because it does allow the blogger to survive out in space, which is what it feels like when you start blogging. Like you're out in space and no one can hear you scream. Or talk. Or type. Or whatever. But, after awhile, if you do it correctly (check my "What Your Blog Says About You" series), you'll actually wrap yourself in a bubble of other bloggers. A nice, comfortable, safe bubble.
Now, if you're just a blogger, this bubble is kind of cool. You have friends. People that know you. People you can count on to comment when you post. Whatever, you know. It's all good. As they say. However, if you're a writer, this bubble can be kind of dangerous, because, basically, whatever it is you're writing will just stay confined to your own personal blogging bubble. However big that happens to be.
For me, at this moment, that's not really all that big. For most of us, it's probably really not all that big. Also, it's not gauged on how many "followers" you have but on how much interaction you have going on. If you have 700 followers but no one ever comments, you probably don't really have 700 followers, just 700 people who, at one time or another for one reason or another, clicked your follow button. If you have 700 followers, but your only getting a couple of dozen page views a day, you don't really have 700 followers. Your bubble isn't as big as you think it is.
But that's not really the point. The point is, as a writer, if you're just depending upon your "followers" to support you and your book (or whatever it is you write), then you're not going to get very far. The truth is is that most people that read books do not also read blogs. But it's those readers you need to get to. Those readers you need to make aware of your existence. And, somehow, you have to break out of your blogging bubble to get to them.
I do know what this is like as it's happened once or twice, like I talked about back in this post when I got listed on a site that suggests books to readers. Readers who are not bloggers and who do not read blogs. It's a hard thing to do, though, to get past the confines of your bubble and make other people aware of you.
I think some people are satisfied with their bubbles, but I'm really not. Nothing against you guys that stop by here and read and my stuff and comment and all of that, but my real goal is to burst my bubble. To get past it. Out of it. To get to the point where Neil Gaiman was at when he said "my job had become answering email, and I had to stop doing that." Not that I want to not have interaction with people or to say "well, I don't have time for you guys anymore," but, if you want to be successful as an author, that's the place you have to get to. And I want to be successful as an author, not as a blogger.
So, yeah, I love all of you guys, but my plan is to... go beyond. Break my bubble.
As soon as I figure out how.
But blogging seems to also create a... bubble... around the blogger. Not a soap bubble, either; a hard, impenetrable, survive-out-in-space kind of bubble. Initially, this bubble is a good thing, because it does allow the blogger to survive out in space, which is what it feels like when you start blogging. Like you're out in space and no one can hear you scream. Or talk. Or type. Or whatever. But, after awhile, if you do it correctly (check my "What Your Blog Says About You" series), you'll actually wrap yourself in a bubble of other bloggers. A nice, comfortable, safe bubble.
Now, if you're just a blogger, this bubble is kind of cool. You have friends. People that know you. People you can count on to comment when you post. Whatever, you know. It's all good. As they say. However, if you're a writer, this bubble can be kind of dangerous, because, basically, whatever it is you're writing will just stay confined to your own personal blogging bubble. However big that happens to be.
For me, at this moment, that's not really all that big. For most of us, it's probably really not all that big. Also, it's not gauged on how many "followers" you have but on how much interaction you have going on. If you have 700 followers but no one ever comments, you probably don't really have 700 followers, just 700 people who, at one time or another for one reason or another, clicked your follow button. If you have 700 followers, but your only getting a couple of dozen page views a day, you don't really have 700 followers. Your bubble isn't as big as you think it is.
But that's not really the point. The point is, as a writer, if you're just depending upon your "followers" to support you and your book (or whatever it is you write), then you're not going to get very far. The truth is is that most people that read books do not also read blogs. But it's those readers you need to get to. Those readers you need to make aware of your existence. And, somehow, you have to break out of your blogging bubble to get to them.
I do know what this is like as it's happened once or twice, like I talked about back in this post when I got listed on a site that suggests books to readers. Readers who are not bloggers and who do not read blogs. It's a hard thing to do, though, to get past the confines of your bubble and make other people aware of you.
I think some people are satisfied with their bubbles, but I'm really not. Nothing against you guys that stop by here and read and my stuff and comment and all of that, but my real goal is to burst my bubble. To get past it. Out of it. To get to the point where Neil Gaiman was at when he said "my job had become answering email, and I had to stop doing that." Not that I want to not have interaction with people or to say "well, I don't have time for you guys anymore," but, if you want to be successful as an author, that's the place you have to get to. And I want to be successful as an author, not as a blogger.
So, yeah, I love all of you guys, but my plan is to... go beyond. Break my bubble.
As soon as I figure out how.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Happy Birthday! (and a SALE!)
January of 2011 saw me preparing The House on the Corner for publication. That was a lot of work. I mean, it's a lot of work to write a book to begin with but all the little details that go into publishing a book, even self publishing a book, are somewhat overwhelming. At any rate, I spent the month working on that and got it all set up. As it happened, the official publication date for the 1st edition (it looked like this:
ended up being February 6, 2011. February 6 happens to be my birthday, so that was kind of cool, and it would never have happened if I'd been trying to plan it that way, but, because I was just going about my business, it ended up that way. It was a cool birthday present, to say the least, to hold that first copy of my book in my hands.
Of course, the book no longer looks like that. Despite all of the editing I did on the book both prior to January and in January, I missed a lot of little things. I was amazed at how much more I noticed by having the physical copy in my hand. I also discovered the importance of cover art. Of course, I've already covered all of this in previous posts, so I'm not going to go back through it now. At any rate, I spent some months going back through the book and making changes and getting some cover art (thanks to the amazing Rusty Webb! (who happens to have the best blog title ever!)), and, now, the book looks like this:
It's all the better for it.
Speaking of blogging, StrangePegs (the blog) also turned 1 year old a few days ago. That's something that I'm still trying to get my head around. One year, 125 followers, 125 posts (including this one). It seems like a lot longer than that and also a lot shorter than that. When I first started the blog, I really had no idea what I was doing. I was just kind of informed that, if I had a book, I should have a blog, so I started one. Overall, it's been a good experience. Even if one that's hard to keep up with.
Anyway...
I mentioned a sale. In honor of it being the birthday of the book, and, really, publishing a book really is kind of like giving birth, I suppose. There's a lot of work that goes into it. It spends a long time growing. There's a period of intense labor, and, finally, voila, there's a brand new book! Thankfully, books tend to cry a lot less, and you (usually) don't have to clean up after them. But I digress...
ANYWAY!
The sale! In honor of it being the one year anniversary of the publication of the 1st edition of The House on the Corner, I'm having a sale!
For the Kindle:
I've marked the price down to $0.99. Coincidentally, after I'd gone in and made the price change (but before it took effect (because it still hasn't taken effect)), Amazon also decided that House should be on sale and marked the Kindle price down to $0.99. heh
I have no idea what will happen to their price mark down when mine goes into effect.
For the physical copy:
I can't actually mark down the physical copy of the book (through Amazon) any lower than it already is, because I'm pretty close to lowest price they'll allow me to charge for it; HOWEVER, if you want a signed copy (which comes through me), I'm doing those 2-for1, right now. The listed price on my page (go back up there and click the link) is $18.00 for one copy. If you click through the link, it will say $24. For $24, you will get not one, but 2! signed copies of The House on the Corner! One for you and one to give as a gift. Now, let me explain the thing with the pricing. At $18.00, because of shipping, I'm taking a loss. Sort of. At any rate, it puts the actual price of the book down to $12.00 (rather than the $15 on Amazon). To cover the cost of shipping 2 books instead of 1, I've had to bump the price up a bit. I can ship them both to the same address or to two separate addresses, though. At any rate, it's a pretty good deal. At least, I think so.
I'll keep these SALE prices through Friday or Saturday, so don't let this chance pass you by.
Of course, the book no longer looks like that. Despite all of the editing I did on the book both prior to January and in January, I missed a lot of little things. I was amazed at how much more I noticed by having the physical copy in my hand. I also discovered the importance of cover art. Of course, I've already covered all of this in previous posts, so I'm not going to go back through it now. At any rate, I spent some months going back through the book and making changes and getting some cover art (thanks to the amazing Rusty Webb! (who happens to have the best blog title ever!)), and, now, the book looks like this:
Speaking of blogging, StrangePegs (the blog) also turned 1 year old a few days ago. That's something that I'm still trying to get my head around. One year, 125 followers, 125 posts (including this one). It seems like a lot longer than that and also a lot shorter than that. When I first started the blog, I really had no idea what I was doing. I was just kind of informed that, if I had a book, I should have a blog, so I started one. Overall, it's been a good experience. Even if one that's hard to keep up with.
Anyway...
I mentioned a sale. In honor of it being the birthday of the book, and, really, publishing a book really is kind of like giving birth, I suppose. There's a lot of work that goes into it. It spends a long time growing. There's a period of intense labor, and, finally, voila, there's a brand new book! Thankfully, books tend to cry a lot less, and you (usually) don't have to clean up after them. But I digress...
ANYWAY!
The sale! In honor of it being the one year anniversary of the publication of the 1st edition of The House on the Corner, I'm having a sale!
For the Kindle:
I've marked the price down to $0.99. Coincidentally, after I'd gone in and made the price change (but before it took effect (because it still hasn't taken effect)), Amazon also decided that House should be on sale and marked the Kindle price down to $0.99. heh
I have no idea what will happen to their price mark down when mine goes into effect.
For the physical copy:
I can't actually mark down the physical copy of the book (through Amazon) any lower than it already is, because I'm pretty close to lowest price they'll allow me to charge for it; HOWEVER, if you want a signed copy (which comes through me), I'm doing those 2-for1, right now. The listed price on my page (go back up there and click the link) is $18.00 for one copy. If you click through the link, it will say $24. For $24, you will get not one, but 2! signed copies of The House on the Corner! One for you and one to give as a gift. Now, let me explain the thing with the pricing. At $18.00, because of shipping, I'm taking a loss. Sort of. At any rate, it puts the actual price of the book down to $12.00 (rather than the $15 on Amazon). To cover the cost of shipping 2 books instead of 1, I've had to bump the price up a bit. I can ship them both to the same address or to two separate addresses, though. At any rate, it's a pretty good deal. At least, I think so.
I'll keep these SALE prices through Friday or Saturday, so don't let this chance pass you by.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)