Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

A couple things this weekend to talk about. One comes from a link from my friend, ES. You can check it out here

I find this vaguely disturbing. I do understand what they’re doing. They’re trying to find proven sellers. That’s great if you’re a big name looking for a new agent. How about all the ones trying to break in? More importantly IS this a good gauge in the first place? I know I asked this before but I’m asking again. I know I have a lot of big-time readers on my list. How many of your routinely check out an author’s website?

I don’t. Almost ever. It is of little importance to me. That could be my age talking. I think about authors I never miss a book from, Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Charlaine Harris, JD Robb, CS Harris and the list goes on. Want to know how many times I’ve been to ANY of their websites? Zero. I went to Douglas Clegg’s a couple times because I’m on his blog and he was giving out nooks and you had to go to the website to win. There’s what motivated me to go to it. Free stuff.

I’ve probably been to more erotica author web pages mostly because I work with a lot of them and I’m checking it out for them to see if it’s easy to work. I never go back. I’ve been to the webpages of my friends on this list as they try to put up theirs but for the same reason.

I’m far more interested in blogs, hearing what they have to say. I have some on twitter but I don’t particularly like it. I’ve friended one author on facebook but I knew her from before that. I do have a few well known authors on my flist and Richelle Meade, Barbara Hambly and GRR Martin all do blog on a more or less frequent basis. Wonders if any of these parameters agents look for now apply to blogs?

The other thing I wanted to talk about is how do you get yourself back on track? Right now I feel off the rails. I’ve nothing I want to use as a reward. I do GOOD when I have a challenge like gsd_rtfn but that’s a very hit and miss community. I would probably do good if I had people to word war with (get the idea I might be a tad competitive). How do you all do it?

And a big thanks to zippitgood and catw00man for the beta help on my and ELD’s story. It’s much appreciated!

I didn’t edit a damn thing this week because I had my writers group due in and that took up all my editing time. I DID however get the holiday story sent out there. About time I did something (honestly this year wasn’t fond of any of the open calls so you’d think I’d work on the novels but you’d be wrong).

Yearly word count -

132063 / 175000 words. 75% done!

Comments

[aaronlisa.livejournal.com]

Aside from three authors, I rarely go to an author's website. A lot of the times because it's not worth my time. I don't need a page to sell me books that I already have. I only really use an author's website for news about when the next book will be released.

[sp23.livejournal.com]

I seldom if ever go to an author's website other than to check to see if there's any word when their next book is coming out. I don't hang out there certainly. I have a very few authors friended here and Marcia Clark on Facebook, and that's pretty much it.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

The only writer's webpages I go to belong to writers whose work I really like, and I usually go to the sites to look at the list of books to see if I've missed anything, or occasionally for the order to read them in. But if their Wikipedia page comes up first, I might well use that.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

ditto or i just go to goodreads for that information. I just simply do not go to author's websites and apparently am hurting their marketability...geez

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

same here though you and I are in the older age range. I wonder if the 20 something's do? I'm betting not

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Honestly to see when the new release is would be about the only reason I can think to even use one and you can now get that info on amazon and goodreads

[sholio]

I do usually visit authors' websites when I discover someone new in order to look for a list of their books and stories. Wikipedia is okay for that, but I've been discovering a lot of new authors lately through short stories or books from small presses and/or self-published books, so their website is usually where I look to see what else they've put out and whether they have anything free that I can read. And the norm nowadays seems to be for authors' websites to be set up with their blog as the front page, and that way I can see if they have anything interesting to say, too.

Having said that, though, the only thing that I agree with from the article is that it's probably a good idea to have a nice-looking website/blog -- and it's not like you can't do that for free or super-cheap with minimal Internet skills (all you have to do is get a Wordpress blog and follow their walkthroughs, and bingo, instant professional-looking website; I learned to set up a Wordpress blog this summer, and it really isn't hard). Other than that, though ... meh. I think the thing that matters is what's always mattered, which is writing a good book. Maybe publishers who are out cruising for the next Stephen King or Michael Crichton look at that kind of thing, but I don't think most of them do.

[silvrethorn.livejournal.com]

I read an article recently that said, in essence, that unless you're an established author with work out there to promote, all the social media platforms in the world aren't going to do you any good. Social media is for AFTER people know your name, to increase your presence and inform the curious. If nobody knows who you are, they aren't going to seek you out, so having all these Facebook and Twitter accounts and professionally-designed websites is pointless. (I wish I could link you to this article, but I found the link on the margin of another article somewhere, and don't know how to find it again :(.)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

freebies is definitely one reason to go to an author's website. I've done that once or twice but immediately have gone onto goodreads to find the rest of what they've done and not bothered looking at the rest of the website. I'm glad at least someone is looking at the web pages.

Using word press and their blog is what I was planning on doing myself. I want something I can control and NOT depend on someone else. I was burned before. I also want to be able to put things up in a hurry.

Still,I dislike the idea of them using what seems like a relatively unimportant thing to readers as a major indicator of worth. It seems like bad research methodology to me

it's also good to hear you had a good experience putting up the word press thing

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

honestly I can believe that but from the article linked here, it's like the agents want all that BEFORE hand. Even though I have some stuff out there, Jana's blog is poorly attended and I have about 140 followers on twitter, most of whom are other authors.

I know for a fact several publishers will not even accept a submission without you already having all the social media, the website AND a marketing scheme (isn't that what they're taking 90% of my earnings for?)

[sholio]

I think Wordpress is one of those things that looks hard and complicated, but once you sign up and go through the steps to get your blog set up, you end up going "Oh! That's pretty easy, actually!" At least that was my reaction -- it seemed terribly complicated at first, and then once I got used to it and explored all the different parts of the dashboard area, it started to seem very sensible and easy.

And yeah, the problem with reducing it to a simple formula like that is that there are so many different ways that people use the Internet! Some people avoid Livejournal like the plague. I don't use Goodreads. Some people (like you!) never visit author websites at all. Some people don't use the Internet at all, and just get books from libraries. Everyone does it a little differently, so any formula like that is a ridiculously simplistic look at how people use the Internet anyway.

I really do think it just comes down to having a good book. :D (And by "good" I basically just mean catching the eye of an editor ...)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

That's good to know. I'm rather terrible at computer things because I lack patience with them.

And you're right, people do use it various ways. Honestly I belong to book clubs via the mail and have done for almost 30 years. If it's not in there or in the new book section of the library I often won't hear of it. Now I hear about more since I do use goodreads groups but frankly those two old standards of mine give me more things to read than I can handle. I have no need of going to the author's website.

and you're right about the book (well not necessarily good, I can name a few that blow and I wonder how in the world...) but you do have to catch the agent's eye. I've managed it in the erotica world. Now to do it for the rest of the world.