Author Blogging: Some Advice

Well, it seems I have been going all wrong about blogging according to this post: Your author blog: what should an author blog about?

Authors (published or not) don’t do what I do… post verses or talk about what they learn about God as they learn it… Authors don’t share knowledge or awe about God’s work… No… They network with fellow indie authors, use their long comments on someone else’s blog to publish on their own blog and they can talk about the craft, share their journey to the publishing world with the world but they cannot critique or whine. Those are writing career busters.

Established authors can talk about anything (their books, their research, their opinions, their pets even!), talk to anyone (interviews, profiles, guest posts), and basically nurture their readers’ morbid curiosity about their lives. As long as posts provide information or entertainment, just about anything goes.

And I am out my league!

  • No one gets my sense of humour: deadpan doesn’t work well online.
  • What entertains me doesn’t entertain anyone else. You see,  most people laugh in front of  stupidity, silliness, immaturity, revenge, etc., I don’t. Levity is fine, but too much of it makes me nauseous. Life is short, give me something that will help me understand, help me see something differently, help me expand my horizon and I am all ears. Make me laugh, I like subtlety, paradox, absurdity. Surprise me with the unexpected, with the odd association. That’s my sense of humour.  So, who else is with me here? That’s what I thought. (sigh)
  • I’m still trying to solve the puzzle:
    • How to promote without being boastful
    • How to speak of oneself without sounding self-centered.
    • How far to let people in without being invaded. I’m a private person. I don’t post my life on social media and that’s the way I want to keep it. However, I’m willing to divulge the basics… to a certain extent. This is, however, a non-issue at the moment.
  • I write on difficult feelings and topics. Would being a comedian on my blog be a matter of false representation as my themes are anything but funny?
So many questions, so few answers!
Then, other pieces of advice pop up, such as:
  • Find your unique voice, stand out, let your originality shine.
  • Give your readers what they want (Er…What readers? They haven’t let themselves be known to me yet.)
So basically, we have a cohort of people doing the exact same thing their peers do, expecting to hit the popularity jackpot and for the most part staying in the dark (such as ranking last on the fiftieth page of results when googling their own name plus author). Does that sum it up well?
My social media channels are interlinked, I post when inspiration strikes me, I use tags and categories (my attempt at SEO). Although I like to write, it seems I have no clue on how to reach people. I will keep at it, regardless of the size of my readership. The rest is in God’s hand since I can’t do it.

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