I just attended an interesting session for writers on how to use social media. Presented by Alex and Donna Carrick of Carrick Publishing, (who can be found at http://www.carrickpublishing.com ), it was pitched at folks who were a bit newer to the whole game than I am. Still, we all got a lot of food for thought, and, as is normal for an event like the Bloody Words crime writing conference, the corridor discussions were as important to me as the seminar itself.
One of my big questions about blogging is how to balance the need for privacy and professionalism with authenticity. Of course, I agree that there is always something better to do than to tell someone off, and I don’t believe in negativity on these pages any more than I do in the rest of my life. But, what’s the point in writing if all your posts are simply anodyne? We all want people to buy our books (once we’ve published them!) but we also want them to keep coming back after they’ve done so. We need to balance the need for promotion with the need for networking, and the need to keep our audience’s interest even after we’ve made the sale.
That’s why I was particularly interested in the comments one of the other participants made outside the room. She had attended another session a few months ago and that person suggested that a writer’s blog should be one third about you as a person, one third about what you’re working on, and the final third about some subject matter where you can provide value. In my case, she suggested that my value could come from the fact that I have traveled and lived in some interesting places, and could write about them as possible settings. I thought that was a great idea.
More to follow.
