Hiya! Bliss here…Welcome to Sweet Banana Ink.
I’ll be starting out with a four part series: Writers on the Internet Fan Experience.
I’ve been thinking about writers and their online presence and their interaction with the public online. Online self-promotion is a big part of life for a writer these days. It’s inexpensive, direct and widespread. Brilliant all in all. But lately it’s been a bit like the Wild West on some of the writer/reader/reviewer sites. I don’t want to get into the specifics of these shootouts (if you’re curious check out this post at The Midnight Garden by Wendy Darling and on Stacia Kane’s blog here and here, read at your own risk, there is strong language used on Stacia’s site.) The above examples are about writers getting aggressive with reviewers and then readers joining in to the insanity. The unpleasant nature of it all made me start to wonder that if writers didn’t HAVE to do all of that blogging and tweeting to promote their books, would they? So I wrote up four questions that I sent out to some of the traditionally published writers that I know have blogs and are fairly active online.
Part One – Would You Blog Anyway?
If you didn’t have to do internet self promotion would you still have a blog with comments or a website with any sort of direct communication with the people on the internet?
I have to admit that I thought that most of them would prefer to NOT maintain a blog or a website. I was wrong, DEAD WRONG. Every writer that responded, which was most of them, said that they enjoyed writing their blogs. Ilona Andrews (Writing team Ilona and Andrew Gordon) said, “Blogging is a response to life. Not that many of our posts are aimed specifically at promotion.” Jim C. Hines said, “Absolutely! If the only reason I was active online was to promote myself, I’d quit today.” A few of the writers said they didn’t feel that they had to blog for self promotion but appreciated the access it gave them to fans and book bloggers and felt it absolutely did help with sales, which is good for any writer. Seanan McGuire commented on how the internet “lets us all stay connected to one another.”
Most of the writers commented in some way about how the internet allowed them to experience a feeling of community with internet friends and readers. This made me happy. My perspective is a bit skewed due to my background in the entertainment industry. You only have to spend a small amount of time around a couple of well known actors to find out how scary and disturbing fans can be. It was, quite honestly, bumming me out to think that these writers that I like were really wishing we would stop bugging them in their comments or on Twitter so they could enjoy their lives. Sometimes I am SO glad to be SO wrong. Now I’m sure there are some writers who do wish that, but the ones who answered my question obviously do not.
They like us, they really like us. Sorry, couldn’t resist. But the truth is, they do. They like the process of sharing their creative lives with us. Even with the possibility of conflict with total strangers, even when fans complain about how they aren’t writing fast enough or enough of what that particular person wants, even though sometimes it’s a lot of work on top of the work of writing, they would still do it. It takes time and attention to moderate a comments section on a blog. Any given writer can have quite a range of readers who all have very different levels of what is acceptable. Ilona Andrews commented, “Some writers welcome controversy, but I feel pressure to provide a stress-free entertainment environment, which means policing the comments.” That can be a lot of work if you get a couple hundred comments on every post, it can be INSANE if you get a couple thousand.
While promotion is a part of the blogs and websites and they all acknowledged that aspect of it, the sense of community and general connection with readers is a much bigger motivator for continuing their online presence. What makes me happiest about this discovery is that is exactly how it feels on this side of the experience as well. We’ve gone from a time when our favorite writers were just names on dust jackets and maybe an author photo on the inside back flap to actual people we can chat with and get to know a little bit. As with any community there are ups and downs, we all may step on each others toes now and then but, for the most part, it seems that we’re all pretty happy to be here.
Next I wondered if any of this reader contact/feedback affected their actual writing…
To Be Continued on June 25, 2012…
Great post, I look forward to reading the other three parts. Though it seems that authors do enjoy having an online presence, I wonder if you will touch on some of the problems with fan sites. Author harassment is a concern, as you mentioned, but even the well meaning fanfic sites can make things hard for our favorite wordsmiths. Can’t wait for the next one, hurry up!
Thanks for reading and commenting Matt. The whole internet interaction is fraught with complications for both fans and writers near as I can tell. Fans sometimes go nuts, writers sometimes go nuts…and the internet makes it all public and endlessly researchable because the internet is forever. The crazy isn't new, but the platform on which is gets displayed these days is new and it's causing everyone some distress. I'm still pretty amazed at how many working writers responded to my questions with extremely upbeat and positive attitudes about the internet experience for them. I know that many of them get really abusive email from people, people who consider themselves fans and as a result behave as though they have some right to say awful things to these people about their existing writing or about future writing. Yet, they keep going and let us send them emails and comment on their blogs and tweet back and forth. I find it to be phenominally generous and kind. Again…thanks for checking in and I hope you enjoy the rest of the series.
Bliss
Well, I guess you forgot to ask me, but yes I would still blog…………oh wait, that's all I do…………
Hiya Bill…I didn't forget to ask you I simply assumed there was NO CIRCUMSTANCE wherein you would quit blogging. Perhaps a bit cheeky of me but then I'm just that way. Thanks so much for stopping in and commenting.
Can't wait to read the rest of it! I have been wondering a lot myself if authors really hated us sometimes. I mean, I know bloggers and reviewers can give them a lot of free press, bust sometimes I feel like I am harassing them. Then they go and comment on a post, or re-tweet something for me, and I realize they are actually just people too! And we are helping eachother. Crazy.
Hi Laura, thanks so much for stopping by and commenting. Yeah it was really cool to read some of the responses. Not only was it a little surprising to me but also gratifying. I appreciated that they responded to my questions at all…and all of the people who did respond did so very thoughtfully. Even Jaye Wells took the time to write me back and say that she was out of the country and wouldn't be able to get answers to me by my deadline. They not only appreciate that bloggers and reviewers help to promote their books but they really do seem to enjoy the community that has grown and is growing around all of this online stuff.
I'll be honest. I started to blog because my agent told me that I had to…I dragged my feet for awhile, but finally just jumped in and started doing it. It's been a little over three months now and I can't believe how much I actually really like it. I was actually proud the day I got my first hate mail. I live across the street from a very well known blogger who said, "once you start getting hate mail, you know you're getting somewhere." I don't think I'll be leaving the blogosphere anytime soon. Looking forward to the next part!
Hey Heather…thanks for dropping by and commenting. Congrats on your first hate mail…YOU HAVE ARRIVED!! I'm glad you started your blog and even happier that you are having a good experience with it all.
I take great guilty pleasure in having access to my favorite (living) writers. Way back in 2000, I wrote an embarassingly gushing e-mail to Diane Wakiski after I found her e-address at a Michigan State where she was a Writer in Residence. Her simple but thoughtful response is something I will treasure forever. Since then I've gotten stupidly brave but deep down I always feel dorky and invasive.
I hope my writers are like your writers and I can Sally Field all over them.
I'm much the same as you Jules. Just a day ago I finished a new short story by a favorite writer of mine and I got to fire off an email telling her how much I enjoyed it and thanked her for writing because it simply makes my world better. That is just awesome.