Blog/tweet = success: chicken or egg?

An email the other day raised an interesting question. With the sender's permission, I will answer it here.

Hello Nicola
We met on the stairwell before going into your Skills Session on "Looking for a Publisher" at the Glasgow Aye Write book festival.  I was wearing a red necklace and admiring your beautiful turquoise and green necklace. [Always a good way to start an email, though I feel my shoes really should have got a mention. They were certainly uncomfortable enough.] 

I very much enjoyed your session, my first dip of the toe into the writer's world. [Clearly, my emailer is a woman of immense discernment and will go far.] 

I am lazily resisting embracing media skills and was wondering if you began blogging and tweeting only once you had became a successful author?  (Hoping that your answer might be "yes". )

Behind this question I detect some sub-questions:

1. Are blogging and tweeting necessary to becoming "successful"? In other words, can we avoid them if we don't want to do them?
2. Or do blogging and tweeting really become most useful and important after we are established and successful? In other words, can I therefore please not do it now? Pleeease.
3. What can an unpublished writer usefully do in terms of this type of activity? After all, without something to tweet and blog about, what's the point? In other words, give me permission to wait till I've got something to talk about.

Let me answer the original question first: wondering if you began blogging and tweeting only once you had became a successful author?  (Hoping that your answer might be "yes". )

Yes. But the main and simple reason for that is that my "success" (however I think you are defining it) came before blogging and tweeting existed... So I didn't have a choice.

However, there is absolutely no doubt that blogging and tweeting have hugely helped at least some parts of my "success", specifically the "profile" bit. In other words, rather obviously they have made more people know about me. Because that's precisely what blogging and tweeting do. Even if they don't sell as many books as some would love to believe.

They have also led to a number of publishers quite often saying they'd love to publish a book of mine. Which is obviously happifying, but never ever ever does this over-ride the fact that first I have to write the right bloody book. Because, unless you are a boob-enhanced celeb, writing the right bloody book is the only way to get published.

But let's look at the other parts of the question.

1. Are blogging and tweeting necessary to success? Clearly, it's possible to be a well known and successful author without them. Some successful authors don't do any of this stuff. However, if you decide not to do any of it, you set yourself a higher hurdle and give yourself weaker muscles with which to leap it. You will almost certainly find more readers if you do this stuff than if you don't. But I would never recommend doing it for such functional reasons alone: you must enjoy at least parts of it, otherwise your lack of enjoyment will come over and it will look like cynicism. Never a sexy look.

Also, for them to be successful, they must be done well and properly. Otherwise, they are a huge time commitment for no gain.

2. Should you (or can you) wait till you have a book out before doing it? Well, you can, but it takes time to build up friendships (and it's friendships, to one degree or another that we're talking about), and it's definitely easier if you build up contacts and connections and friendships sooner, rather than later. If you leap into Twitter the week your book comes out, it's pretty obvious why you're there; and you are likely not to have enough people listening to you anyway.

I'd add that if you are writing non-fiction, building up your platform beforehand is essential. With fiction, it's just advisable, IF you can and IF you can face it.

Also, tweeting and blogging takes practice. Best do that before people have heard of you? I think so, but, again, it's not compulsory.

I do agree that it's an awful lot easier once you are already somewhat known and have a book to show for things, but many people have a lot of fun and success on blogs and Twitter before a book deal or even an agent deal.

3. So, if it's probably a good idea to do it, how does an unpublished author find something useful to tweet and blog about? 

Here are my tips:

• I did a popular post about blogging here. Much of it will apply before you have a publishing deal.
• If you are writing non-fiction, you might create a blog that aims to be a go-to resource for that topic. 
• If you are writing fiction, your blog could either be about writing or some other aspect of your life, such as a hobby or passion or ability or disability or anything that you feel strongly about and which says something about who you are. It doesn't need to be relevant to your novel. Or you could make it about writing or your life in general - but please do be aware that there are eleventy million blogs like that and most are very boring. They probably even bore the writers themselves and, I assure you, that is not a happy scene. You've got to do this three times a week (ideally, though not compulsorily) so you need to like it.
• Whatever you do, remember that Twitter and your blog are public: so, be yourself but be your nicest self. If you are not nice, shut up or disguise yourself.
• On Twitter, don't worry about providing interesting content if you can't think of any: just chat. Not everyone has to be a provider of info. You can just be the nice person who says hello and is supportive and sensible. Or even just supportive. It's a very good way of making friends.
• Learn how to use Twitter properly. My ebook, Tweet Right, has everything you need to know, including how to avoid faux pas.
• Be patient. Don't expect anything interesting to happen for ages. (Which is why I suggest you start asap.)
• Don't think of the internet as an electronic medium. Just think of it as a way of meeting lots of people but never having to worry about being shy. The social skills involved - listening and noticing body language, following rules of the group - are not much different from those in real life. Listen as much as transmit.
• People want a combination of things from the people they meet online: Friendship, Information and Entertainment. Don't worry about providing all three - one or two is quite enough.
• [Edited to add, with thanks to Stroppy Author] Some unpublished writers, bruised by rejection, make the terrible mistake of slagging off agents, editors and publishing in general. As Stroppy says, doing this stuff wrong is worse than not doing it at all. Keep your anger hidden at all times. Until you are Anthony Horowitz, you can't afford not to. (That link goes to a jaw-dropping piece, by the way!)

However, if you don't want to do any of this, or you really want to wait till later, remember one thing: there is no law that you have to do it. I strongly recommend that you give it a shot but you Do Not Have To. And if you decide not to, don't fret: writing your book is more important than blogging and tweeting.

On the other hand, until you try, you won't know how much fun (and useful) it can be. I hurled myself into all this accidentally and certainly without thought. And I love it. Mostly.

Platforms, networking, blogging and Twitter for authors - resources

I'm doing an event on Twitter for the Society of Authors in London today. And a talk about blogging and Twitter for authors at a conference in Peterborough at the weekend. And one about Twitter and blogging at a dinner for senior people in publishing a couple of days later. For the benefit of the participants at those, and also any of you who would like all this info in one place, I have made a list of recent relevant blog posts below. 


An earlier Soc of A event I did, about networking/platforms for authors.


Recent posts about social networking/platform-building for writers:


"Twitter Etiquette - Careful With DMs"


"Blogging for Writers - Make Your Blog Work Better"


"How Much Promotion is Too Much?"


"Tweet Right - the Sensible Person's Guide to Twitter"


“The 90/10% rule – using the 10% to promote our books”


That's your lot! Play nicely.

Blogging for writers - make your blog work

I'm supposed to talk mostly about writing and publishing on this blog, but I seem mostly to be talking about networking, Twitter and blogging these days. Thing is a) this platformy stuff is becoming ever more important b) writers are worrying a LOT about how to do it and how to do it better and c) I'm doing loads of talks about it at the moment and it's quite useful to have some posts where people can find resources and tips. In case I forget to tell them.

So, today I'm tackling the issue of how to get more people to read and comment on your blog. Bearing in mind that when I started this blog three years ago I knew as much about it as I know about the Lesser Galapagan Monkfish. But now I know muchily more. (Though I feel I still have a shameful gap in my knowledge of Lesser Galapagian Monkfish.)

NOTE: all of this is completely optional and you only need to take note if you want lots more traffic etc. If you're just enjoying what you do already and are perfectly happy, then why change anything? I've written this in response to people asking for tips.

Part of what follows is about getting people to find your blog in the first place (for example through Google search activity) and part is about getting them to stay there and interact (comment and link to you from their own place). All of those things have benefits: your blog feels more active and may therefore feel more rewarding, and your blog is more likely to appear high in the search results for other things. This can have unpredictable benefits, as recently happened to me when someone googled something about the teenage brain.

GOOD CONTENT
That's the first important thing. Apart from your readers, Google - *bows down in strategic praise* - loves good content. And if Google loves your blog, your blog will go flying through the googlesphere and lots more people will find it. But what is good content?

(You will see that I don't obey all the rules that follow, partly because you don't have to obey them all and partly because my blog is an advice blog on a topic that lots and lots of people desperately want to know about, so I can get away with disobeying some rules. Also, note that some of these guidelines are based on Google's SEO - Search Engine Optimisation - rules, and some are plain common sense.)

Good content:

• is frequent*** - if you blog once a month, you are simply not going to get the traffic that you'll get if you blog three times a week (which is my recommended amount.)
• is what people will enjoy reading
• and/or what people want to learn about
• is full of key words that will appear in search engines - so, if your post is about World Book Night, don't call it "In Which I Don't Talk About Lesser Galapagian Monkfish"

NB edited to add: when I say "full of", please note that I do NOT mean you to overdose on key words or their repetition. Google doesn't like this. Just calm down and write nicely, but do mention the relevant words somewhere near the start of your post. Google does not like you trying to trick it and that is NOT what this post is about.

• contains pictures
• contains lots of links to good content - see LINKS and LINKBACKS, below
• contain topical things
• might be controversial  - although I never thought about this at the time, when I blogged critically about Sainsbury's, my stats soared and Google probably came close to proposing marriage
• is brief - that's me scuppered!
• has short sentences - max 10-30 words per sentence and short paragraphs (three sentences max)
• is easy for the eye to scan - scanning has been shown most often to happen in a F pattern: we read the first para, skip a third of the way down, and scan the page looking at the left side. Apparently. *rolls eyes and vows to do it like a Z*

***This frequency rule means that if you haven't got enough to say or don't want to commit the time, you really need to make a choice:
a) carry on, for your own pleasure and for a record of your thoughts, events, whatever, not worrying about interaction etc. (You could even turn off comments and relax!)
b) stop blogging. There is no rule that says you have to blog. In fact, if you con't enjoy it, it will show.

LINKS and LINKBACKS

If your posts contain links to other people's good posts/websites/etc, this is good for several reasons:

• The other person is likely to notice (because if they are sensible they will have a Google alert*** set up) and will quite likely a) come and comment b) visit you again c) have some other useful interaction with you.
• If your blog is relevant to theirs, they may end up putting a link to yours in their sidebar.
• Your content becomes more valuable and Google likes you.

(***Which is how Sainsbury's discovered that I'd been blogging negatively about them. And that, by the way, was a good thing, and rather entertaining.)

Also, if a highly ranked site includes a link to your site or post in its own, or if Google notices that people come to your site from a highly ranked site, Google suddenly starts drooling all over you. Well, not literally, but it certainly luuuurrrrvvvves you even more.

Tip: make sure the linked words are the phrase that would be searched in Google. Notice how in this post all the links are exactly the phrases, no extraneous guff.

TITLES AND TAG WORDS

Don't make your title too obscure. Again, it's a Google thing: if you've written about topic A, you want people who search for Topic A to find your blog. So, don't give it a title that they wouldn't in a million years think of searching for. Also, use the words or phrases again early in the post. Google gets terribly excited about that.

GET COMMENTS

If you don't get any comments, it can sometimes feel as though you are talking to yourself. This isn't necessarily the case at all. Perhaps you simply haven't said something that encourages an answer? So, try this:

• At the end of the post, ask a question.
• Say something provocative or topical. See my Our (Complementary) World Book Night post, which got me onto Newsnight. Unintentionally, I have to say. I do very little on purpose.
• Ask for advice.
• Have a quiz or small competition. (Once you've got a few readers.)
• Have a blog party. (Click that link to see how that can work.)

RECIPROCATE

Do you read other people's blogs and leave comments? No? Well, tell me this: why the hell should they read yours, then? The best way to get people to read and comment on your blog is to read and comment on theirs. But NOT in a spammy "come to my fabulous blog and read my pearls of wisdom" way; just go there and comment, relevantly, sensibly, showing that you did actually read their blog. And if you are interesting enough they will come and read yours. Do not actually put a link to your own post in your comment - that's rude behaviour in someone else's house; but if you've registered or filled out the form properly your name should be clickable and if they want to go check you out, they will. Or even if they don't (because too busy - I hardly ever click links now), the other commenters or readers might.

SPREAD THE WORD

Do you post a link to each of your posts on Twitter or Facebook? It's a good idea to do this - pretty essential, actually - but don't do it too often. Once or twice for each post, no more. All your places should link together, even though many of your "followers" will overlap. You just want to maximise the chance of people seeing your link in their busy lives, without annoying them but leaping out in front of them and shouting BOO.

YOUR BLOG LAYOUT ETC

You can't just think about the content of the blog post. You also need to think about what else you have on your blog, the things that people see each time they come there, either on a sidebar on the right, or left, or both. Here are the recommended ones which will encourage people to come back:

• A blog list - list of other blogs you like, with links. Best if you set it so that the latest post title is visible, so others can see what sort of thing those blogs do.
• More than one blog list, divided into themes or whatever - eg a list of writers' blogs and a list of eg knitting blogs, if knitting is your thing. Obviously, if it's not, that's not the best idea.
• If you have an area of expertise or interest, or your book has a special theme, a list of blogs and websites that relate to that theme.
• A link to your other places - eg Facebook, Twitter, other website, publisher's website.
• "Labels" - so that if people want to find which of your posts are about shoes or chocolate, they can.
• A very short profile of you, so that people know who you are and what you do.

Your blog also needs to be as easy on the eye as possible. Good, clear font, nice picture if you wish but not one that gets in the way of the content or takes too long to load on a slow PC. I used to have a pretty background for mine but someone pointed out that it was being horribly slow to load, so I ditched it and kept it plain. One of the prettiest and most successful blogs (in terms of comments, for a start) is Talli Roland's.

Have I covered everything? Maybe not. But I'm tired after writing ten blog posts in a row. So, please tell me: what else do you want to know?

See, I practise what I preach sometimes: a question! Now, comment away, lovely people. (That's another tip: flatter your blog-readers and call them lovely. It usually works.)