New Year’s Resolutions for Writers & Bloggers [repost]
Just found this excellent post that I’m planning to put to good use in 2010. Thought I’d share it!
It’s from Year Zero Writers
As writers and creators of content, more and more we’re finding it necessary to turn to the Internet to showcase our work. While we cannot be in several places at the same time, it’s possible for our material to exist in numerous corners of the Internet, all at once. In an age where Literary Agents and Publishers are holding back on marketing their authors’ books we simply have to turn to each other to propel our material to different audiences, something one person can’t possibly do on their own.
This is where you come in. Make a new year’s resolutions to help promote your writer colleagues fromyour little corner of our huge office we call the web.
Review their books. It’s like replying an office memo
We don’t have enough funds to buy everyone’s books, but we all can afford to add other writers’ books to our virtual libraries, review them, add to favourites, give a thumbs-up or a tweet to our colleagues’ titles. If we belong to an e-publisher like Smashwords, this is very easy to do and takes virtually no time at all.
Subscribe to their sites and blogs. It’s like signing their birthday card
People on the Internet can be very cliquey. If visitors notice that a site has a healthy fan-base or following, they’ll add themselves to it too. Support writing and blogging colleagues by subscribing to, or following their blogs and sites. Blogs with a large amount of visitors weigh more with search engine crawlers. This is good news for you as it increases your visibility as a follower or regular visitor, and does wonders for your relationship with other bloggers.
Be a generous ‘linker.’ It’s like taking your turn to make a pot of tea
Many people are very stingy with their links. They won’t give them away for free because they fear this is giving weight to another person’s blog or site. This is nonsense. You’ve voluntarily taken on the responsibility to provide a service to your readers. Whenever you find pertinent information or worthwhilewriting tips on other blogs, it behoves you to share this with your readers. The site you’re linking to will take notice and will usually link back to your post so the link hardly ever turns out to be a ‘free’ one.
Social networking, the Christmas party
Many writers on the Internet have now got Twitter, Facebook and other social networking accounts. If a colleague has tweeted a link to their book or work, it’s a nice gesture to at least give them a retweet. This does not go unnoticed. StumbleUpon is a very effective site on which to share work. There is a catch with this site, as you have to be willing to support the interests of your subscribers as well as your own.
Wherever the location of your desk in our large Internet office, resolve to help other writers to become more visible in the way only you can. Make 2010 the year you stick with your resolution all year long!
1 K.M. Weilandon 30 Dec 2009 at 1:15 PM link to this comment
Great article! Writers may be loners, but that doesn’t stop the writing community from being one of the warmest, most encouraging circles on the Web.
.-= K.M. Weiland´s last blog ..11 Killer Chapter Breaks =-.
2 Dan Hollowayon 13 Jan 2010 at 2:43 PM link to this comment
Thank you. I’ll make sure Anne knows you appreciated her article.
Very very best wishes for you in 2010
Dan
(Year Zero Writers)
.-= Dan Holloway´s last blog ..How a City Disappeared =-.