A DIFFERENT WAY TO
BLOG
Serious about Blogging
When my agent said,
“If you’re serious about publishing in the traditional market, you’ve got to
get serious about social media,” I was uneasy. When he added “especially blogging,”
I was dismayed. Then he told me “serious” meant blogging weekly. I panicked. I’d
had a blog (Suzanne’s Scribbles) since 2008. In seven years I posted a total of
thirteen entries. My silence must have cried “Help!” because Jim immediately
gave me a list of articles to read about blogging. Oh my…
Value Added
I started reading. The
consensus of the authors was that successful blogs can be summed up with the
phrase “value added.” I was vaguely familiar with the term from discussions
with my CPA daughter about the “value added” by her company’s products in
foreign markets. As I puzzled through the connection, I began to understand
that successful blogs offer content valuable to their readers. Travelers, for
example, read blogs written by other travelers offering information about out-of-the-way
restaurants, reasonable hotels, and little-known side trips. Quilters read
blogs about fabrics and new tools. Cooks read blogs filled with recipes. Hmm…
Audience and Theme
I looked through Suzanne’s
Scribbles and found entries ranging from anecdotes of my trip to Australia to
reflections on Multiple Sclerosis fatigue to directions for making a batik
scrap quilt. So who was my audience? I might assume my family and friends would
be interested in these mildly entertaining ramblings, but the real truth was
that I was my own audience. I wrote and posted on the topic I was interested in
at that moment. Oops…
A Different Way to Blog
I began to consider
the audience I wanted to attract to my blog. Because my fiction is romantic
suspense for the Christian fiction market, my readers are primarily women and
predominantly Christian. I needed a theme this audience would consider
valuable, content I could offer from my life that connected with their lives. I
puzzled for several weeks. Then one Sunday evening as I was preparing
reflection questions for the verse-of-the-week Bible discussion I lead on Mondays
an idea popped into my head. Maybe…
TwitterBible
Could I blog on one
Bible verse a week? My daughter liked
the idea, my online writing partner liked the idea, and, best of all, my agent
liked the idea. But there was still that pesky issue of social media. What if I
posted the verse to Twitter on Monday and the reflection questions Tuesday
through Thursday? Friday my blog would appear. I breathed a prayer and launched
TwitterBible.
By the way, this
morning I posted the thirteenth blog entry—not in seven years, in thirteen
weeks. Besides that, I the next three entries are ready to go. Imagine that…
