I hate blogs like this. I mean, I don't really because I read a fair number of them. But if everyone had a blog, life would be pretty shitty. Actually, that's kind of what Facebook is, and it's why I'm not on Facebook. Personal blogs (and Facebook/Twitter, albeit in shorter format) do two things simultaneously:
- They make you out to be a total narcissist because you think your thoughts are so great that you have to share them with the world.
- They sacrifice your own privacy by letting everyone in the world know what you think about whatever you choose to post about.
My point here is that self-promotion (or at least self-driven exposure) is a mandatory element of having an internet presence. With so much of the publishing world being driven by the internet at the moment, this means self-promotion is a mandatory element of being a writer. So even a lot of people who are extremely reluctant to be online nevertheless have Facebook pages, twitter accounts, and blogs at whatevertheirnameis.com. Unsurprisingly, these accounts see upticks in activity from their owners right around when their new book comes out.
Of course, it's not all crappy market sense - blogs are awesome. They give you complete creative freedom, allow you to talk about things in a short format that you couldn't otherwise talk about, and interact with readers on a real-time basis. They also allow ideas to grab hold in a democratic fashion. Penguin is a great example of this: had I pitched that as a book without the blog and good buzz/a large number of followers behind me, they most likely would have laughed in my face (not in the good way).
So, I'm going to now be the obnoxious person who thinks what they have to say is so important, the annoying guy who shares too much and rambles on while no one pays attention, and the dilettante writer who posts his top 5 sandwiches next to an ode to Nicolas Cage. I hope there are a handful of people reading this who stick around, but mostly I hope I stick around, as the internet is littered with my half-started blogs I never continued (and a few I spent way too much time on). Enjoy.
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