August 3rd, 2011 / 2:36 pm
Snippets
Snippets
Blake Butler—
lol re: “Time spent on the blog is time spent away from something else: writing another book, contacting book clubs, taking a part-time job and investing that money in advertising or a publicist.” from Author Blogging: You’re Doing It Wrong by Livia Blackburne.
Holy fuck
Time spent writing another book, contacting book clubs, taking a part-time job and investing that money in advertising or a publicist is time spent away from something else: hitting on attractive strangers on the street, getting very very drunk, or calling your mother just to talk.
I should really call my mom. Thanks for reminding me.
Time spent criticizing the way other people choose to spend their time is time spent away from criticizing the way other people choose to spend their time is time away from criticizing the way other people choose to spend their time is time away from criticizing the way other people choose to spend their time is time away from criticizing the way other people choose to spend their time is time away from criticizing the way other people choose to spend their time is time away from criticizing the way other people choose to spend their time is time away from criticizing the way other people choose to spend their time is time…
Time spent on everything is time spent away from everything else. Everything is just farting around, like Vonnegut says.
PS, a part time job? Who can live on a part-time job, let alone hire a publicist?
Huh. So she blogged about how blogging is a waste of time. How meta.
I think time spent commenting on blogs detracts from time writing blogs, but in a good way. It’s like staying off the streets at night.
Time spent commenting on blogs is more like knife fighting than staying off the streets. At least in the comments I usually am a part of.
Time spent watching the burning fruit-bowl sunset is time spent away from writing another book, contacting book clubs, taking a part-time job and investing that money in advertising or a publicist. Time spent eating fish eggs off of a white girl’s heavily tattooed with koi is time spent away from writing another book, contacting book clubs, taking a part-time job and investing that money in advertising or a publicist. Time spent sleeping in abandoned automobiles with dangerous persons is time spent away from writing another book, contacting book clubs, taking a part-time job and investing that money in advertising or a publicist.
Time spent jerking off is time spent away from writing about jerking off.
During the time I spent typing this comment, I coulda been blogging.
Time spent on the blog is time away from obsessively calling Walgreens to see if your doctor authorized your “No Refill” refill request for your Ambien and Ativan.
if this had more stuff about how to boil eggs it would be as useless as this millions post about seinfeld: http://www.themillions.com/2011/07/29142.html
You can’t ‘spend’ time, you lazy westerners.
I’ve been in knife fights.
I’ve been in knife fights.
Ell Oh Ell
Didn’t click through to read the full post. Spent the time doing something else.
In her defense, I was going into the article thinking a brain scientist’s take on writing would be “Writing is not a brain.”
I thought her blog was about angels. Fuck.
I should pic my stomach scar from the last time I got cut.
All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no blogging makes Jack a dull boy.
Blackburne makes clear, in the first paragraph of the blogicle, what she thinks is being done “wrong”:
She’s not talking about writers blogging for a range of reasons; she’s talking about blogging specifically to address one’s “target audience” for commercial development.
In the follow-up post [ http://blog.liviablackburne.com/2011/07/author-blogging-you're-doing-it-wrong_21.html ], she says that writers are “writing fiction for [some particular kind of reader], but they turn around and blog exclusively for writers”, which, she’s convinced, won’t sell books to “target audiences”.
That’s marketing-psychosis thinking, to me, but, on its terms – ‘if you blog to sell your writing, are you really being tactically effective?’ – , it’s nothing like telling writers that they’re wasting their time on the internet.
lolzapoppin
I did the link wrong (mistaken apostrophe); here’s correct: http://blog.liviablackburne.com/2011/07/author-blogging-youre-doing-it-wrong_21.html
But their blogs give writers a great place to console each other about poor sales.
If they’re writing blogs for any reason other than selling their novels, the time spent on those blogs is not what she’s saying is being done wrong.
Target audiences, focus groups, sales pitches & goals & efficiency; Naive me thought that «to write» (about writing in a blog, or else, writing, say, Finnegan’s Wake) was in fact good protection (one of the few left) from this crap. «Chassez le naturel…»
Thanks, Livia Blackburne, for making it concisely clear I never need to read anything written by you in books (and I guess nowhere else?) … never … ever … for all time.
Matt,
I’m always sorry to lose a potential reader, but feedback is always helpful. Best wishes.
I’m sure you know your audience, then. All I’ll say is this tactic of pursuing readership with a marketer’s eye is not the way to win over a certain niche group. The general public? Absolutely. And that’s where the money is at, a big audience. And if you’re in it to make money then this is how you do it (or at least it’s an effective approach). It’s certainly not what motivates me to read or write. Pursuit of profit and substance tend to be mutually exclusive, in my experience.
Lol, if we were in it for the money, we’re in the wrong industry. My articles were not a blanket statement about blogging or writing, they were addressed to the very specific issue (as deadgod very nicely laid out) of writers who start blogging with the goal of selling books, but end up just blogging for other writers. In that case, they’re doing something wrong. That was the message I attempted to convey, although if you didn’t get that message after reading the post and its followup, that is clearly my fault as a writer. People blog for many other reasons, and as long as they’re getting what they want out of it, more power to them.
No, I totally agree, Livia. There doesn’t seem to be a disconnect here at the aim of your message. Really my point, fair or not, is sort of continuation of a theme that started in a recent post by Roxane Gay, which concerned the cost of publishing and independent literary magazines. I think I may have missed your central thesis here, which you, and retreading ground to deadgod’s comment, explain well (i.e. this is a specific issue pertaining to a specific kind of approach to reaching an audience / aimed at righting an approach that appears to be ineffective).
I did prior to your latest comment go back and read at least the post in which this excerpt I initially reacted to originates. (I admit I initially reacted to your comment out of context, which was lazy of me but somewhat conducive to the point expressed in it). Your initial thought was taken slightly out of context, but only slightly, as I see it. The thing is, paramount to the approach you describe something akin to a scientific, systematic desire to reach a target audience, “marketing-psychosis thinking” in the words of deadgod. And regardless of the “self-help” nature of your blog, I disagree with this kind of selling one’s self to gain their readership.
With that in mind, I think my original statement remains true. We are operating with entirely different mentalities. This might be because, honestly, I can’t pinpoint who my “target audience” is, and frankly I’m completely fine with that.
You mean there’s people on this thread who left comments without actually reading the article? I never would’ve guessed! (Sorry, couldn’t resist :-P).
All joking aside, I definitely respect where you’re coming from. people have different approaches, and there’s definitely good for there to be literary magazines out there focused on art for art’s sake. I have a hunch though, that even if you’re writing with just your own artistic goals in mind, you will still end up appealing to a certain type of reader — and it would be very cool, at least in my opinion, if there was a way to let other similar readers learn about and appreciate your work. I’m not saying that you should be spending time going to find them via blogging or anything else, since your focus is different. Nothing wrong with that.
As a commercial genre writer, I do keep an audience more in mind. I don’t see that as marketing psychosis or selling out. For me, storytelling is just as much about the audience as it is the writer. I write the kind of books I want to read, and I want to find readers who love the books as much as I do. Because for me the most rewarding part of writing is getting my book into the hands of readers who “get it.” It’s not about artificially manufacturing some kind of marketing plan. It’s about finding your tribe.
But different strokes for different folks. And that’s totally fine.