Blogging is demanding—time, energy, research, translating, setting up things in my website, posting, and then promoting.
For authors, having a blog may have more cons than pros; ideally, time is dedicated to writing books or stories rather than content that’s adjacent.
Some say that maybe authors shouldn’t blog, or that, if they do, they shouldn’t focus on blogging too often. While three posts a week can drive up traffic, because they don’t translate to sold books, trying to keep up with the rhythm could be counterproductive. Why do I do it? Because it keeps the creative flow going if I happen to not be writing something else, and it distracts me from other things.
That’s kind of how I came up with my publishing schedule—I knew that I wanted to focus more on my writing and figured that once a month was recurring enough. And I’m not in the mood to have to do everything with a looming deadline, so I plan ahead.
But first things first.
I sometimes get random ideas that I’d like to write about and I jot them down. Other times, I google topics or I read related concepts on Wikipedia (or other sites) that spark my interest. The ideas that seem good enough also get added to my list. Maybe I’m doing research for a book and I come across a topic that I think would be a good topic.
Then I pick one, research it further, and then I write. And I write. And I write. And I research. And I write. Then I do the same for another topic, and for another if I’m on a good roll.
Once the posts are written, I type them, edit them, and translate them. Next, I proofread the translation and, with the two versions ready, I figure out what image I want and I make it.
Then I set up everything for the website, I prepare the post for Instagram and Facebook, and I schedule things. This needs a bit of work as some posts are related to a specific moment when they need to be published. And…I do that for as many posts as possible.
If I can, I schedule ahead for six months (or more), as it means a few days of intensive work and then I get to focus on the other writing uninterrupted.
That said, it’s not always easy writing posts at the same time, and finding the right topics that are worth including can be challenging.
I want to write about writing, the publishing industry, and related things. I made the call early on not to review other books (although I still mention some occasionally, and I’ve written about Jane Austen and William Shakespeare and am preparing similar posts), and I don’t want to go over news. And so, here I am!
If you’ve got a question or idea you’d like me to write about, get in touch.
And in the meantime, you can find a monthly blog post written by yours truly that I maybe came up with months ago (unless I need to change my schedule—there’s always room for some improvising).
