It’s a Ghost Town out there…
It’s funny how things change.
This time last year, I followed a bunch of Indie writers who were blogging all the time, about what they were writing, how they were doing, how awesome or scary or whatever the new world of publishing is, whatever. Now? Now I don’t spend as much time reading blogs. Or writing them, for that matter. Just looking at the monthly archives of my blog here will show that. 🙂
But neither do many of those other writers I used to follow. A lot of them have gone silent on the blogosphere. Of those who’ve gone silent, I know a bunch who simply are so busy writing and publishing that they’ve just said “screw it”, especially since it’s clear that blogging or “having a platform” is of far less importance than writing good stories…and a lot of them. That said, it appears a bunch of them aren’t producing many stories anymore either. I know of a couple who I know for certain have barely been writing at all, and a few more who have basically quit.
I hesitate to say that’s sad, because in the grand scheme of things it really doesn’t matter if one writer or another decides not to write anymore in favor of something else. Who knows? Maybe those who have quit found something they like to do more? Or life decided they had to prioritize something else they find more important for a while. Far be it from me to question that.
But I remember Dean, and others, talking about how things would go a while back. If I recall correctly, he predicted a lot of writers would try the Indie bit (well, he didn’t really…he predicted 95% of writers would never even try it) and give up when, after a short while, they didn’t quickly make it big. Or they discovered it takes just as much work as the traditional route. Or whatever. Which I guess is what happens in the traditional world, too.
And if that is what’s happened, then I’m sad. Because one should not give up on a goal or a dream just because it’s slow to come, or it’s hard.
I guess we’ll see how this all pans out. But in the meantime, when I’m in the mood to waste time on the internet, I find there are a lot fewer blogs to waste time on these days, at least among the crowd I used to follow. And that is rather distressing.
I’ve noticed the same thing myself on most counts. I miss some of my blogging buddies, and I agree that if the dream is important to you, being hard or slow to achieve shouldn’t stop you. But it makes me then wonder if at least some of the missing perhaps discovered writing was quite as important to them as they thought.
Could be. And if that’s the case, fair enough. No worries. I suspect a lot just gave up, though. Hope not.
I’ve noticed it, too. Particularly with myself. Last year at this time I made the switch from short stories to writing novels. That means I have to write, write, write, to get anything out there.
I’ve pretty much reserved my blog for posts I think are entertaining or that talk about my next release. But I’ve stopped the posts about the writing process, because I can’t figure out why a reader would care about those, unless they’re a writer.
I got consumed by the move, and now we finally just shifted all our junk across State lanes last weekend. I’m hoping to get back to writing soon, I’ve got so many stories piling up in my head!! At least we’ve finally hit September, so (besides the holiday of my birthday) WotF reviews will be starting!
How funny, I was thinking this very thing just last week. Six months ago I went through the links to other blogs on my blog, and weeded out a few. Some whom no longer posted, some who have gone in different directions. Some appear to have just disappeared, from both their blogs and the writing scene, but as you said, this was to be expected. Writing is hard work and for some people if they don’t get immediate results they jump out of the pool to find a different body of water to dive into.
This summer my blog took a month+ hiatus, but that was because I was writing 3 novels in 2 months (and yes, I did succeed). Yep, I fell into that category, and got a ton of writing done. It felt glorious.
Now I’m back from the writing sabbatical, but I’m finding it hard to find the time for blogging. If not for the fact I sometimes have news to share or just want to discuss something to keep as public reference, I would consider shutting my blog down and turning my website into a more static page announcing my new works. Sometimes I still debate doing it. 😛
It’s interesting that you mention the whole platform thing, because I’ve been thinking the same thing. It seems to me that what brings readers to a blog anyway, is people reading your books or stories, and then come to your blog. I’m not entirely sold on the whole platform thing, but have made the usual accounts in the usual places. Facecrap, tweeter, and of course, my blog. I do use the blog for talk about writing, but mainly because I’m documenting the process. It also contains the usual rants.
I don’t write on the blog as much as I feel I should, but that’s because I’m usually busy writing novels. I just finished a second, and have begun work on a third.
“I would consider shutting my blog down and turning my website into a more static page announcing my new works. Sometimes I still debate doing it.” I am actually considering not having a traditional website and driving all traffic through my blog, making it basically an author site/blog/store. Easier to manage.
Good post.