Blogging again! How can we promote more imaginatively? Do we exclude new bloggers from the blogosphere?

Hi everyone!

When I posted about blogging here recently, I've never had so many LONG comments in all my time blogging. There are many concerns in the blogosphere, as bloggers adjust to more competitive social media, all of which seem to have morphed into selling machines. Twitter, Facebook etc, and blogging are cluttered with cover reveals, blog tours, book launches. While bloggers who have/have not published books understand the need for promo, it would be sensible to tone it down somewhat. Bloggers are weary of it--not just me.

Does the one-size-fits-all approach of social media promo blind authors to other ways of selling their books? Not so long ago I posted about how my Amazon Gift Card was so fat and unwieldy, I was in the market to buy books. I asked that authors recommend their book to me--ah, no one did. Strange...missed opportunities...

But I can't let all those comments go to waste. Please go to the post if you didn't visit it, but there were many comments on topics such as promo, about what we should blog about, and sadly, new bloggers who feel they can't break in to a tightly-established community, even though they tried the A-Z.

Alex J Cavanaugh: Talking about life is always interesting. Constantly talking about one's books is not...I do intend to adjust what I post about. You're right, too many cover reveals and such. I'll still do Ninja News, letting people know about new releases, but I'd like to shift back to more movies, music, games, and science fiction stuff. And trivia! It's been so long since I did any trivia.

Hilary Melton-Bucher wrote one of the longest comments. One said: I do get bored with repetitive posts as I move from one blogger to another … blog tours I guess are a necessary evil though .. but I wish people could be creative and just not regurgitate information … 

Southpaw: Blog Tours are weird too. So many of them repeat the same thing over and over. - Ha, so I decided to have one myself. I'm trying really hard to change up the tour idea so that I don't bore people

M Pax: I don't think the blasts are a waste. The author is trying to be seen and each blog gets readers the author couldn't otherwise reach.

Stephanie Faris:  I do wish more people would focus on content rather than book reviews and book blurbs. We all have to support each other, but every post doesn't have to be a book review. 

klahanie: Call me cynical, but a number of bloggers make out they are part of a sharing, caring community when all they really want is to accumulate superficial blog follower totals. I find that very sad.

Anne Gallagher: I skip posts of cover reveals and reviews. I skip posts that are too personal (some people overshare). I skip posts that don't appeal to me. As I'm sure that's why people skip my posts as well. (I know Anne is happy for her books to slowly sell themselves. I read that on her blog awhile ago).

Medeia Sharif: I'm having a harder time reciprocating comments, but by the end of the week I'm caught up. When I visit blogs I prefer short posts. If a post is long, it needs to be very interesting to hold my attention. I've stopped visiting some blogs because of excessive wordiness. 

Michael de Gesu: Ebook publishing has changed our world DRAMATICALLY... Now authors are publishing two-twenty books a year. It's overwhelming. Who can possibly keep up...Plus I don't really see the need for COVER REVEALS...Yes, I know they are the Craze, and God only knows how many I have featured, BUT I put some creativity into the event and if Bloggers only chose THREE MAX bloggers to feature their cover that would be MORE than enough to get the word out. Being selective would give so much more meaning to this event.

AND to do them months before the release day, to me, is crazy. Why? If you want to do a reveal do it a week before, or even a few days, Get the community excited about it, then when your book launches we will be there celebrating with you.

Nilanjana Bose: ...I did participate in the A-Z this year, and I loved the work involved and grew as a poet and blogger, but as far as community building goes I don't think much happened. Blogging communities are pretty much established by now and tend to be tightly knit, and newcomers can feel out of place.

So there you have a selection of comments. Do you agree/disagree with some points of view? How can we make blogging more interesting again? I still LOVE blogging BTW. These posts are simply about where do we go from here?

I know some author blogs are set up just to sell their books, so all posts are about their books. This is interesting, maybe, if you're really into their books, but many aren't really hosted by the author, they're hosted by a paid tech-savvy blogger. Try getting a comment returned from one of them!!

We'll never satisfy everyone--I LOVE long posts which have something to say, helping me learn more about writing, but many skip long posts due to time constraints. I find so much of interest at Anne R Allen's blog and Karen Woodward's blog--check out my blogroll in my sidebar if you haven't visited them. I keep my blogroll up to date with those bloggers who interest me. If you're not on the list, don't worry. I probably visit you all the time anyway.

I always reciprocate comments. While I'm on someone's blog, I hit a random commenter I've not met before and pay them a visit. Sometimes I find a delightful blog, other times it's all about science fiction, lol! More I keep on a blogroll at Write...Edit...Publish.

Write flash fiction, short stories or novellas? Even Amazon is actively seeking your stories...

Hello visitors and friends!

I don’t know why at times there seems to be a stigma around writing short stories rather than novels. Unless you’re a best-selling author, there’s just as much money, or actually more, that can be made from penning short stories if you study the paying market. That’s where I started when I got serious about making some money from writing a few years ago. I absolutely love writing fast fiction and short stories and have my eye on a novella or two, constructed from my flash fiction ideas.

Fast Fiction magazine in Australia publishes four times a year and is chock full of shorts of various lengths and various genres. Accepts internationally. It's my favourite market and pays really well. Here is a link to the first story they accepted to give you an idea of how open they are. 

The news is good for shorter fiction in these days of digital publishing. From being sneered at, unloved and unbought, short stories, serials and novellas are having quite the resurgence. Consider how many buyers are using their phones and tablets to read. I for one don't want to read 100,000 words via my phone.

WHAT THE EXPERTS ARE SAYING

The New York Times says, "Stories are perfect for the digital age...because readers want to connect and want that connection to be intense and to move on."  

Book marketing guru Penny Sansevieri said in the HuffPo: "…short is the new long…consumers want quick bites of information and things like Kindle Singles."

Short stories can also be a marketing tool for longer works.  Digital Book World's Rob Eagar said, "Selling your book means writing effective newsletters, blog posts, short stories, free resources, social media posts, word-of-mouth tools, magazine articles, etc."

WORD LENGTH FOR SHORT STORIES/NOVELLAS

There’s a dilemma about what actually constitutes a short story—word counts vary from publisher to publisher. Some call short stories anything up to 30K, with novellas coming in at anything between 30K-50K. Harlequin romance writers know that there is a romance novel requirement of 50K words.

Read the guidelines of the various publishers before writing to a market. Entangled Publishing just won a prestigious award for being one of the best digital publishers, and they are always looking for shorts, novellas and novels. Check them out their submission process here.

AMAZON WANTS YOUR STORIES

Many short story competitions require anything up to 10,000K or less. And some publishing houses consider 15K a novella. Short story anthologies are great for your resume if you can get accepted in a prestigious one. Don’t forget online zines. I found this link on Anne R Allen’s blog to a great list of genre story markets put together by Romance author Cathleen Ross.

So, whatever your preferred length, there’s someone out there who wants your stories. Even Amazon. Amazon actively seeks short fiction for their Kindle Singles program (published authors only need apply) and their new literary magazine Day One magazine actually accepts debut authors. Take note: when the Kindle Singles program launched in 2011, they sold 2 million "singles" ebooks in the first year! More details below...

Another positive: keeping your name out there is easier with shorts. Most writers can’t pen more than two or three books a year, (and what an achievement that would be), but they can turn out a lot of short stories and novellas.

WRITING OPPORTUNITIES – Paying it forward from Anne R Allen…go to her blog for more...

Amazon’s literary journal Day One is seeking submissions. According to Carmen Johnson, Day One’s editor, the litzine is looking for “fresh and compelling short fiction and poetry by emerging writers.” This includes stories that are less than 20,000 words by authors that have never been published, and poems by poets who have never published before. To submit works, writers/poets can email their work as a word document, along with a brief description and author bio to dayone-submissions @amazon.com.

So, dear writers, let me know if you find success in the short story/novella market. So many opportunities, so little time!

Don't forget--you can practise your short stories, flash fiction, poetry etc during the WEP challenge each month. Current prompt - FAILURE...OR IS IT? You can sign up right here in my sidebar. Love to have you - you can request critique, suggestions...we may even help you get published!!