Apparently the average adult in Britain spends 52 minutes a day on the web (hate to count up my time...must be nearly 5 times that...and it's not all solitaire and bubble shooter) so they have decided they only want authors who have blogs.
"...authors with good blogs sell more books, it’s as simple as that."I can see the argument from a small independent's point of view. With a limited budget for promotion, it's not unreasonable to expect that the author do more than hand over the manuscript but I wonder if larger, mainstream companies are taking that view with new authors. Have you got to have an online presence BEFORE you send the first three chapters and tentative cover letter...?
Read the MX article for yourself by clicking on the title of this post.
4 comments:
Hi Bridget,
I guess a blog is a good idea. The immediate reaction of anyone, let alone a publisher, is to Google their name to find out more. Trouble with my name is the first person who comes up is a disgraced House of Commons speaker, then a misspelled Irish politician. Oh well. By the way, Saturday 5th Feb, is national save our libraries day
http://www.cilip.org.uk/get-involved/advocacy/public-libraries/pages/savelibrariesday.aspx
Sorry I didn't mean for my last message to be cryptic about my name
Michael Martin
Hi Michael
You're right about Google becoming an automatic response but I'm luckier that you. Bridget Whelan is such an old fashioned name it's either me or someone's ancestor who died in 1860s...
I started my first blog after having signed the contract for my first publishing deal, and have found that blogging keeps me on track. As I blog about writing, it gives me the pressure to write. No writing, no blogging. If it helps selling books it's a bonus. Don't know how much it helps BEFORE you got a book deal, but if you build up a readership of say just ten people at least you'll have 10 people buying your book when it comes out.
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