How many of you have websites and blogs of your own? I’ve a list of writing sites and blogs that I visit, sometimes daily. I know that the blog-check addiction afflicts many of us. We follow our favorite authors, hoping to see that little tidbit about their personal lives, or be the first to find out about their new, ultra-secret project.
Do you have a website yet, even if you aren’t published? It seems a common trend to use a website and blog as the way to initially wave hello to your future adoring public and let the world know you exist as a fledgling writer.
According to this survey, listed by Publishers Weekly and done by a New York advertising firm, “18% of readers have been to a publisher’s Web site, while 23% of readers polled have visited an author’s site. The survey, based on a sample of 813 readers, did not ask if readers bought a book from either site. Not surprisingly, the younger the reader, the more likely that person visited the Web. The survey found that 35% of readers under age 35 had visited an author’s Web site and 21% of respondents in that age bracket had been to a publisher’s site.”
What other nuggets can we glean from this? Well, I’d say the usefulness of an online presence is only going to grow along with two other factors: an increasingly web-connected generation, and the eventual common use of electronic books. Yes, we can argue about when that last bit will come about, but my guess is there will be a “book iPod” in the next five years or so. In light of this, ask yourself how seriously do you take using your website and blog to promote your writing? Is it just a throwaway effort because everyone else is doing it? Or does it reflect your unique writing style, offer people reasons to come back, promotes fan interaction, and so on?
I’m wanting to study some of these questions a little more in-depth, probably this upcoming week. Right now, it’s a lazy Sunday. And The Dresden Files comes on tonight, 9/8pmC! If you aren’t going to watch it yourself, check back for a review of the pilot episode tomorrow.
I see that smile.