What is the point of writing a Blog?

I am often asked why I bother to Blog, I want to be considered as a serious author one day so why waste my time on something so frivolous when I could be concentrating on the next novel? It's a fair point and some days I do ask myself why I continue to do this and other blogging.

I look at other blogs and it is obvious that they are effective income streams, some people myself included like the idea of instant gratification, which as a writer is hard to get when writing a novel, the process from beginning to end can be very long and can be hard to know if after all of that work does anybody actually like it. Some like to use blogs to start an argument whether intentionally or nor they take pleasure in taking the other side in a situation and just set the world alight.

All of these are justifiable reasons to blog, but there is an important point missing from all of them, the main reason I or anyone else like me blogs I would imagine is passion. We like to write about things that interest us, we feel stimulated by engaging in discussions on subject matter that we feel is important. I write this blog about self-publishing and writing because I enjoy writing and I self-publish, but I have also experienced some of the pitfalls of both activities and I know how useful it can be to read accounts that other people have had or gain ideas from the experiences of others, so I share y thoughts on a subject I enjoy. This is not the only blog I write, because this is not the only subject that interests me and I like to get feedback on other people thoughts an ideas of similar subject matter.

 

What do I gain from Blogging?

• Writing practice and experience allowing me to better harness my craft, the more we write the better we get at it.
• More people know about my books is a great advantage, however that is no guarantee that they will buy them.
• I get to engage in conversations and debates over my subject matter.
• Instant gratification, when I see my page view increase, people sharing my blog and comments on social media.
• Sense of achievement, writing a weekly blog takes discipline, the same way that writing a novel does, so knowing that you have sat down and typed out your subject matter in time for the release date week after week is a nice accomplishment.

So there it is, this is why I blog, although if you think I should stop feel free to comment or you could just not read it. If you have some other thoughts about blogging then please comment below as usual.



Written by Martin Wallace