Hi y’all! I’m one of those writers who suddenly realized they were one without doing much prep work beforehand. As a result, I don’t have any platforms to post or publish my works, get my name out there, and potentially gain a following for future “bigger things”. I’m not a social media person by any stretch, haven’t ever had an account on Facebook, X, Instagram,…etc. (I’m a Gen Z old schooler, see below.) but I understand that will be crippling as my craft grows, and I’m willing to change. *moves into fetal position as she speaks*
I would like to start small however, and less overwhelming than social media, and try a writer’s blog this year. I’ve read hundreds of them, but there’s more to it all than just copycatting everybody else’s, I know. I want to make this first attempt count, and not crash and burn within the first month of trying, so I’m reaching out to all you pro bloggers with all the questions a newbie could ask!
How did you start yours? What tools/programs/sites did you decide on and why? How often do you post, what do you offer your subscribers, how do you get traffic? I’m serious, just dump your advice here, I’m all ears!
A few questions for you (I don’t need the answers, just for you to reflect on!):
- Are you published or not? If so, I’d get a website with book pages up ASAP, and not worry too much about blogging at this point. But you really need a website so people have a way to contact you, and so you have somewhere to send people who are interested in your work. (For a long time, I just told people my book title and last name and that they could search for it on Amazon… lol.)
- Who is your target audience? Do they congregate on social media, or not? My only social media is Facebook, which I rarely use–and that’s fine, because my readers don’t use social media either. My email newsletter is a much better way to reach them.
- Do you have an email newsletter? I recommend starting one (I use the free version of MailerLite) before a website. Getting a good website can be pricey, and starting an email newsletter will teach you some of the same skills and let you gauge reader interest without the huge investment of time and money that a website takes. You can use your newsletter for mini blog posts if you want (I started with book reviews), and that will let you see if people are enjoying your content before you actually start a website.
- Do you write fiction or nonfiction? Blogging for fiction is… really hard. XD I’ve been at it for about six months now, and it’s a constant struggle to come up with subjects. For awhile, I did mostly book reviews with some literary analysis, which my audience seemed to enjoy. I also did a few articles on writing itself, but found most of my readers aren’t interested in reading about writing (I did have a handful enjoy that). So if you write fiction, I would recommend submitting short stories or flash fiction to existing blogs or online publications and trying to use that to build your email list. Or, if you do want to start a website now, then I’d try blogging short stories.
As far as the actual website side of things goes, I followed the (free!) course at this link: https://training.authormedia.com/p/amazing-author-websites. It took me about 2 days to set up (with no web design experience), and about $300 (hosting for a few years plus the Divi design software–absolutely worth the extra cost for that, unless you want to learn coding!).
Basically, with setting up a website, you have to choose between easy and cheap. I went with the more expensive option because it saved me so much time and effort (and using a higher quality hosting service makes for fewer technical difficulties, which is always nice!). It sounds like you don’t have any experience with web design, so if you don’t have $300 you’re willing to spend on a website right now, then I would recommend holding off on that. Instead, try an email newsletter and see how that goes. (Your newsletter can literally just be the same things you’d be blogging.) If you and your readers enjoy it, then it’d be worth creating a website and blog. (Or, like I said above, if you’re published, then you do need a website now–but it sounds like you aren’t?)
If you’re interested in looking at my website to see what I came up with (by no means the best–I’m still in that learning process!), it’s authorgracemacpherson.com. (Feel free to reach out through the contact form if you want to talk directly!)
Oh, how wonderful! Congratulations on being published! And best wishes on starting your website! Feel free to let me know if you have any more questions. 🙂
Thank you so so much Grace! This really helped sort out all my questions. I am a published author, (my short story “Goodbye to Yesterday” just debuted in The Company Anthology “Fantastical Summer”), so I see now a website with a book page would be very helpful at this point. (:
I’m going to try and make this happen within the next month or so, hopefully with everything you’ve given me here I shouldn’t have any trouble.