LADIES' KILLING THURSDAYS

The wonderful world of blogs

What blogs have you bookmarked and why?

For me it’s an interesting question. I’ve checked out Linda’s suggestions that run alongside this blog and found some I like and some I don’t and one I can’t read because it’s white print on a yellow back ground.

I suppose I have to ask why I read blogs? The primary reason is that I want to know more about writing and particularly e publishing. I was thinking that it would be lovely if a detail oriented person, not me as that isn’t one of my skills, organized blogs in categories with a brief blurb describing the blog’s raison d’etre and space for readers to comment? But given the number this would be a huge undertaking and the info would constantly change so I don’t think it’s going to happen.

Blogs fall into many categories. Some are for making contacts, getting your name and the cover of your latest book out there where readers will find you. Facebook and Twitter also provide platforms (the new buzzword) to do this. But you have to develop a routine for posting and tweeting frequently as they require regular input and monitoring to achieve your goal - to reach readers and motivate them to buy your book.

At a Left Coast Crime panel on the future of publishing I picked up new names to try and discovered Murder Must Advertise. It describes its purpose as “an email discussion list for every author who wonders about the best way to promote a new mystery.” I signed up. And now a day or so later I’m wondering if this was a good idea as a flood of emails is filling my mailbox. I’ll read some and see what I think.

And then I found another site,”The Writer’s Guide to E Publishing and signed up for that.

Once you find sites that are helpful it’s your job to winnow out the useful information and figure out what to do with it.

Dorothy L members often refer to interesting blogs. Today I found, Buried Under Books. The site is www.cncbooks.com/blog and there is a sidebar with many more useful blog sites as well as a list of authors who blog on the site including some very well known mystery writers. A daily quick zip through DL will yield more interesting sites.

The question is - what blogs have you found and how useful are they?




Joan Boswell is a member of the Ladies Killing Circle and co-edited four of their short story anthologies: Fit toDie, Bone Dance, Boomers Go Bad and Going Out With a Bang. Her three mysteries, Cut Off His Tale, Cut to the Quick and Cut and Run were published in 2005, 2007 and 2007. In 2000 she won the $10,000 Toronto Star’s short story contest. Joan lives in Toronto with three flat-coated retrievers.