Thursday 22 April 2010

What’s in Store?

marcnobbs.co.uk A blog is, most of the time, a writer’s best marketing tool. But it only works as a tool if the writer can attract a steady stream of readers – be they as subscribers to the RSS feed or as visitors to the site. Listen to any ‘expert’ and they’ll tell you the best way to attract and keep readers is to post regularly.

Now, in recent months I’ve found it increasingly difficult to find the time to write interesting posts for this blog. My entries have not been as regular as they should have perhaps been.

Introducing Six Sentence Sunday and Monday Morning Flash have both helped as they give me regular posts where I don’t really have to think about what to write – I just need to look through my work and find a good extract or pick a good flash story. And yesterday I started another regular feature that should be easier to keep up with than thinking of something to write all the time in the shape of Wednesday Words – what I plan will be my regular longer excerpt posting day.

Last night, I gave the idea of a blog with more structure some thought and came up with two other ideas for regular features. I considered and reject Half Nekkid Thursday on the basis that no-one would ever want to see me nekkid or half-nekkid. I’ve also noticed that many romance writers now seem to be posting pictures of naked or semi-naked men – well, I say men, they’re not *real* men, are they, just steroid fuelled fuck-toys – on their blogs. You can probably find one on every day of the week across various blogs. Now, I’m not proposing naked men, no sir, I’d be posting half-naked women, obviously. But something tells me that would be more hassle than it’s worth. (I’m not going to get my my high horse about this, by why is it women who post pictures of ‘hunks’ are ‘expressing their sexuality’ but men who post pictures of ‘hot women’ are just considered perverts?)

So that’s two ideas rejected.

Instead, I’m going to add Thursday Thoughts to the mix. That’ll be my day to post something interesting, thought provoking, or just a bit of a rant. I’d also like to add the Friday House Guest – a guest blogger’s spot to write about anything that takes their fancy.

Finally, I’ll be opening up Monday Morning Flash and Wednesday’s Words to guest posters. I’ve got enough flash stories already written to keep the slot going for a couple of months, but after that writing one a week will be nigh on impossible. By opening the slot up, I can keep it going for longer. Same goes for Wednesday’s Words. There’s only so many excerpts from the same book you can post before you’ve posted the whole damn thing, near as makes no difference.

I’m not committing to keeping this up forever. I’m not even saying I’ll have the time or guest contributions to do it every week, but I’ll certainly do by best.

The new structure of this blog then is as follows :

  • Sunday – Six Sentence Sunday
  • Monday – Monday Morning Flash
  • Tuesday – no set post
  • Wednesday – Wednesday’s Words
  • Thursday – Thursday’s Thoughts
  • Friday – Friday House Guest
  • Saturday – no set post

Don’t expect a Friday House Guest tomorrow though, cause I haven’t even put the call out yet. In fact, let’s do it now. If you are an author who would like a guest spot on this blog on a Friday, or if you’ve got a flash story (500 words or less, but I’d prefer 300) that you’d like featured on a Monday, or if you have a great excerpt for a Wednesday then drop me a line.

I’m looking forward to this. I hope you are too.

And yes, the photo at the top of the page is completely unrelated to the post. And…?

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