Several authors I can think of and one comedy blogger go publishing deals without asking. For the writer, who focus on SF, this turned into the publishing of multiple books. Question: Given that the material is good, what do you think would be the best blog to use? Example: blogspot, wordpress, etc Perhaps it would be best to get your own website and publish your stories there? What do you think. Marketing: How does one get the word out about a blog? Your Opinion: What's your overall opinion about this pathway to publishing?
I have a fairly popular blog going, www.rescuing-providence.blogspot.com that I use as a vehicle to sell my book, Rescuing Providence. What I did was write the best possible book that I could, then relentlessly pursue agents and publishers. It takes time and persaverence, but if it is a good, well written book there is a very good chance it will get published. Then the work begins. Selling books is a lot like pushing water uphill. People whose blogs were published as books, or were discovered through their blogs are akin to lottery winners. It is a tremendous longshot. I prefer to control my destiny as a writer by submitting my work. Keeping a blog going is a lot of work, and a great way to keep your writing chops sharp, and you never know what will come of it. No guts no glory! Start your blog today and see where it takes you, but enjoy the blog and the writing of it for what it is. Looking to the next chapter instead of enjoying the one you are in leads to a lot of frustration. Just my humble opinion, do with it what you will. PS I have had good experiences with www.blogger.com
Be aware that posting your work on a blog site, or any public web site, may harm your ability to sell that work through a paying publisher. Most publishers want to buy first publication rights, but posting your work on a public site essentially uses up those rights.
That's what I've always thought. In fact, I once submitted a short story to a mgazine and it was a must that the story had never been published elsewhere, but as I've said, I know of people who've had blog success. Perhaps a strategy might be to have a web story and another in reserve, or have a web story which is obviously part of a potential series. So you blog story A as a "tease" for story B, and so on. I suppose the writers I mentioned did that and the comedy blogger added new material to his book to make it worth buying.
Wow, good subject to write about! I've been working in mental hospitals, prisons, and the Philadelphia ghettos for 19 years and know the kind of crazy and terrible stuff that EMTs have to experience. The average person just has no clue. Let me get this clear, it appears that your blog acts as a continuation of your book rather than a precursor to it, correct?
I guess you could say the blog is a continuation of the book. It wasn't meant to be that way. When I got the book deal I thought a website would be invaluable in marketing the book. Being a frugal New England yankee, (ie. cheapskate) the blog was a free way to get a website. I just started writing what had happened during a shift. The book covers one seventy-two hour period, the blog is neverending, or at least it feels that way sometimes.
