web stuff 4 writers

I’ve just received a comment from Lee Henshaw, whose novel, Queer Fish in God’s waiting room, is being published in February 2008 by Legend Press.

Lee’s been given three potential versions of his novel cover, and is asking his blog readers for advice on which one he should go with.

I did a similar thing, before Lessons to Learn was published, asking the readers of my blog over at LiveJournal which photo out of a series that my husband had taken one Sunday morning, should be used on the cover of Lessons to Learn.  I sent the four favourites from that vote on to the publisher, and ultimately, the one that was the most popular with my blog readers was the one that was chosen.

 Why ask your blog readers for advice?

Personally, I suck at making decisions, and once I’d asked my husband, parents, friends and everyone at work for their input, then blog readers became the next logical step. 

As a reader of blogs, I like to be asked.  It makes me feel like I’ve played some small  part in the publication process.

What do you do if you don’t agree with your blog readers’ suggestions?

Luckily, in my case, my readers’ preferences largely coincided with my own.  If they hadn’t, well, then the decision ultimately had to be made by me and perhaps more importantly, by my publisher.

Even if your blog readers have read your entries all through the drafting stages, even if they feel they’ve been asked then ignored, it’s likely that you’re the one who knows your book best and you’re the one whose names on the cover that has been decided upon.

Your thoughts

Would you/have you asked your blog readers for advice on any elements of the writing, publishing and/or marketing of your book?  What sort of reaction have you got?

PS: If you want to take a look at Lee Henshaw’s cover options, and give him your thoughts on those, you can do so at his website Next to Hemingway.

Tags: Blogging, Publishing by Natasha
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Well, it’s November 1, which means National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) have begun.

If you’ve somehow missed all the recent hype, here’s a summary of the two challenges.

NaNoWriMo

In NaNoWriMo, participants attempt to write a 50,000 word novel during November. The focus is on quantity over quality (there’s always National Novel Editing Month next year), and the frantic writers can seek support and inspiration from local groups, or the official NaNoWriMo forums and podcast. If you’re taking up the challenge, you might want to check out my earlier post, Five must-have resources for NaNoWriMo.

NaBloPoMo

Participants in NaBloPoMo are attempting to write a blog post every day in November. Again, if you need support, there are forums and groups that you can join. Those who manage the entry-a-day, are entered in the draw for a range of prizes.

Your thoughts

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo or NaBloPoMo this year? If so, are you working to a particular theme or idea, or are you going to make it up as you go along?

Tags: Blogging, Finding inspiration by Natasha
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So sad to read in the Guardian that Dina Rabinovitch died this morning.

I discovered Dina’s blog earlier this year and was touched by the honest way she talked about her experiences with cancer.  Those who read her Guardian columns and her book, Take Off Your Party Dress, were similarly impressed.  I was inspired too, by the way she used her blog and her JustGiving page to raise almost £70,000 so far for cancer research.  In a blog entry, Dina writes about how she’s raised this money from writing.

My thoughts tonight are with Dina’s family, and all who knew her.

Tags: Blogging, Finding inspiration by Natasha
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Blog Action Day

Tomorrow, Monday 15 October, is Blog Action Day. As of the last time I refreshed the Blog Action Day homepage, almost 14,000 bloggers have committed to making a blog post about this year’s theme: the environment. That’s a lot of people blogging, and even more people reading, about a very important issue.

How to participate

Bloggers are being encouraged to come up with a way to incorporate the environmental theme into their usual entries. The website gives an example of how someone with a blog about computer technology could write an entry about how technology could save the environment… or about how to stop wasting paper. Check out the Get Involved page for more information about the project and how to add your blog to the list of participants.

I’ve only recently found out about Blog Action Day and I’m not sure that my post ideas are going to come together in time tomorrow’s deadline. However, I’ve got ‘the environment, writers and the web’ down in my notebook as an idea for a future entry.

Meanwhile, I’m spreading the message, and I’d encourage other bloggers to do the same. There’s a set of badges you can use for your blog on the Blog Action Day website here.

Your thoughts

Can blogging be a tool for promoting social change? Should it be?

Tags: Blogging by Natasha
2 Comments »

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been updating and viewing web stuff 4 writers with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7. It’s the default browser on my laptop so it contains all the bookmarks I use regularly. It’s got the del.icio.us plug-in installed. I thought everything was going okay.

Originally, the layout of this blog was based on a template by Anthony Baggett. I checked it on Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari when I first installed it. But since then, I’d been tinkering around with the code for the side-bars, adding the BlogRush widget, a search box, the sponsor ads and the icon for the Blogs by Women network. In Internet Explorer, everything still looked fine.

Web stuff 4 writers in Internet Explorer 7

Then, yesterday, I opened up the site in Firefox. Suddenly the blog which I had thought was relatively clean and easy to read, looked an absolute disaster. The BlogRush widget and WordPress icons had moved into a new third column. There were random bullet points against the right-hand margin. The second column had moved half-way down the page.

Web stuff 4 writers in Firefox 2.0.0.7

It was easy enough to fix this. A few tweaks to the code, and the layout of web stuff 4 writers now looks as it should in both Internet Explorer and Firefox.

The point is that not all browsers display your content in the same way.

Since the majority of web users still use Internet Explorer, it could be argued that you should focus your efforts on making your website display correctly in that browser. However, it could be that the majority of your website visitors are using Safari or Firefox. They might be browsing on a Mac or a mobile phone. Even viewing the same site in different versions of browsers, such as Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7, may result in different versions of your site. I believe that these are things to take into account when designing/choosing a template for your website or blog.

What does my site look like in different browsers?

Obviously it’s impractical to have every version of every different browser installed on your computer. I’ve only got Internet Explorer and Firefox on this one. My husband has got Safari installed on his Mac, so I can check my site designs on that as well.

To see how a site looks on other browsers, I use Browsershots.org. This is an online service which allows you to type in your web address, select which browsers you want to see your site on, and then sit back and wait for screenshots to be produced.

How do I find out what browser my visitors are using?

If you’re using any sort of web statistics package, such as Google Analytics or WebTrends, then you should be able to get these figures easily enough. For example, over the last week, 54.55% of my visits came from people using Internet Explorer, 41.82 from people using FireFox; 1.82% each from people using Safari and Opera.

Alternatively, you could set up a poll on your blog or just ask your readers to leave a comment on a post. I’m going to do that here.

Your thoughts

Which browser do you use to view web stuff 4 writers (and other websites)? Do you have reasons for using one browser over another?

Tags: Blogging, Creating websites by Natasha
3 Comments »

So you’ve decided to start a blog.  You’ve decided what the focus of the content is going to be and who the audience is.  Now, you’ve just got to turn your ideas into web pages, and to do that, you’re going to have to first work out where on the web your blog is going to live.

There are a number of options open to you.

Choose a free blogging service

From LiveJournal to Vox, Blogger to Wordpress, there are a number of sites which will host your blog for free.  All of them will provide the basics you need to blog, such as a text editor, a website address and a way for people to leave comments.  Many of them provide you with templates to customise the design of your blog.  Some allow voice posts, others allow polls. 

TopTen reviews has published a 2007 Blog Services report which compares the features of a number of free blogging services, as well as providing a review of each.

Blog on a social network

If you’ve already set up a MySpace page, and already have friends and contacts there, you might want to take advantage of their blogging service.  When you’re logged into your profile, you can just click on ‘manage blog’ then ‘post new blog’.

As an example, check out the MySpace blog of independent publisher, Legend Press.

Blog on a niche site

If you want to create a blog on a particular topic - whether it’s parenting or books or parrots - you might want to check out the sites that you currently visit on that topic.  Do they have blogs there already?  Do they have an option for you to set up your own?

If they don’t, but you have an idea for a blog that you think can be sustained long-term, you might want to contact the site’s owner and express your interest. By blogging on an established site, you may get a lot more traffic to your posts than you would by going it alone.

For example, if you’re in the UK and want to start a blog about your volunteering experiences, you might want to check out this opportunity from do-it.org.uk.  They’ve already got a number of volunteering bloggers and are looking for more.

Host your own blog

If you want to have your own domain name for your blog and have complete control over its design and code, you may want to host it with an independent company. 

Both my personal blog and web stuff 4 writers are hosted on one account with BlueHost.  Both the blogs use the WordPress software, but instead of following the complex self-installation instructions, I’ve been able to fill in a few boxes on the BlueHost control panel and have had the two blogs automatically created.

My other UK experience with hosting is with 1&1 Internet.  They offer free blog set-up with some of their hosting packages as well, but I was only able to chose from a limited set of design templates and wasn’t able to upload any extra plug-ins (pieces of code which allow additional functionality).

Your thoughts

If you already have a blog, what has your experience been like with your blogging service?  Would you recommend them?  If you were to start from scratch again, would you choose to move your blog somewhere else?

Tags: Blogging, Hosting by Natasha
5 Comments »

It’s not difficult to start a blog.  Millions of people already have one.  There are websites and hosting companies out there that will do all the tricky, technical stuff for you.  There are other websites, like Blogging Basics 101, which give a comprehensive overview of the topic.

What I wanted to talk about today is the pre-blog issue which is perhaps more significant for a lot of writers: planning your blog’s content.

What are you going to blog about?

When deciding what your blog’s going to be about, it may be worth revisiting your reasons for blogging in the first place. 

If you’re looking for somewhere to express yourself or an alternative to a paper journal, your blog may become simply a record of your day-to-day life, recording your highs and lows, holidays and what you’re making for dinner.

However, you may want to narrow your focus to one particular area of your life, such as your writing and the books you’re reading.  If you’ve decided to self-publish a novel, you may want to post chapters as you write them.  This type of blog has advantages in that your readers will know what to expect from your entries.  It’s also a way to limit how much information about yourself you put online.  However, when you limit your range of topics, it can become more difficult to come up with new ideas for entries.

Who’s going to read it?

If you’re planning a public blog, then the potential readership is endless.  It includes fans of your writing, new readers, other writers and offline friends.  However, it also includes groups of people such as your parents, ex-partners, blishers and literary agents.  In other words, there’s a possibility that anyone can read it.

With this in mind, you might want to consider what sort of content you’re going to include in your blog entries.  My rule of thumb has always been to keep it to the things I’m happy for my parents to read.  Some things are appropriate for publication online.  Some things may be more appropriate for that paper journal you keep in your sock drawer. 

Similarly, you might not want to talk about the negatives of writing (such as writer’s block or rejection letters) in your blog if you’re currently in the market for an agent or publisher.

Making changes

While I think it does help to have a plan before you begin, the great thing about blogs is that they can evolve over time. A public blog can acquire a password if necessary.  Posts can be edited, or deleted. A limited-focus blog can become more general.  Make a start, and see what happens.

Your thoughts

If you have a blog at the moment, is the focus similar to what you thought it’d be when you started?  What are your favourite topics to write about?  What topics do you find it difficult to write about (or avoid writing about altogether)?

Tags: Blogging by Natasha
2 Comments »

There are some great writing-related resources and reads on the internet.  The difficult thing is finding them! 

Here’s a couple that I’ve come across while surfing the web this week. 

• On the BBC website, they’re reporting on the demise of the hyphen.  In the latest Shorter Oxford Dictionary, hyphens have been removed from words such as pigeon-hole and ice-cream.  The story suggests that blame should be assigned to the slap-dash (thought perhaps without the dash) nature of electronic communication.
• Linda of MidLifeWriter.com has Five Ways to Break Through Your Writer’s Block and Get Your Book Started Now!  Her fifth point about starting a book as a blog hit home to me.  A lot of people (and I’m usually one of them) find it easier to write 500 word blog posts, rather than opening up MS Word and writing 500 words of fiction.  Of course, if you’re writing a book that you then intend to submit for publication, it’s probably worth making all your posts password protected.

Tags: Blogging, Web links by Natasha
1 Comment »

In last Thursday’s entry I mentioned that one of the most frustrating aspects of keeping a writing blog is coming up with regular topics to write about. In the past, I’ve used topics from the fantastic ‘Booking Through Thursday’ blog, but the focus of their questions is usually on the stories that you’re reading rather than the ones you’re writing. 

As a way to remedy this, I’m proposing to post weekly ‘writing about writing’ topics which you can use, if you so desire, as the starting point for your own blog entries. 

So here goes…

Writing about writing: Week #1

Do you think keeping a journal or blog is a useful practice for writers?  Why or why not?

If you’ve answered this question in your blog, please leave a link to the relevant entry in the comments box below.  Alternatively you can write/paste your answer directly in the comments box.

Tags: Blogging, Writing about writing by Natasha
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What is BlogRush?

This is BlogRush.  You can currently find another, more clickable, version of it on my sidebar.  It’s a widget.  In the web world, a ‘widget’ is something that sits on your sidebar (or on other parts of your website) and does something.  There are widgets that create calendars and countdowns, widgets that keep track of who leaves the most comments on your blog, widgets that display random videos or Bible verses, and so on.

BlogRush is a widget that has been designed to increase your blog traffic.  The title-links that you see on my BlogRush widget here have been taken from the RSS feeds* of other blogs which are on similar topics to this one. 

* The BBC website has a simple explanation of RSS feeds.

From reading the FAQs on the BlogRush website, it seems that BlogRushers earn credits based on the traffic their own website gets.  The more credits you earn, the more frequently the titles of your blog posts appear as links on the BlogRush widget of others.  Extra credits can be earned by referring other bloggers to the service, as their site traffic is also counted on your account.

Advantages for writers

I only installed this widget yesterday, so I’m still experimenting with its features and potential.  However, I was pleased to find when I signed up that there was a ‘Writing & Literature’ category that I could choose for my blog.  This means:

1. My blog titles will appear on other blogs which have also been BlogRush-categorised as being about writing and literature.  Arguably visitors to those blogs will be more interested in reading another blog on a similar topic.
2. I’ve already whiled away a couple of hours by clicking on the links on my own BlogRush widget.  It seems that it’ll be a great way to find interesting writing and book related commentary and resources on the web, and to ‘meet’ other writers.

Interested?

You can sign up for BlogRush here.  Once you’re registered you will be given a piece of code which you need to cut and paste into to the appropriate place on your blog.  If you’ve got any questions about how to do this, let me know, and I’ll see what I can do to help.

Already have BlogRush installed?

What are your initial thoughts?  Have you seen an increase in visits to your website?  Can you see any other benefits for writers?

Tags: Blogging, What is? by Natasha
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