Happy anniversary, squeetus
Last Tuesday marked my sixth anniversary as a blogger. It was Dean's idea. I had no real understanding about what a "web log" was meant to be. An online journal about writing, I decided, and made about one post a month. After all, my first book, the goose girl, hadn't even come out yet.
I still struggle with balancing a public journal with my own privacy. It's only been a year since I decided to no longer post pictures of my children to maintain their privacy. But I'm not so good at discretion when it comes to my own self (I'm great with other people's secrets--ooh, do I know a few!). How much do I reveal about myself? What do I hold back?
I guess it was about two years into it I began to understand what the blog meant to me and why I did it.
- I blog to be helpful to other writers. While I was starting out, it was so helpful to read other writer websites and get a glimpse into the life of a writer and the publishing process.
- I blog to be accessible to my readers. I feel huge amounts of regret and guilt that I can't respond to my fan mail or do many events or travel as much as I'd like (though the reasons I can't are so cute--Hi Max! Hi Maggie!). My hope was by having an active blog with commenting I could maintain a relationship with fans all over while staying home.
- I blog to promote ongoing literacy. I love to recommend books I'm passionate about, so that readers who like my books don't stop here but keep reading, or parents and teachers can get good suggestions for all kinds of readers.
- I blog to add a positive voice. That may sound kind of hokey, but there's so much mucky-muck out there. I wanted my blog to be a safe place where young people especially could talk about books and reading and other good things and not be torn down. The fan site Little Red Reading Hood now is accomplishing this goal better than my blog.
- I blog to promote my books. I put this last because it's not my primary concern (much to my publicist's chagrin). I'm not very salesperson-y, I'm not comfortable trying to sell my wares. Torture for me was the early days of my career where I'd go do a "signing" which was me sitting at a table near the front of a bookstore, where I was expected to address shoppers as they came in. *shudder* But I wouldn't have a blog or a website if I wasn't an author, and I've worked very hard on each book and feel very proud of them. It does make me happy for my book babies to be out in the world being read. And a blog is one way to introduce people to my books who might not have read them. Though I suspect most blog readers are here because they've already read them or at least one.
Blogs can take over your time, and provide for a writer a great excuse not to write today. So I made some rules for myself, including posting at the most twice per week (usually four days apart) and not responding to every comment. I read all the comments, but I've noticed that I can spend hours responding and re-responding, which I really enjoy, but I have to be strict with myself so I don't give away my writing time.
Adding commenting was a mixed blessing. While it allowed me to hear back from readers and allowed readers to chime in, it also requires some babysitting. It took me years to be comfortable deleting inappropriate comments. At first I just left them there, then Dean stepped in and did it for a while, but at last I'm over that. It's not censorship, I've realized. It's about maintaining a safe environment for everyone.
Here's my first blog post. Only six years ago? Seems like ten times that, and yet in some ways it seems like yesterday. I have so much more confidence than I did then, and yet I still feel like an awkward newbie and this wonderful shiny gift of book publishing could be taking away any moment.
I delivered the manuscript for a new book to my agent today. It feels so good to have a finished product! Of course, when is anything really finished? I should say that I delivered the fifth draft of a new book, and most likely will go through many more drafts before the end. I'm very excited about it. The book follows Enna, a minor character in the goose girl. (Ooh, she would hate to have me ever refer to her as "minor." I mean a "supporting character.")
This new book takes place in Bayern about four years after the end of the first book. The working title is ENNA BURNING. My family (who is not allowed to read it yet, of course) keeps pestering me to tell them what the title means, but I'll never squeal...