Okay, so I'm certainly no expert on this subject because I often find myself neglecting my blog - personal blog posts I mean. I quite often post book blasts, cover reveals and take part in other author's blog tours when I really ought to be posting more from me, you know?
So my blogging number one don't is - don't neglect your blog!
Number two, which I feel quite strongly about is - if you're a children's or YA author - don't post anything rude / erotica / swear words, etc because chances are your blog is being read by children as well as adults.
Number three - always try and put a little bit of yourself into every post. If someone new happens across your blog, you want them to stay, right? So show a little personality, give us a hint of who you really are. If you're funny,
be funny; f you're a geek,
be geeky; if you're quirky,
be quirky (I love quirky and often wish I was the quirky girl but alas, it wasn't meant to be). When I worked as Assistant Editor for a local magazine, the editor
made me take out all personality from my articles, to such an extent that they became boring (and were boring as hell to write), so when I was approached by a US Travel Magazine to write an article about the Algarve, I struggled at first. My first effort was so devoid of character that they had to send it back! They asked me to add personality. Can you imagine how embarrassing that was? All because the editor drummed it into me to be (basically) boring. Now I refuse to take my personality out of anything I write.
Number four - don't post exclusively about your books. Yes we get that you want to promote your work (and promote it you should), but c'mon, you're just going to bore us if you
only do that. Be a bit more varied once in a while.
Number five (and this is just a personal irritation of mine) - get ride of those awful Captchas! I HATE them. I want to come over to your blog and I want to leave a comment but when I have to read something that is so stupidly illegible, and then I have to re-type it in five times to finally get it right, I'm gonna get so ticked off that I'm just gonna go without having left a comment. Captchas = Annoyance!!
So there you have it. My five blogging dos and don'ts. I'm sure there are lots more but I don't want to bore you (ha! there's my sixth - don't make your posts too long!).
In the meantime, don't forget that three of my books are FREE at the moment. So go grab a copy while you can!
Raven,
Daisy Madigan's Paradise,
The Ghost of Josiah Grimshaw.
Now go check out my awesome buddies...
1.
Laura A. H. Elliott
