This is a repost from my blog. I didn't get any comments on the subject there, and am hoping after you read this you can give me some pointers and insight.

***********************************************

Talk about reinventing the wheel. I feel like such a frigging genius. After putting off a writing career for over twenty years, I figured "hey, why don't I do a web series that I can post on my blog to introduce myself to readers?" Yeah, I know, bear with me.

While I'm not an out-and-out geek, I qualify as a nerd with techie leanings. With a little instruction, I pick up most things rather quickly. So off I go to one of my favorite resources Ask.com and key in the words "blog" and "fiction" (Dustin get up from the floor, it wasn't that funny).

OMG, are you kidding, "Blog Fiction" authored by DustinM (unsolicited plug, I swear). Wtf, you mean blog fiction already exists. Oh wait, blog fiction already exists. Yay! Others have screwed up well before me, and I can hopefully learn from their mistakes. Kewl.

A few clicks and I was on the site inhaling a few of the great articles and beginning to plan my online debut when a disturbing train of thought occurred. Posting weekly installments to a blog is it really a good idea for a serious writer? Will readers catch on and give my work a good buzz? Blog fiction is it simply shameless self promotion? Damn! Struck by a bout of consciousness, and not being one to run from a problem (even if it is self inflicted) I stop what I'm doing to really be alone inside my head. This is going to get ugly.

For several hours, I go back and forth with myself, I even call my sister in order to break a deadlock (don't ask). Finally, I decided the answers are yes, yes, and hell yes. See my reasoning kind of goes this way:

Posting weekly installments to a blog is it a good idea? - Several of my favorite authors Sherrilyn Kenyon, Laurell K Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, Mary Janice Davidson, and Walter Mosley already post lengthy excerpts of coming works on their sites. Leslie Banks author of "The Vampire Huntress Legends" posts a series entitled "Between the Books", where fans can catch up on the lives of key characters while waiting for the next book to drop. As a fan of these wonderful writers I've already been initiated into blog fiction of a fashion without realizing it. Now is the time to put my own stamp on this new genre.

Will readers catch on and give my work a good buzz? - This one really worried me right to the core. Writing is very intimate. Sharing your work is both terrifying and exciting, much like the first time your lover sees you undressed. The slightest hint of disapproval is enough to land you on some therapist's couch, paying their kid's college tuition.

So, what am I supposed to do? Write my ass off that's what. Take the time now to outline and sketch-out a really engaging story. One that will make readers come back every week to find out what the frak is going to happen next. I've already done this much. "No Mercy General" is a twisted paranormal thriller with heavy doses of erotica and gore (sorry for the tease sweetie, but this is all you get until the debut). I'm actually pretty jazzed about it, whether you will be too, I can only hope.

Blog fiction is it really shameless self promotion? - Hell yeah, and it should be. A writer has to take ownership of their career. Some do this through publicists, agents, editors, and big time ad agencies. An aspiring author in this age of communications has too many effective, and yes, low cost tools at his/her disposal not to make use of them. Publishing is a business, and any writer who forgets this isn't helping themselves. Trust me, it's never a bad thing to show a potential publisher/editor you are marketable.

Well, here I am less than four weeks from publishing the first installment of my very first blog fiction, and I have a crisis of faith (with myself no less). Well, the self doubts and jitters are gone, I'm hard at work and hell bent on making sure "No Mercy General" is one of my best works. I can only hope you'll agree.

Reply