Previously I wrote an article on the benefits of blogging. I went in great detail explaining the way a writer can grow their skills by blogging. Today I want to issue a few warnings for writers.
1. Don’t blog about rejections or individuals in publishing if you’re going to be ultra negative.
I have encountered people who think it is okay to rant about the unfairness of a publishing houses rejection or the incompetence of someone they met at a conference. Never do this. Publishing is a fairly small industry. As people begin to move up the ranks they get to know each other well. This is particularly true if you are moaning about an editor.
It is okay to talk about the frustration of rejection or the desire to be published, but if your blog degenerates in to personal attacks it has no place in cyberspace. It can be a real career breaker.
2. Don’t blog about specifics of your WIP [work in progress].
Do not give out specific plot lines or character development when chatting online. I learned this the hard way early on when I excitedly shared an article with someone who then copied it and put their name on it. This is plagiarism and, since I’d sold the article, copyright infringement. While we are all excited about our projects, we need to keep specifics to a minimum.
3. Don’t post whole chapters of your book.
This is along the same lines, but for a different reason. Once something has been put on the internet it is considered published. That means you can no longer sell first rights. It also means, in the case of a book, you may not be able to sell it at all. I know there are stories of people being discovered after posting a chapter online. That is great, but rare.
Those of you who are currently reading my full novel, A Face in the Shadow, at my Tiffany Colter Fiction blog may see this as hypocrisy. However, the difference is that I decided not to sell this piece. While it is an award-winning manuscript, I decided that it was going to be too difficult to bring it up to the place where it would be publishable. I decided to put it up so that others could use it to improve their own writing. Think about how I could have written a scene better or what you liked about my style.
Again, if I had ever planned on publishing this book I would have never posted the full novel online. I explain a bit more on that here.
There are other reasons to blog-and things that should never be blogged. I hope these articles have given you an idea of how to use blogging to grow as a writer and develop a useful online presence.
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