Sunday, October 3, 2010

To Blog or Not to Blog. That is the Question...

SF and I have been discussing a hiatus lately. We have loved every minute of our two years writing this blog, but, more and more, we feel pressured to promote ourselves and not only does this feel artificially cocky sometimes, but we aren't sold on how effective blogging is for our intended audiences. There have been many posts about this lately, including this one by the Shrinking Violets, all of which have caused us to want to re-think our positioning.

And let me say that there is a difference between what I would call destination blogs (like Nathan Bransford's where we found this link), and ours. Nathan's is a go-to source for all things writerly. He is "an authority" on the industry, and he spends a lot of time developing his blog for this purpose. By design, we haven't chosen to have a blog with a purpose--we're just trying to have a little fun out there. Yes, we are both writers, and yes, we like to write ABOUT writing, but we know that our blog is no different in content from hundreds, if not thousands, of others. And we don't want it to fall into the same category as hundreds of blogs that exist soley to promote the writers who own them.

Another issue we are having is that we are building two separate careers, targeting two very different audiences. SF is growing her picture book and MG career, while I am focusing on expanding my YA books, as well as adult non-fiction. Therefore, we have totally different marketing tracks. This is really fun when we chat on the phone and hang out, but when it comes time to blog, leaves us stumped as to how to reach both markets effectively.

We also are working on some marketing and publicity ideas that are much larger and more interesting than what we are currently doing, and would like to continue to find new avenues to reach our target market - avenues that are more personal and creative. (*I'd like to insert that IF I sell my book, and IF SF's idea for marketing it works, I will just explode with joy. She has come up with an incredibly innovative and different idea for launching my book and I am about to bust to do it.)

As for now, we have decided to go on a blogging vacation until 2011. We will still be around reading and commenting on all our bestie's blogs, but our main focus is going to be writing and coming up with creative alternatives to reach our readers. We will see you in 2011 with new websites and good news!

XOXO

Katie and SF

Our Motto

Our Motto