Several months ago, I read a post that caused a lot of controversy within the writing community. I’m not going to mention the individual’s name since she left a not-so-nice comment on one of my friend’s posts, and I don’t want to deal with that attitude here. Blogger Alert, anyone?
So what was this controversial topic? This individual felt that non-published writers shouldn’t write about, well, writing. In her view, only those who are published are qualified to talk about it. Apparently the rest of us, because we aren’t authors, don’t know how to write.
I disagree.
I don’t follow author blogs, with a few exceptions. At this point, the only way authors can grab my loyalty is to write kickass novels. Do that, and I’m all yours. I don’t care if your blog is the most awesome thing on this planet. If your book doesn’t meet my expectation, I’m not buying the next one.
The blogs I do follow are by unpublished writers. These are the individuals whose books I hope to see on my bookhelf one day. Many of them are agented. Others aren’t. A number of them have something in common. They blog about writing. They blog about tricks they’ve picked up in how-to books on writing (and give credit where credit is due). They blog about things they’ve learned through critiques and from conferences. And they share their advice in bite-sized pieces.
To those of you who blog about writing, I applaud you. My writing is a hundred fold better because of you. Although I showcase a lot of great blogs during my Cool Links Friday, I wanted to give a shout out to the following blogs/bloggers:
The Bookshelf Muse
Christina Lee
Laura Pauling
Creepy Query Girl (Katie Mills)
Paranormal Point of View (Lisa Gail Green. She’s published but I’m still including her here.)
Adventures in Children’s Publishing
Operation Awesome
YA Stands
Oasis for YA
Lydia Sharp
Question: Do you feel that only published authors can blog about writing? Have you ever shared writing tips on your blog?