For the past week or so, my life has been a literary whirlwind! The RWA Conference was, as always, a hectic mix of meeting friends and attending workshops. Before long my head was spinning, and it wasn’t just from all the chocolate and champagne. There is a wealth of craft and publishing information available at these conferences.
One of the sessions I attended, Blogging 101, was presented by Sarah Wendell. She’s better known as Smart Bitch Sarah from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, the most popular blog worldwide examining romance fiction. It ranges from discussions of the popularity and market reach of romance novels, to reviews and essays. She is also the author of the informative and hilarious Everything I Know About Love, I Learned from Romance Novels. Well, I learned a lot about blogging in Sarah’s session. One of the things I learned was that for maximum reach I should stop blogging on Sundays and post mid-week instead, hence this Thursday post!
I’m meeting Sarah again tonight at a welcome event for her at Penguin Books. Sarah is also presenting at the Melbourne Writer’s Festival. I would venture to suggest that the MWF is Australia’s preeminent literary festival. It starts today and runs until the 1st of September.
Afterwards I’m attending The Moth Mainstage, New York’s hottest and hippest literary ticket. The Moth is a story-telling night that’s set to make its Melbourne debut at the Writers Festival and is a beautifully staged, live theatrical production. Internationally acclaimed masters of storytelling, including comedian and host Ophira Eisenberg and Australian’s own Magda Szubanski, Tony Wheeler and Melissa Lucashenko will explore the theme of courage. According to the program, The Moth brings together entertainment, enlightenment and festivity, and promises to take the audience on a storytelling journey that will leave us spellbound. Can’t wait!
Add to this the fact that my new manuscript is due on the 2nd September (I cadged a week’s extension from my publisher Belinda Byrne at the conference!) and you can see that I’m up to my eyes in stories – and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Interesting post … would you to elaborate on the reasons Sarah Wendell gave for blogging mid-week instead of Sundays? (Which incidentally I do, too) I’d be very keen to hear more of her reasoning behind this…is because so many people post on Sundays or because more people read blogs on-line during the week? Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has a huge following and they’ve made so many Indie author’s careers with their reviews….good and bad! One review where they pulled a book to bits… resulted in that book reaching best seller status.
Thanks for your comment Shirley. Am just dashing off to Melbourne (I live in the country so it takes a while) How about I post about her reasoning on FB tomorrow? It’s all about the data really. Seems like you know more about Sarah than I do. I just heard about her last week!
I’m no expert on blogging but it seems as if a) fewer people read blogs on the weekend because they have other social things to do and b) as we’re in Australia, the timezones mean our Sunday posts appear as Saturday posts in the northern hemisphere… and again Saturday night is when people go out. I’ve found Monday morning posts work well as US readers are winding down getting ready for their Monday.
Yes, I suppose we must learn to be strategic!