Why Do I Blog All the Time? My Top Reasons

While drunks demanded pancakes and bourbon chicken skillets, the woman slid my open planner toward her and skimmed the entries. Yes, she asked before she did, and I didn’t care. I mean, it’s just my editorial calendar—the books that are on sale, the upcoming releases, books I have to ship, social media I need to update—all that jazz. And blog posts. All the blog posts.

Of course, that was the item that generated the most interest.

“Why do you have to write blog posts?”

You know it wasn’t the first time—won’t be the last. When the subject of blogging comes up, people often ask why I “waste my time” with it. Shouldn’t I be writing my next book? After all, that’s what I am, right? A novelist?

Well, definitely. I mean, if I had to choose one or the other, I’d choose the books. But there are several reasons I write blog posts.

Since this week’s prompt is “My blogging inspirations,” I thought I’d share a couple.

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For several years, when we had a sale, I’d write a blog post about how it was on sale, here’s where you could get it, and here’s how you could share. I had dozens of those things. Literally dozens.

But when a visitor came to my site, if they scrolled through the blog posts, it was almost all sale or giveaway information—nothing about what I write, why I write it, what’s coming, my writing process—you know, all those questions that people ask me when they first meet me or get to know my books.

So, the first reason I write them is that it’s one way for readers to get to know me!

Making new friends is always nice!

For those of you who’ve been reading for a while, you’ll notice I changed that a couple of years ago. It’s been going rather well.

Instead of just posting “Corner Booth is on sale. AGAIN…” I write about something related to Corner Booth in some way. Maybe it’s a character nuance—perhaps a lesson I learned in writing it. I did one that was a call to single women, pleading with them not to settle for a man who would mistreat them simply because he’s a man. I want to do one on how Dean unintentionally imitated Jesus in how he interacted with Carlie and some of her foolishness.

Yes, it means for a bit of a read for folks to get to the sale information, but my newsletter folks get a heads-up about the sales in the newsletter. So when they click, if they don’t want to read my extra stuff, they can just scroll to the bottom, click, and move along.

But for those who are interested in the book process or what the Lord is teaching me, it’s a great way for them to see it. It’s also nice for those who already have the book! They don’t get yet another blog post in their feed or inbox that has no relevance for them.

In other words, another reason is so people can understand my characters and books—where the stories come from and where they’re going.

And you know, those blogs spark new ideas. It’s amazing how that happens. I think one of the reasons it works that way is because blogging is a different kind of writing—it’s almost a combination of journaling and instruction. And, like I said in THIS post, sometimes just working on something else is all it takes for me to get inspired in fresh ways on my current WIP (work in progress).

So, yes. Sometimes I just like to blog to stir up those creative juices.

There you have it. Authors have many reasons for blogging, but those are my top ones.