Getting Organised ...

What am I going to get organised? My blogs, that's what. Oh who am I kidding, I am a long, long way away from getting my blogs organised. I know this because, apart from making a guess, that would probably be wrong, I don't really know how many blogsites I actually have.

I know there are around twelve, no, maybe fifteen. Some of them are Blogger blogs, as is this on. Some of them are Wordpress blogs. I have one of each that gets a moderate amount of attention from me. Well really, it isn't a moderate amount of attention, it's a poor amount of attention. A moderate amount would be one post a week, I think. I spend far more time on other social media ...

Does that matter? Should I, or could I be doing more on my blogs? Well, I'm a writer, a self-published writer, who has books to sell, of course I should be spending more time on my blogs. Or better yet, I should perhaps be spending far more time on ONE blog, a main blog, a blog for myself as a writer!

I have a Facebook page as a writer, but I can't really format that page very much, and I can't put up lots of links to it, or if I can, I don't know how to do it well. I know a little bit about these social media things, not a lot. And I don't really want to go to much further into these things at the moment.

What I do want to do is to get one blog for myself as a writer, one blog that is mine, not a free one, as I have at the moment, but a paid blogsite. I know the basics of how to go about doing this, and I recently went to an interesting workshop in such things. Anyway, this site here attracts many view, and maybe I should look doing more with this site? Or maybe the most used Wordpress blog? No, a brand new site, in my own name, that's the way to go.

So will I do it soon? Oh who knows, I sure don't, I don't even know how many blogs I have! Haha - do you have similar problems to this too? I'd love to know if you managed to tidy things up, and how you did it. No scams or spam though, thanks ...

Blogs Created for Books

As a writer, particularly a self-published author, I am interested in the idea of making mega bucks from my books! Well to be honest, that's not true - I'm a realistic person, and don't expect to make mega bucks. The genres I'm interested in writing, and my views on life aren't the kind that would necessarily attract millions of readers.

What I hope to do with my writing is to amuse people, entertain them and perhaps give them interesting ideas to think further on. This book "Dig It! Gardening Tips for Dogs" was initially created with my friend Ally Hean, who likes to draw, and does it well. We were coffee and chat friends, our sons were friends at Mallala Primary School. I shared a little article I'd written about a dog that liked to garden, and things took off from there.

I'd never self-published a book before, but had been successful with Victorian School Reader Publisher with a book called "My Dog", and I was and still am a keen exponent of creative writing. Ally and I took this initial writing, with me doing more writing and Ally drawing relevant pictures of what was going on. The text and pics went together well, Ally worked at turning it into a book and we sent it to a local printer.

Grandeur Press, in Balaklava was the printer, and they did a fine job. We did a small print run, and set about selling copies of the book. That first print run sold out, and there was enough money left over from sales for another print run, and so it went on. There are copies of this book available in the National Library and in some libraries in South Australia. Ally has moved on, and I have shifted my literary focus to Gawler, and so my third print run was with a printer in Gawler - Bunyip Press. I'm happy with their work too, and will continue my connection with them for future printing needs.

There is more to creating books than just printing them though, and that's actually selling the books. This is the marketing side of things. The nuts and bolts gritting and sometimes grubby side! Haha! Not really - marketing can be as nice as having a chat with someone and showing them your book, accepting money or in kind payment if the person would like a signed copy. This is a way that connections and friendships can grow and strengthen.

But there are other ways too, having books in bookshops, or promoting them online. One of the online ways is to set up a blog for your book, and/or for yourself. My first 'book blog' was this one, set up with details about the book, and about how to buy a copy of the book. Blogs are something I have an off/on relationship. I became extremely keen on this blogging at one stage and created quite a few blogs, posting and commenting on them, and gaining readers.

Then the passion for it waned, and outside things rather than online ones became more important to me, as can happen. I've kept up some presence in the blogging world though, having created separate blogs for my next two books - "damaged children, Precious Gems" - a book about child sexual abuse, and abuse in general, and - "Mick Jane and Me - Living Well with MS" - a memoir about my life with Multiple Sclerosis, written soon after I was diagnosed with MS in 2010. This blog is the one that gets the most of my blogging attention.

I will continue blogging and I hope selling my books, and I with continue writing more books - I'm currently thinking and doing the initial stages of planning for two books to follow on from "Dig it!" - it's fun, and I'm hoping it all goes well, with one of the new books out at the end of this year and the other in 2016! Keep your eye out here for more news!