I know many authors who blog. Some of them post general blogs about their lives as writers, others address a specific niche unrelated to writing. But is one better than the other?

Any writer who asks me what to write will receive the same answer: write what’s pulling you. If you write legal thrillers but love talking about your marathon training, then that’s what you should blog about. If you are a foodie but your nonfiction book has nothing to do with food, you can still blog about restaurants and recipes. If you write what’s pulling you, then you’ll always have something to say and the quality of writing will be better. There’s no point in forcing yourself to write to your market.

One of the benefits of blogging about something off-topic is that you attract a new audience. Author Hilary Davidson writes about traveling with Celiac disease, and gluten-free eating is a hot topic that attracts swarms of followers. Crimespree Magazine expanded their coverage beyond book reviews and posts movie and TV reviews, authors’ favorite recipes, even pet spotlights. Writing about a variety of topics will attract an audience of potential readers, even if they’re not actively looking to find new writers online.

If your passion is blogging about the writing life, then you should. Write about the books you’re reading, where you are in your manuscript, and post photos from the road. But if you’re passion lies beyond the subject of your work as a writer, don’t fret. Posting good content on a regular basis is the most important element of blogging, and you’ll only do that if you’re passionate about what you write. Plus, there’s a hidden perk of reaching a new audience, even if they didn’t come to your site to learn about books.

I’ve never been big on using hashtags on Twitter. I find that hashtags confuse novice twitter users and are seldom used correctly. More often than not, they create a spammy, incoherent tweet. How many times have you seen posts like this?

@AmateurTweet Currently #plotting my next #romance #novel. Excited about the new #story. #amwriting

Hashtags are meant to serve as labels or markers so people can connect with other users discussing the same thing. On Oscar night, I always follow #oscars to see what other people are saying about Meryl Streep’s speech or the film that was robbed of Best Picture. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday 4-5pm EST, there’s a Literary Tweet Chat that you can participate in by using the hashtag #litchat. This is a great way to connect with people discussing a similar subject and to build your social media following.

Unsure of how to get started? I’d recommend perusing a few of these helpful websites:

• Hashtags.org allows you to plug in various hashtags and see how often they’re being used, who is using them, and how they’re trending over time.  There’s no use tacking on #writing to every post if no one is searching for that hashtag.
• What The Trend offers reports of the top trends and hashtags. Discussing a trending topic increases discoverability and builds your online following.
• Publishing Talk ran an article titled, Ten Twitter Hashtags for Writers.  Using these could be helpful in connecting with other writers.
• The Writer’s Guide To Twitter offers a schedule of writing related Tweet Chats. Participating in these conversations increases your discoverability, helps you connect with other writers, and I’ve seldom participated in a Tweet Chat where I didn’t learn something.

As with anything, I recommend watching before posting. Follow #litchat in the afternoon and see how it’s used. During a big event like the Super Bowl or Academy Awards, follow the hashtag and see how it’s used. The last thing you want to do is start posting like @AmateurTweet.

I believe the printed Q&A is the most difficult type of interview to nail, for a variety of reasons. Unlike live TV and radio interviews, your words can be edited in a printed Q&A. They can be re-arranged, taken out of context, or used without needed explanation. But they’re your words, you said them, so it’s all fair game.

Also, if the journalist is good at his/her job, the interview will feel more like a conversation. In a conversation, we don’t speak in complete sentences, we go off on tangents, and we usually reveal a few things we wouldn’t in a formal interview.

Last week, I was interviewed for the Chicago Women In Publishing (CWIP) newsletter. Although it was a printed Q&A, I thought, “I interview all the time. I coach my clients how to nail interviews. I’m being interviewed by a professional writer. It will be fine.”

Famous last words.

The interviewer was kind enough to send me the piece before sending it along to her editor, and man, I’m lucky she did. Besides the fact that her tape recorder stopped working halfway through the interview which forced her to go off of her notes for my responses, many of my answers were trimmed down, taken out of context, causing a lot of what I said to be entirely inaccurate. This was not the fault of the journalist who thought she understood the intentions of my comments and was using my quotes word-for-word. It was my fault for not taking my own advice.

How To Nail The Printed Q&A
AKA Advice I Wish I Had Taken

• Your responses should be short and concise. The more you ramble, the more opportunity there is to take your words out of context or to edit down your responses.
• Speak in full sentences. Most of the time, we speak in long, drawn out, run-ons. If you answer in complete sentences, there’s less room for editing.
• Use a piece of the question in your answer. This eliminates the possibility of using your response to answer a different question. If the interviewer asks, “Why did you become a writer?” start your response with, “I became a writer…”
• Ensure the interview is being tape recorded. It’s the only way to get your quotes exactly right. Bring your own if you have one, otherwise, tell the journalist that you’ll need to see the piece before they send it in.
• Always ask to see the piece before it’s sent in (or have your publicist do it). This isn’t always a possibility due to deadlines and tight turnaround times, but it never hurts to ask.

Need more than a daily fix of book publicity? Check out these other fantastic sites:

Top Ten Websites for Writers

(in alphabetical order)

Backspace – an online writing forum where writers can swap ideas, discuss topics, and offer feedback on synopses and query letters.

Book Country* – an online writing community dedicated to genre fiction. Users can upload their work-in-progress, participate in discussion foruns, and learn from the industry blog.

Digital Book World – Everything you need to know about the new digital frontier.

Figment – an online community similar to Book Country, but not genre specific.

GalleyCat – Part of MediaBistro, this website has every resource a writer needs: publishing news, job postings, recent deals, and bookselling tidbits.

Hey, There’s A Dead Guy In My Living Room – a group blog written by contributors from all walks of publishing life (author, publicist, publisher, reviewer, librarian, agent).

JaneFriedman.com – a fabulous website covering everything that is going on in the publishing industry. She’s on twitter too.

Publishers Marketplace – This is the place to be if you’re looking for agents and editors, or want to stay up to date on the publishing industry.

Sirens of Suspense – Chock full of guest blogs from working writers, as well as reviews and author interviews.

Smart Bitches Trashy Books – If you write romance, read romance, or are secretly obsessed with romance, this blog is a great resource.

*Denotes a Kaye Publicity client, which did not factor into their placement on this list

As many of you saw on Twitter and Facebook, my website was hacked yesterday. I got an email from a reader saying a funny page would pop up when she visited, my web developer looked into it, and every single file was corrupted. After screaming obscenities, I spent the next few hours de-bugging, running scans, and cleaning up malware.

If you’ve worked with me, you know I don’t have three hours. My days are jammed full of conference calls, meetings, and writing press materials. Losing three hours feels like losing the whole day. But what could I do?

The point of the post is that there are a lot of things out of your control. As an author, you’re on a deadline. You set daily and weekly word count goals that will ensure you make your deadline. But things are bound to come up that are out of your control. Computers crash. You get sick. You get pregnant. Loved ones pass away. Deadlines change. All of these things will derail your plan. But what can you do?

There’s a movie where  a woman is getting  a divorce or breaking up with her boyfriend and she’s devastated. Her friend looks at her and says, “Cry for a day. Then get on with your life.” I’m a big advocate of that. When things happen that derail your plan or screw up your writing schedule, don’t dwell. Cry for a day. Then move on.

As self-publishing continues to grow in popularity, more authors are having the “I can do it myself” mentality. What do I need with a publisher?  All they do is cut into my profit margin. I can do it all myself. But whether you self-publish or opt for the traditional route, it still takes a village to sell a book.

One of the biggest reasons I’m skeptical about many self-published books is the lack of editor. Whether you’ve published 1 book or 100, an editor is still a necessary part of the publishing process. I’m not talking about a copy-editor who finds grammar mistakes and inconsistencies. I’m talking about a developmental editor who will look at your story and help you improve it. A developmental editor will show you where to raise the stakes, which characters need to be expanded upon, and which scenes need to be cut. No author is “so good” that they don’t benefit from a developmental editor.

There are other people who help make the book a success – publicists, marketing team, web designer – but I won’t tell you they’re absolutely necessary to the process. A book can still be a success without these pros if you have a solid group of brand ambassadors. These are people, probably readers, who will spread the word about your book. They’ll talk about it on Twitter and Facebook, they’ll buy it as a gift for friends, and they’ll write reviews on Amazon. With a few strong brand ambassadors, you’ll be able to spread the word and sell books, even without media coverage and a marketing campaign.

Lastly, I find that authors are more successful when they have a strong network of authors they trust. The reason isn’t because they promote each other’s work, although that can be a perk as well. It’s because authors are faced with difficult decisions every day – Should I renew my contract or move? Do I need to fire my agent? Should I agree to a co-writing deal? – and it helps to have a solid network to bounce ideas off of. By gathering information from veterans, authors make smarter decisions, and are therefore, more successful.

As I stated before, there are a lot of people who help the process. Publicists, marketing pros, and web strategists all have a hand in the book’s success. But there are plenty of authors who don’t have these people on their team and still manage to have a successful publishing career. But take away the editor, brand ambassadors, and a strong network of authors, and I don’t see the writer’s career getting off the ground.

As a writer, you’re surrounded by critics. From the voice inside your head as you’re writing to the anonymous voices in PW, you’ll face judgment of your work. If you don’t want your work to be judged, then keep it to yourself.

It’s important to know that every author has received bad reviews. Pulitzer Prize winners, New York Times bestsellers, your favorite books and authors have all received negative feedback and criticism. No one is immune. What’s important is how you deal with those negative reviews.

Above all, don’t doubt yourself. Focus on the positive reviews, the kind words from agents and editors. If you receive emails from fans, save them, and read them whenever a sliver of doubt begins to seep in. Don’t let negative reviews on Amazon or angry emails from readers let you doubt your talent as an author.

If you’re like most authors, you’re initial reaction is to lunge for the keyboard and to begin typing an angry email to the critic or a snarky response to the Amazon review. As I reminded everyone yesterday, don’t respond. The last thing you want to do is draw attention to bad press. I see too many authors linking to bad reviews on Facebook or Tweeting that a certain book critic didn’t like their book.  The best thing you can do is ignore it.

There are a couple things you can do to ensure the good reviews are the ones your potential readers will see first:

• For each review, Amazon asks “Was this helpful?” Go through and click “yes” on the good reviews and “no” on the bad ones.
• Offer a free book, t-shirt, or other prize to the first X people to write reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, or other sites.
• Post links to positive reviews on Facebook and Twitter. You don’t need to post every time someone writes a good review on B&N, but if a blogger or critic has something nice to say about your book, spread the word!

If there is something in the media that needs to be addressed (inaccuracies in biographical information, pub date, etc.) don’t contact the journalist directly. Reach out to your publicist, in-house or independent, and have them handle it. It’s always better for them to hear from a publishing professional rather than the author.

Above all, take all criticism with a grain of salt and don’t let it get to you. Authors, feel free to share your tips about handling negative reviews.

Yesterday, I covered the caveats when considering self-publishing. Today, we’ll address the circumstances that lend themselves to self-publishing. Not all books are meant for the traditional publishing route. Here are a few instances when self-publishing is the best option:

The Niche Market: Not all books are meant for a wide audience, but that doesn’t mean those books don’t have an audience at all. Genres like pulp fiction, erotica, GLBT fiction, can lend themselves to self-publishing because they reach a definable audience. Publishers may be hesitant to publish these genres because individual titles don’t sell a lot of books, but if you self publish, you don’t need to sell 50K copies in the first year to make a decent living.

The Genre Crosser:  One of the primary questions asked by publishers is, “Where is your book going to be shelved?” If you’re writing a romance with sci-fi elements, or a women’s fiction novel with zombies, there isn’t a place in bookstores that would accurately categorize your novel. These genre crossers often make it past the acquisitions editor, but when they present the project at boards, they are immediately shot down. These instances lend themselves to self-publishing because the fact that a big house didn’t take the manuscript  doesn’t mean it isn’t a good story or there’s no audience for it. Most of my favorite books are genre crossers, and I know from my work as a publicist that those books were difficult sells.

The Pulp Novelist: Being a successful self-published author means you constantly have to be putting product on the market. The self-published authors who are making the best livings are churning out 5-6 books a year. If you’re a fast writer, and you enjoy writing books that people devour like popcorn, self-publishing might be the way to go. Publishers won’t be able to turn around books at the same speed that self-pubbers can, so if you’re writing like mad, it may be in your best interest to go ahead and self-pub. The more product on the market, the more successful you’ll be.

The Previously Published Author:  Due to layoffs, decreases in book sales, etc. many authors have been dropped from their publisher. This is usually due to numbers, which means it’s difficult to get another publishing contract. Many dropped authors opt for self-publishing, get their numbers up, then leverage a traditional publishing deal. Some authors get hooked and stay with the self-publishing route. Either way, if you’ve previously been published and you haven’t been able to get another deal because of your sales record, self-publishing may be the perfect way to restart your career.

Though authors will argue that there are dozens more reasons to self-publish, these are the instances that I would encourage an author to pursue this path. If you’re traditional mystery was rejected by every agent and editor you queried, that may mean it’s not ready for publication. It isn’t a sign that you should self-pub. Carefully consider where your book falls on the publishing spectrum before taking the easy way out.

If a writer asked me two years ago if self-publishing was a good idea, I’d always say no. If a writer asked me now, it would require further probing (Why do you want to self-publish? Is your book for a niche demographic?) Two years from now, my answer may be completely different.

Because all my thoughts cannot be condensed into a single blog post, the next two days will cover all aspects of self-publishing writers should consider. Today, we’ll start with the caveats.

When going the self-publishing route, you’re not just an author. You are a small business owner. You are responsible for hiring editors and cover artists, keeping track of sales figures and earnings, publicity and marketing, and managing operations. In my experience, most authors are authors because that’s what they’re good at. If they were good at being a project manager, they would do that for a living. Understand that self-publishing requires more than writing a book and uploading it to Amazon.

Although reader acceptance of self-published fiction has grown exponentially, media acceptance hasn’t. Most critics and journalists will not cover self-published books. Reviews and features are how many readers find out about books. Taking that away severely limits your publicity/marketing reach.

While most self-pubbers claim that the Big Six publishers never did anything for them anyway, traditional publishers can actually open far more doors than the independently published. Publishers are approached by retailers and media outlets for promotional opportunities that aren’t available to self published authors. When B&N wants to offer one free e-book for their daily deal special, they’re going to contact publishers for titles. When book festivals or daytime talk shows are looking for new books to feature, they’re going to contact publishers for their lead titles. Being with a traditional publishing company does have perks that many self-pubbers don’t consider.

These are all things to think about before opting for the self-publishing route. For some authors, these cons are outweighed by the pros. Tomorrow, I’ll address circumstances when self-publishing could be the better option (if you can handle the aforementioned caveats.)

Before, I never considered myself a spiritual person. I did yoga to work out, I didn’t climb mountains to seek enlightenment, and I believed any success I had in life came from hard work and perseverance. But more recently, I’ve become convinced in the power of positive thinking and how it can bring success.

Overall, I’m a positive person. I tend to see the good in people, the upside to a situation, and if things go wrong, I focus on ways to make it better rather than dwell. Though hard work and chutzpah are large factors in my success as a publicist, I do believe that my positive way of looking at situations played a significant role.

We all know authors who don’t have a positive outlook. I tend to think of them as Eeyore from Winnie-The-Pooh, the eternally gloomy donkey who always expects the worst. They mope around conferences complaining about their sales, or their editor, or being dropped from their publisher. No one wants to be around an Eeyore, which causes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because the authors are so depressed from the road blocks in the path to publishing success, they send off an energy preventing them from overcoming those road blocks.

Instead of dwelling on what’s going wrong, use that energy to try and figure out how to make it right. Dropped from your publisher? Write a totally different book, the one that you’ve wanted to write for years, and try to sell that one. If it doesn’t sell, e-publish. Not happy with book sales? Be creative and try to find new ways of reaching readers. Rather than dwell and complain, channel all your energy into reaching your goals and getting what you want.

Easier said than done, right? But here’s a tool I’ve found helpful:

Ask yourself what is frustrating you or getting you down. Then ask yourself why it’s frustrating. Acknowledge the positive aspects. Decide what you’d rather have happen instead. Focus your mind on obtaining that goal. Here’s an example:

• Book sales are down from previous year.
• You’re frustrated because you feel like a failure and you’re nervous your publisher is going to drop you.
• Acknowledge that you’re a published author with a publishing contract, which only a small percent of the population has.
• You want sales to go up and break out onto a bestseller list.
• Focus on what you want. Look at your publicity and marketing efforts for the previous book. Assess what worked and what didn’t. Brainstorm new ways to reach potential readers and boost sales.

Dwelling won’t fix the problem. In fact, it will probably hurt it. Focus on putting positive energy into the universe and I’m confident positive things will begin to happen.