State of the Site: Winter and Beyond
Between having a nasty cold (and fortunately nothing worse), catching up to work, and other such things, I've been weighing how I'm going to be approaching blogging and social media going forward. I've been off the writing wagon for about two years for Various Reasons. The drought is about to shift (as in something is going to the printer shortly), and I have writing and editing work I'm getting back to as we speak.
That said, there are still things I want to do here on the blog. I want to update y'all on things I have coming out, because apparently there are people out there interested in reading what I write. I want to keep reviewing new books, because I miss getting to spread the word about books and authors like I used to when Sci-Fi Magazine was still a thing. At the same time, I want to make sure this blog is pulling its weight as a way to connect with people and get the word out about things, and not becoming simply a time sink.
So going forward, here are my plans:
Blog Posts Will Be Once a Week
With occasional surprise updates when something like an extremely limited book pre-order goes live, or if I'm signed up for a book tour on a day other than Wednesday. Going forward, the plan is to have a post every Wednesday covering something a little more concrete, rather than posts 3-ish times a week covering one thing.
This also gives me time to get back to other things I'm working on: revving Altrix Books back up, working on writing projects behind the scenes, and also a secret third thing.
Book Reviews Will Be Once a Month
And ideally it will be the first Wednesday of the month. I'm going to be adopting a format closer to what I did with Sci-Fi, covering and rating several books at one go rather than spreading them out as I read them. Ideally I'll be doing five per month — or at least leaving room for five per month. This month will be a bit different since we're into it; I'll be putting my review out once I've got all five reviews ready.
I have lots of great resources for ARCs, but I'm always happy to have more sent to me! If you've got a copy of something coming out that you'd like for me to review, hit me up on your social media app of choice. I'm all over the place.
I'd Like to Share Some Original Fiction
Once I'm caught up to everything, anyway.
I have a lot of very specific things I owe people. But once those things are done, I want to start submitting to anthologies, getting some story ideas out of my head and onto the page, and maybe just dicking around with turning some tabletop campaigns into a readable format for others. I don't know, I just wanna mess around some once I'm up to speed.
Whether I'll offer that on here, or as something on SubStack, I haven't decided yet. Once my feet are a bit more under me, I'll figure it out. But given the nature of writer life and the fact that I intend to start hammering submissions to anthologies again, I'm sure I'll find myself with a few stories in need of readers.
Fewer Sponsored/Merch Posts
As much as I appreciate people wanting to work with me and send me samples, I want to start narrowing that way down. There are two or three groups max I want to work with regularly because I actually do use their products as part of my day-to-day... and because they appeal directly to my book nerd vibe. This will also help me and the blog stay more focused.
I still love anime stuff, and I'll still cover manga and my journalism on here when it's relevant. But I don't really wanna be an influencer, and my work keeps me comfortable enough that I don't actually need to hustle on Instagram to pay the mortgage. There was a time when it was looking that way, but I'm doing pretty all right.
Thanks as always for hanging in there with me over time. I'm looking forward to having some very cool news for you about several things soon.
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