Publishing Industry Blogs Waning?

I admit it. I'm a publishing industry blog junkie. I check several, written both by authors and editors. There is much great information to be gleaned from them. An aspiring writer can learn a wealth of info, just by tapping into these blogs.

But I've noticed in the last 3-4 months that these blogs seem to be waning.

1. You can sense the blog authors are burning out and pushing to find suitable material
2. You often (but not always) get a repeat of the same old info
3. Some have quit blogging altogether or blog so infrequenty that you cease to check their site any more.
4. Some rely too heavily on author interviews. While reading about authors is fine, most people go to blogs to gain value for themselves, so reading about another person's book, unless you know them and have been on that journey with them, rooting for them, isn't going to pack much punch.

So the question I ask myself is: Why? Why do blogs seem to be floundering?

1. The overall negative state of the economy no doubt takes a bit of the excitement out of the business.
2. Some bloggers force themselves to post too much new content each week. I understand this from a "Google juice" perspective, the more often you update your blog, the higher up in search results. But no one can successfully churn out that much new and interesting material, several blogs posting new content 5 days a week if not more.
3. Everyone's heads are spinning by the technological changes affecting the publishing industry. Whether we all admit to it or not, there is much angst associated with those changes,

And finally, I think I simply am changing in tastes and preferences. While I probably lag behind many in web-savviness, I am being crunched for time like everyone else, and I find myself less willing to put up with the boring content of blogs, particularly when they are author interviews. As I said, unless you have rooted for that author during their journey, there's no personal tie in, and authors are out there by the millions.

I'm also a little disheartened by the publishing industry. All the technological changes certainly have me bamboozled and in all honesty, I have to decide if I "want to play" in these conditions.

But for those like myself still interested in publishing industry blogs, do not lose heart. There is still great content out there. It's just that nowadays, these blogs are laced more often with forgettable material while people struggle to keep pace with the massive information dump age that we live in.

The two blogs that deliver the most consistent quality for me are The Kill Zone blog and Rachelle Gardner's. So if you are looking for industry blogs, those are the places to start. I think I favor The Kill Zone (a blog coauthored by various thriller writers) because along with every day discussions of all things writing and publishing, it is also relaxed and filled with humor. Not a week goes by without them producing a smile in me. Rachelle Gardner's CBA ramblings often have useful, practical advice, such as the recent blog post describing what's in a publishing contract.

So if you haven't visited them, be sure and take a look.

On The Spot Stories--But No Pressure

Phew. Almost 3 weeks since I last posted. I feel like I've been chewed up and spit out, for numerous reasons.

But about deadlines.

Yesterday on Rachelle Gardner's blog, she had a guest blogger whose post was "Writing Under A (Supertight) Deadline."

I lived that last week. The bad news is, a family tragedy sent me back east to be with my family. The good news was getting to visit said family, including my nieces and nephews. My 7 year old niece and I were play buddies while I wasn't busy doing other things. Among other things, we played approximately 1500 games of "Go Fish", "Concentration" and "Slap." That's cool. Though I confess I did get tired of looking at the deck of fish cards and longed for a regular pack of cards with Kings, Queens and Jokers.

But wait...this IS writing related.

You see one night, my two nieces and I were in the seven year old niece's bedroom. My young niece asked me to write her a story. I thought she meant like over the course of time. But you know how this younger generation is.... She wanted it NOW.

"Okay," I said. "What story shall I write for you?"

"I don't know," was her helpful reply.

So I tried again. "If I'm going to write you a story, you have to give me some characters to work with. Who is your main character?"

That got her to thinking and she informed me the lead character was a fox named Socks, and gave me a few other details. From there, the rest was up to me. So I sat on the bed in her bedroom while she played nearby with some of her toys. I'd dilligently scratch away on the spiral notebook, and every few minutes she'd stop playing and ask me "Read what you've got so far."

This was my first made-to-order short story, so I wanted to please, and carefully did what she asked. She'd nod okay. I'd go back to writing. She'd go back to playing. Until a few minutes later when she asked me again.

I was in quite the quandary. Here I was, historical fiction author who took SIX YEARS to write her first novel. And one little 7 year old child was demanding I write a story in probably less than 45 minutes.

NO PRESSURE!

Add to that, my young, almost-two-year-old nephew entered the room, and proceeded to play on the bed, bouncing and jiggling it while I tried to write. Uh--did I mention I usually write in the absolute peace and stillness of my apartment?

But at last, and much to my niece's delight, I FINALLY finished the story and read it to my audience of three.

My nephew was not particularly interested, but at least he stayed in the room. My young niece nodded again and seemed to come to a decision. "Now let's practice it, then we'll put it on as a play." (My sisters and Aunt and Uncle and brother-in-law were watching TV in the living room).

My sweet older niece offered her services as reader of the story--no small feat considering she would have to read my chicken scratch handwriting. My young niece played the starring role of the Fox named Socks, and I acted the other bit parts of the other farm animals. My little two year old nephew even did an EXCELLENT job providing barnyard sound effects during the rehearsal.

We ran through it once, then trooped toward the living room and our unsuspecting family members. But they graciously agreed to watch the play, even though it disrupted viewing of the World Series game between the Texas Rangers and the SF Giants (or whoever the CA team was...I was rooting for the Rangers).

All in all, the first "play-on-demand" story went off very well. Older niece was an excellent narrator and didn't miss a beat reading my horrid handwriting. Younger niece made a fine Socks the Fox. As for my nephew...well, he was great in practice but flamed out during the performance. Or more appropriately, had long since lost interest in the play and was tearing into some of his toys.

The point of this story? You never know what events in life will give you practical experience and practice in your career as a writer. Who knew a 7 year old could put the squeeze on me and get me to churn out a story in under an hour?

Where was she when I started my novel? 8-)

The Revision Letter

I like to forward a good publishing-related post when I find it.

Please visit Agent Rachelle Gardner's blog today for a very interesting read on what to expect when you receive your Revision Letter.

As I noted on my comments on that blog, it gives hope to those of us who let perfectionism prevent us from submitting our work. If an editor or agent can see the potential of a story and still come up with all these improvement suggestions, then we should not be afraid to submit once we've crafted the best book we can (without taking 40 years to do it).

Here's the link:
http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2010/08/revision-letter.html