It takes me awhile, sometimes. Maybe it’s a generational thing. I’ve been blogging for sixteen years now (my blog is a teenager!) and it only just occurred to me that I should be putting links to authors’ pages when I post about their books. I know links are what makes the web go round but I assumed that anyone whose book I’ve read is already better known than yours truly. Why would they need my humble help? Well, I’ve been trying to carve out the time to go back and edit my old posts about books, linking to authors’ pages—there are so many! In any case, this has led to some observations about writers. And at least this reader. Most commercial authors have a website. Not all, of course. People my age who had earlier success with writing tend not to have a site since they already have a fan base (I’m guessing). Most fiction writers in the cohort younger than me have pages, and I’m linking to those.
I’ve noticed, during this exercise, that my reading falls into two main categories: novels and academic books. I suppose that’s no surprise, although I do read intelligent nonfiction from non-professors as well. In the nonfiction category, it’s fairly rare to find academics with their own websites. They probably get the validation they require from work, and being featured on the school webpages. Or some will use Academia.edu to make a website. As an editor I know that promoting yourself is important, even for academic authors. Few do it. Then I took a look around here and realized, as always, that I fall between categories. No longer an academic, neither have I had any commercial success with my books. I’ve fallen between two stools with this here website. I do pay for it, of course. Nothing’s free.
Almost nobody links to my website. This isn’t self-pity; WordPress informs you when someone links to your site and that hasn’t happened in years. Links help with discoverability on the web, so my little website sits in a very tiny nook in a low-rent apartment in the part of town where you don’t want to be after dark. And I thought to myself, maybe other authors feel the same. Maybe they too need links. So I’m adding them. As I do so I hope that I’ll also learn a thing or two. I’m trying to learn how to be a writer. It just takes me some time before things dawn. Maybe it’s just my generation.
