I miss author blogs

yes I know THIS is one (sort of), but I miss other people's

Wilhelm Amberg Vorlesung aus Goethes Werther, public domain

Back in the olden times, you know, 2011 or so, there used to be these things called blogs. As a newbie author, I’d start my day by opening my feed reader and would be greeted with a lineup of interesting posts, some thoughtful, some funny, some chatty—none served up by an algorithm. I would get to know my fellow authors and their voices. It would make me want to buy their books even though they rarely advertised them. There wasn’t a lot of pressure to be polished or to “craft a message” or a brand. Instead, blogs had a sense of community and ongoing conversation. (Oh, and bonus, we owned the content we were putting together and could take it with us if with left that blogging service, unlike social media content.)

So, yeah, I miss those blogs. Getting to know people through social media is just a different animal. The messages are targeted, strategic, branded. There’s a gloss of performance on them. The space for words and deeper thoughts is limited. Authors have to pay to be seen online now—and even then you’re only sort of seen by a few. On the reader end of it, it’s become white noise for me. I can’t remember the last time I bought a book from a social media post. Instead, I now discover new books through a few trusted book curation newsletters and a few bookish podcasts.

But this isn’t so much a post complaining about social media (though, don’t get me started lol) but more about the loss I feel at not having access to all those interesting minds in long form anymore and the community aspect that came along with it.

Substack has filled some of that void, but I haven’t seen much of the romance author community over here yet. Maybe that will change. I do feel like there’s a tide shift happening with how people feel about spending so much time and effort on social media. In the meantime, I’ll keep writing these letters and enjoying those of you who show up here to read the posts and/or share something in the comments. Thank you for being here!

Roni

Am I the only one missing blogs? How do you connect best with other writers? Does social media sell books to you as a reader?