Successful Blogging for Fiction Writers: Platform

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How to start blogging as a fiction author: We begin with the platform.

Let's talk about how to blog - or just be online, for that matter - as a fiction author. 

Note: If you're on Twitter and Instagram, this isn't really the guide for you, because these social media platforms behave a little differently to what I'm going to be discussing in this set of posts. If you have a website, a blog, a tumblr blog, or a similar kind of platform, then this might be a suitable guide for your needs.

So, the first step is actually choosing a blogging platform. Are you going to use Wordpress? Medium? Tumblr? Blogger? Something else entirely? Make sure to make the choice based on a few different factors:

  1. Ease of access. You need your blog to be easily found and easily accessible by your audience. Most blogging platforms will list your blog in Google search results, for example, and that's really helpful for getting discovered - but discovery alone isn't going to be enough, and we'll get into that in just a bit.
  2. Ease of use. You need to be able to use the platform of your choice effectively. So, if you're not really knowledgeable in HTML, CSS, and so on, you might want a blogging platform where all you have to do is drag-and-drop elements or choose a theme to customize. Most blogging platforms will give you the choice, so it usually just comes down to which UI you find the most comfortable to use.
  3. Your audience. If your audience is mostly found on, say, a social media website like Tumblr, which also happens to be a blogging platform, then that's probably where you want to be. But it's hard to always know where your audience is hiding out. The internet is vast. Which, again, is why discovery alone isn't going to be enough - but then, neither is choosing a platform and hoping that's where all your readers will be. 
  4. You content. What are you going to be blogging about? This one's a little tricky; as fiction authors, we have a wide breadth of fun content we can blog about. This can simply mean that any platform will do, but really think about what kind of content you are able to make and most likely to make. For example, do you enjoy making graphics for your projects? Do you enjoy making and sharing art related to your stories? Then you're going to want a blogging platform that's going to showcase your art accordingly. Sometimes, it's not so much about the platform itself as the theme you decide to use. 

These are a few things to consider when choosing a platform to get started on. It doesn't have to be permanent, so don't worry about choosing the perfect platform right off the bat. Perfect doesn't exist, anyway. Get started, then worry about moving to another platform if that time ever comes. 

Personally, I decided to try out a whole range of blogging platforms when I was first starting to build my writing blog. I tried SheWrites, and Medium, and even Dreamwidth. But in the end, I always found myself coming back to this Blogger platform and the Tumblr platform. For me, these have been the easiest to work with, and the simplest to set up. They've also allowed me to network with a range of different authors in different online circles. 

It can be a trial and error process to find the right blogging platform. For example, I'm still considering trying out Wordpress and Substack and seeing if that fares better than what I'm currently using. Maybe I'll end up moving over there. Regardless, you need to try things out to know what you're going to enjoy using and what you're going to have difficulty using.

Remember that choosing the platform is only the first step. Now, you have to set up your platform with all of the critical elements which will help you gain readers, and you have to go out there and actively find your readers. We'll talk more about those aspects of building a blog as a fiction author in the upcoming posts in this series. 

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