Internet – Steve Campbell

I gave my blog a new look again. It was looking cluttered. And since I’m at a standstill with my writing and art projects, I figured I’d have a go at blog design and pray for something appealing. This came after I gave up the idea of pulling the plug on my blog altogether.

Life got really crazy-busy during the past year and I grew weary trying to keep up a blog. Blogging and keeping it fresh and interesting are huge responsibilities. When I don’t invariably post new and exciting content to it, I feel guilty of letting down my followers.

Meanwhile, there’s a lot of material sitting in the archives for you new followers. It’s a feature that goes unnoticed because of WordPress’s push at shoving new material at us. Their Reader page with its constant updates is the first thing we see when we log into our accounts. It’s a shame they don’t have a better feature for our archives other than a search bar. But I’m glad to have the old search tool because I love reading and looking at gems from the past.

But don’t take my word for it. Start digging around and see for yourself.

I like online sites that let writers/authors post their writing/books free without taking control of the content. Wattpad is one of those sites, which I joined a couple years ago. It was during the same time that I created an author page at Goodreads, and I spent nearly all my online time there, listing my books, adding my blog, and letting all my readers and Facebook fans know about it. I did nothing with my Wattpad page, which was a mistake.

Most of the problems with Goodreads arose when I changed the titles of some of my books and took others off the market. These were e-books, not hard-copy books, and sold through Amazon, though I did sell a couple of titles at B&N. I wrestled long with the Goodreads librarians to keep my readers and fans abreast of those changes, which, after months of begging, the librarians refused to do. Original titles stayed, they told me. So did out-of-print books (their term for my e-books taken off market). To do differently would upset the libraries there. Frustrated, I ended my association with Goodreads. My author page still exists there, complete with all the incorrect listings of my books.

LibraryThing is another online library where authors can list their books. They allow authors full control of their pages. Where Goodreads is Hell, LibraryThing is Heaven. So, while I happily updated my books there, a reader/fan asked me about my Wattpad page—the one I ignored for two years.

If, by some slim chance you’re unfamiliar with Wattpad, it’s a writing community in which users can (in Wattpad’s own words) “discover and share stories: a social platform that connects people through words. … With Wattpad, anyone can read or write on any device: phone, tablet, or computer.” You can read and write stories, articles, poems, even fan fiction, and comment and like what you read. You can even join groups of your favorite genres.

As of this post, I have two followers and I’m following four people. I have five short stories there and more to add. I have far to go to build my readership/fan base. If you are at Wattpad, let me know. I would love to hear from you.