I started blogging in 2006 when I had sold my first novel but it had not yet been published, in those anxious months in between while I learned the whole process.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I write slowly by hand. Publishing is effectively bankrupt for you unless you are Danielle Steele. It takes a year to write book and advances are going down or disappearing.
I've been writing since I'm five years old. I've been writing books since high school - junior high, high school. I write every single day. I never thought I'd be published.
I had a blog for many years. Once you develop your readership on your blog, and you can put something out there or direct traffic or get attention - it's like a super power.
Even though I got a late start, first publishing an essay when I was 50 years old, I've since written eight suspense novels.
I've been writing for a long time. I sat down to write my first novel in the middle of March of 1982.
In a way, publishing in 2005 was similar to publishing in 1950. Nobody kept blogs; that was still optional. I didn't even have a website then.
Last week I was just someone who had had a first novel published.
I began writing seriously in my mid-20s and didn't publish my first book until I was 41.
I started my blog in 2002. That was pre-MySpace, pre-Facebook. That was back before newspapers realized they were going out of business. That was back when no one gave any credence to Internet writers.
I think I made my first short fiction sale in 2005. I had been writing unsuccessfully before that.