What lies ahead

Most people blog about their plans for the upcoming year much closer to Jan. 1. I didn't have time, which is actually pertinent to the subject of today's blog.

Last year, and indeed the past couple of years, have been a real roller coaster ride for me, with some great times, good times and, frankly, awful times. There have been family problems, a health scare that (mercifully) turned out to be nothing, major social events and some deadline changes that were not of my making, to name a few that created stress. Big-time stress.

So lately I've been thinking about my priorities and what I can do to reduce the stress. I still have obligations. I still have family issues. There are, in other words, things beyond my control that are going to be stressful.

However, there are things within my control that I'm reconsidering, including the time I spend blogging.

While I generally enjoy writing the blog, is it worth the time and the effort? Considering I also have a newsletter and Twitter, is it necessary to blog, too?

To answer that, I need to think about my reasons for blogging. The most obvious is to connect with my readers in an informal, personal way, while also promoting my books.

Is this blog doing that? Or is it just another deadline-type job I've given myself because I've been told a writer ought to have a blog?

If my blog isn't doing that enough (ie little traffic), do I want to do what would be necessary to change that?

What would that entail? Being more focused on publishing, writing more about research, visiting other blogs and commenting more, doing guest blogs elsewhere, writing newsletter articles, maybe even taking out ads and doing banners, going to more conferences....

In other words, change the focus of this blog to something more publishing-specific and do a lot more promotion.

I'm still evaluating, so no decisions have been made, but don't be surprised if I wind up blogging less in the short term as I try to decide what I'll do about/with/for my blog.