Historical Fictionistas discussion

I want to start writing a GoodReads blog and before I do so I'd like to check out other blogs written by GR authors, just to get some ideas. There doesn't seem to be a quick and easy way of tracking them down. Would anyone like to post a message here as a pointer to their blog, or discuss any issues about blogging?

Hi Hilda - I have a blog linked to my website, so never saw the point of adding one here.
If you'd like to take a look it's at

http://cavalrytales.wordpress.com/

I should perhaps warn you it's fairly limited in scope as it focusses on 19th century British cavalry :)

Hilda wrote: "I want to start writing a GoodReads blog and before I do so I'd like to check out other blogs written by GR authors, just to get some ideas. There doesn't seem to be a quick and easy way of tracki..."

Hi Hilda,

Click on the faces. Navigate to our 'author page' most should have a link or at least the name of their website or blogsite.

Also many have a Goodreads 'blog'found below their introductory material and bio. Both my website and Goodreads blog are there.

Yes, I thought most were fed in from our outside blogs. You can either 'read more' here or 'view more on author's website'.

The import scrambles the image placement, but otherwise, easy to use. Always looks better on your own site, but a great function for us here.

Thanks, Steven and Jonathan. I've got the hang of it now.

I think Stephen, Jonathan, and Bryn have covered the basics, but let me add one point. You can start a blog here on Goodreads or link to a blog you've created elsewhere.

The first is easier, but the second has the advantage that you can also link it to your Amazon.com page and link to individual posts on Facebook or Twitter for people who may not be Goodreads members. That's what all of us responding here have done.

Blogger and Wordpress are two easy-to-use, free sites if you want to experiment with option 2.

Thanks, C.P. It was the GoodReads blogs that I wanted to find out more about. I already have two websites, each with a blog. I'd noticed that some of the GR blogs are imports from outside. For GoodReads I want to target my writing towards the specific interests of Historical Fictionstas as that is my favourite group, although I've also published travel books and am currently working on a non-historical novel. I think I'll start my GR blog by adapting some of the posts I've already published elsewhere. And thanks for pointing out that I can link my blog to my Amazon page. I'd forgotten about that.

And thanks for pointing out that I can link my blog to my Amazon page. I'd forgotten about that.


Only to Amazon US. That feature doesn't work in the UK, unless I'm doing something completely wrong...

Yes, only to Amazon.com (US). Not elsewhere. Thanks, Jonathan, for clarifying!

I've now managed to organise my GR author blog and just posted my first post - about the historical validity of historical fiction. Now I'm off to amazon.com to try to set something up there.

I think it’s a good idea to touch all the bases. I have a GR author’s blog and there’s a link to my own blog in my GR author’s profile.

I have not encountered any problem – which Jonathan and C.P. seem to be referring to – in setting up a link to my personal blog in my biography on the Amazon websites for my seven books and on my Amazon author’s page (both Amazon.co and Amazon.com). And I live in Australia.

Second thoughts: Maybe I don't have a problem because my blog platform (TypePad) is US-based.

I've a blog on my author's website. I'm wanting to grow it so here's a teaser on my latest blog post:

From my latest blog post 'Strong Women 2/25/13':

Strong women play a large part in my historical fiction. I am lucky to have supreme role models in my ancestors and in the women that share my world. They are giants of will and perseverance. They guide me as I create my fiction’s characters.

My great-great-great-great grandmother...

Read more at:

http://www.stevenspen.com/

I've just read your post, Steven. Interesting ancestry you have. By the way,have you read A Small Part of History. Your ancestor Pretia reminded me of it.

Hilda wrote: "I've just read your post, Steven. Interesting ancestry you have. By the way,have you read A Small Part of History. Your ancestor Pretia reminded me of it."

Thank you. I am blessed with a genealogist for a father and an inborn love of research. I'll check out the book.

I've tried to set up an Amazon blog but you can only import material from an existing blog via RSS. So I won't bother. In the meantime I've posted another post on my GR blog. This one is about how historical fiction can give a voice to the unvoiced, particularly important in the case of women in the past.
http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...

My latest GR blog post is about choosing a title:
http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...

Hilda wrote: "My latest GR blog post is about choosing a title:
http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_..."

Hi Hilda, I enjoyed reading your blog post and think the title you went with was good!

Thanks, Yangsze. I've just checked out your blog. I particularly like the post Childhood Books That Frighten You.

Hilda wrote: "Thanks, Yangsze. I've just checked out your blog. I particularly like the post Childhood Books That Frighten You."

Ha ha! Yes, there were lots of books that frightened me when I was a child. Glad you enjoyed it :)

Me, too. I read the tales of Baba Yaga at nine and was terrified. Yet I became a Russian historian. The need to master a phobia? Could be. ;)

There's a way to have your blog feed into Goodreads.
I'd set it up elsewhere and investigate all the ways it can feed to Facebook, here, Twitter, Amazon.

I'm participating in a Historical Fiction book fair, which is essentially a blog hop. My piece is called Love During the Conquest and can be found here: http://bit.ly/153lj7WThe Sandoval Sisters' Secret of Old Blood

Sandra wrote: "...I'm participating in a Historical Fiction book fair, which is essentially a blog hop...."

I'm taking part in it too. Here is the link to the main page where you can find out about more than 50 historical novelists who are participating:
http://tgunwriter.blogspot.it/2013/03...
There's a wide variety of work on display.

Has anyone had any problems with Wordpress, either as a blogger or when trying to post comments on Wordpress blogs? I've been very frustrated over the past couple of days as a number of the authors taking part in the Historical Fiction 4-day bookfair have Wordpress blogs and, even though I have a Wordpress identity myself, it won't let me post a comment on them, telling me that my Wordpress ID doesn't exist - even though it does and I'm actually logged on to the WP site! Googling the issue I find that a lot of other people have had this problem and tried to get WP to sort it out, to no avail. I can't even find an explanation or any suggestion how to get round it. In the meantime, I'm unable to interact with those authors that I'd like to exchange ideas with.

Hilda wrote: "Has anyone had any problems with Wordpress, either as a blogger or when trying to post comments on Wordpress blogs? I've been very frustrated over the past couple of days as a number of the authors..."

How annoying for you! I use Blogger for my own blog (which I like, although several people have mentioned that they find it more of a pain than WordPress), so I sign in to WP blogs with an e-mail address. I haven't had any trouble leaving comments, and at least WP doesn't throw up those infuriating Captchas.

The one thing that occurs to me as a long-time computer person is to ask whether your being logged in is what's preventing you from leaving comments. But that's a long shot, I admit.

Good luck!

Hilda wrote: "Has anyone had any problems with Wordpress, either as a blogger or when trying to post comments on Wordpress blogs? I've been very frustrated over the past couple of days as a number of the authors..."

I haven't had any troubles lately--I have a WP blog and a commenter id which has been going through no prob. This does sound infuriating. The digital world can drive you crazy when all the simple steps we do without thinking somehow get bollixed up.

C.P. wrote: "Hilda wrote: "Has anyone had any problems with Wordpress, either as a blogger or when trying to post comments on Wordpress blogs? I've been very frustrated over the past couple of days as a number ..."

Wordpress has come under a botnet attack. See this BBC report:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-...

It advises changing your access code.

Just had a signing at the Los Angeles Festival of Books and blogged about it here: bit.ly/11x1Bhf

Also, The Sandoval Sisters' Secret of Old Blood is a finalist in two categories with the International Latino Book Awards: Best Historical Fiction and Best First Book, Fiction.

I've just redone my site for my new novel and have made it much more blog-focused than my last version: www.jennifercodyepstein.com. I also linked to Goodreads, but I feel like the Goodreads version is pretty spare compared to my home page and I'm a little stuck by the fact that when people comment on the GR version the comment doesn't appear on the home page, which means we potentially end up having very different conversations between the two sites.

Jennifer wrote: "I've just redone my site for my new novel and have made it much more blog-focused than my last version: www.jennifercodyepstein.com. I also linked to Goodreads, but I feel like the Goodreads versio..."

As my site provider requires a 'captcha' code (a very simple one by the way) that no one wants to do, I get no comment conversation at my blog site at all. Since I had it up and running I've had 2 people comment. So all my interchange takes place here and at a couple of other reader/writer places. Conversation varies place to place for me too.

Steven, if your site provider is Blogger/Google Apps, you can turn the captcha off.

I wish. I've been around and around with the provider and It stays 'repuired'. the Provider is 1&1.com. They are otherwise a great experience and affordable.

On the forum about how we got into writing historical fiction, there's been a thread about witchcraft and witch trials. For anyone who's interested, here's a link to my most recent blog post titled The Hardest Thing, which deals with this most difficult of topics. http://www.beltanethebook.com/the-har...

Hi all: I had fun writing my latest blog post, which describes my experience rereading The Epic of Gilgamesh. I don't say in the blog itself, but the version I read most recently was by Stephan Mitchell, which is extremely readable, but I understand somewhat controversial, though I'm not sure why. Here's a link to the blog post if anyone's interested: cheers.
http://www.beltanethebook.com/the-old...

My latest blog post. My Dad at war.

Soldier On 5/4/13

My father is a stalwart and upright man. Responsible to his duties, loyal to his friends, gentle in his nature. He is a man of strong values and few vices. A hero that I always disappointed because I did not feel I could ever live up to his example nor did I try to. The last thing I would think would be in his nature was that of a killer...

Read more:

http://www.stevenspen.com/blog-1/

I've been running interviews with historical fiction authors who will be speaking at the Historical Novel Society Conference in June. Check it out. For now they're listed on the frontpage of my website.

Since we've been talking about Jack Weatherford and Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World in the currently-reading thread, I thought I'd link to this.

An hour's talk from Jack Weatherford about Genghis Khan. The YouTube on my blog, with a few main points, in case you haven't time to listen. He's a fine talker, though, and this is a great introduction.

http://amgalant.com/my-hero-on-my-hero/

My latest blog post: The Big Picture, talks about what fiction writing has in common with tweets from space. I'm an enthusiastic follower of Cmdr. Hadfield on Twitter, and this blog post talks about how his tweets from the International Space Station inspire me as a historical fiction writer. Incongruous? Not as much as you might think.
http://www.beltanethebook.com/the-big...

My blog (http://thewhiterajah.blogspot.co.uk/) tries to promote my books but also discusses the history behind them. There's lots of general stuff too. I dance tango and I've found that I seem to get a good response when I write about that, so there's more of it sneaking in, and there's the odd bit of 'human interest'.

It's now getting around 1,000 hits a month, but this doesn't seem to translate into anything useful - like book sales, or even reviews. Because the statistics say people read it, and I keep being told how important social media are, I find I'm spending a significant amount of effort on it and I'm not sure that I should be.

What do others think? Is a blog a useful marketing tool or just a bit of self-indulgence?

I've had pretty much the same experience as you, Tom. But don't be discouraged. It takes time to build up a following and get results. That's what I tell myself anyway. And don't forget, another advantage of maintaining a blog about your writing is that it helps to crystallise your own thoughts about your work.

And a blog is relatively permanent—unlike Facebook, never mind Twitter or Tumblr.

Agents also scan blogs, looking for an author with a "platform" (whatever that means to them).

I offload onto my blog the sort of thing I shouldn't put in a novel. It's useful that way. You have thoughts on your subject that don't belong in a story, but you need a outlet for them. It's a safety valve, I hope, against shoving too much into the fiction. Had a blog for a year, find more and more uses I didn't expect. Few of them to do with the novel.

Loved your most recent post, by the way (about Mongol history having been written by the losers).

Have you read George Vernadsky's "The Mongols and Russia" (vol. 3 of his History of Russia)? It is pretty balanced, if elderly.

C.P. wrote: "Have you read George Vernadsky's "The Mongols and Russia" (vol. 3 of his History of Russia)?"

I have not, but I'll fix that situation.
Glad you liked the latest. Where I complain about historians.

Historians are humans, too. Hence we make mistakes. ;-)

Complain away. And thanks for the comment on my steppe heroines. They rule, indeed!

Bryn wrote: "I offload onto my blog the sort of thing I shouldn't put in a novel. It's useful that way. You have thoughts on your subject that don't belong in a story, but you need a outlet for them. It's a saf..."

Me too! I'm enjoying keeping a blog way more than I thought I would. I try to post regularly, and the discipline of writing something others will read feels good. When I get discouraged about book sales, I remember that I get to define success, and if people are reading/liking my blog: that's pretty cool.

@Christine, yes, similar experience. The blog's worthwhile in itself, has its independent purposes... I'm happy it's not just a 'tool' for the books. Like others: if it is, that tool doesn't much work much for me; and I haven't much incentive to visit blogs that are just tools, either, unless I'm a fan come for information. And, the blog's there when you're stuck or dissatisfied with your writing... write a blog post instead. It's still an achievement.

Tom wrote: "My blog (http://thewhiterajah.blogspot.co.uk/) tries to promote my books but also discusses the history behind them. There's lots of general stuff too..."

Tom is doing well to get 1000 hits a month, but turning this into sales is clearly a challenge. I've been writing a blog since 2005, the year my first historical novel, Rashi's Daughters, Book I: Joheved, came out and I still have no idea what effect it has on sales.

But like Tom, I enjoy discussing the research behind my books as well as addressing questions from readers and current events about Jewish women that interest me [and hopefully interest my fans]. And the discipline of coming up with something new at least weekly is important too.

A reminder to other authors who keep blogs: be sure to link it to your pages at Goodreads and Amazon, and post it on Google+, LinkedIn, etc.
Maggie Anton

Hi Tom,
As a reader, I wanted to chime in. there are a few authors that I follow either through here, or through independent blogs. With social media, it gives a great opportunity to put more of a human face behind the book. People may have already purchased a book before they found your blog, but by giving them something human and authentic to follow, they're more likely to continue to buy (and refer!) in the future. Having access to the human behind the book is a great opportunity for readers that wasnt there in the past! Keep it up. :)

The Sandoval Sisters' Secret of Old Blood "Winner, Best Historical Fiction and Best First Book, ILWA, 2013. My blog www.bloodmother.com feeds into Goodreads, FB and my website.