Wandering around Amazon.com a couple weeks ago, I discovered that they are letting authors blog. It didn't take long for me to set one up here. But once I had set it up, it occurred to me I wasn't sure what exactly I should write for it. I then belatedly discovered this article and some blog discussion of the whole venture.
I've never understood how some people manage to keep a bunch of blogs going at once, although I admire the dedication to the form. For now the Amazon blog feels like a good place to post book news and maybe respond to book-related emails (unfortunately, it doesn't seem to allow comment threads, which is one of the main points of blogging, I think). Amazon Connect definitely doesn't feel like the sort of place to write essays about new research in evolution. But who knows what it will mutate into? Certainly not me. I had no idea what I was getting into with the Loom, so why should I pretend I have it all figured out now?
Anyway, I'd be curious to see what anyone else thinks...
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Hi Carl,
I am a regular reader of The Loom, and often link to posts on it from 3 Quarks Daily, but I am afraid that just as you say it is hard for you to imagine people keeping up more than one blog, it is also hard for people to READ too many blogs.
Stick to keeping everything on this blog, I say. Anyway, you asked for feedback, so here it is.
Thanks for all your great work.
Thanks Abbas. That's exactly what I need to hear...and thanks also for including my posts on 3QD
Hi Carl,
I have to second Abbas's comments about it being tough to keep up with multiple journals. One of my favourite writers (the inimitable Warren Ellis) keeps a journal on his website, a livejournal, a mailing list that he posts to at least once daily and several other diary-type-things. I find myself unable to keep up with this at all. I can understand the idea of putting different entries in different categories, and I can understand the idea of having more than one place from where your weblog can be accessed. However, I think this can be better managed (just in terms of the time you'd save) with tagged posts and RSS feeds.
This is just my opinion so make of it what you will.
Ian
I'd like to see how it goes. Who knows, maybe Amazon further develops the connectivity, and recommend books based on your "favorite" amazon blogs, or something like this... I'm eager to read your new blog over there!
FWIW, I'm with Abbas and Ian. I read you by RSS, meaning I get automatically "notified" whenever you post. If Amazon blogs don't have RSS feeds, which they don't appear to, I'll miss anything you post there. Which would suck.
I mean, the missing would suck, not the writing. Oy.
Maybe you could take a leaf from John Scalzi's book, and put in a general placeholder page linking back to the Loom?