At first, I had a few theories as to why this second attempt at community storytelling came out of the womb with, shall we say, so little hair on it, and most of these theories (some of them originated within my own mind, and others of them proposed by fellow storytellers) centered around the story we had chosen to write...and around the inability of contributors to follow the prescribed path for the story. But then, I realized something else...
Ahhh, isn't self-realization (self-criticism?) grand.
I realized that I have lost much of my readership. No, not because I've been mean to anyone. Not because I've done anything blatantly wrong or stupid (well, okay, maybe stupid). But mostly, just because I disappeared.
You see, yesterday I posted a post about Writing What Drives You. When I wrote the post, I thought, "Hey, this is good stuff. This might really help someone." You know what? - maybe it will help someone. But first...well, someone has to read it!
A few months ago, when I was posting on Twitter several times a day and was writing three to four blog entries a week, people paid attention. If I posted a link on Twitter, directing readers to a blog post, I could expect a minimum of 100 hits in the next couple hours.
Yesterday, when I posted the link to this "blog post that might help someone," I had about 20 hits.
The crazy thing? - my following on Twitter has not dwindled in number. However, they have dwindled in cumulative interest.
This (thankfully - geesh!) leads me to my point.
Writers, you hear all the time how important it is for you to build an online presence, for you to gain a readership, for you to interact and teach and learn and grow. What you don't hear is this: When you build a readership, you have to keep it. Readers get in the habit of paying attention to certain people. For the people receiving this attention, the attention is a privilege. It is not a right! If you allow your readers to break their habit of paying attention to you, you have no one to blame but yourself when you realize they've begun to graze in fresher pastures.
Build a readership, of course! That's terribly important.
Just as important, however, is that you take good care of the readership you have built, because they are under no obligation to continue alongside you in your journey.
Happy writing! And to those of you who are beginning to return to me, I say: Thank you. Welcome back.
↓ ↓ ↓ Eat To Stay Alive ↓ ↓ ↓
Play nice; share with others
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