Why a Writing Blog and an Author Website are Different
Today’s post is a bit of a self-reflection and some advice, which I always find to be the best kind of post, right? At the end of September, I relaunched my author website, Laura Teagan. If you haven’t looked at it, you should definitely do so, because that sucker took months to get right, and I still feel like I’m not done. Besides the obvious part of the pen name, I’m often asked why I give writing advice here on Ginger & Co. and not there. So today I’d like to talk about why a writing blog and author website are different.
Why are they different?
1. Audience. Audience. Audience.
So, there’s this misconception that writers and readers are the same. Which isn’t necessarily true. Yes, there is a lot of overlap, but not all readers are writers. While writers really need to be readers to be better authors, not all writers read. I know I typically go through heavy periods where I read a lot, but don’t write a lot, or vice versa. Or right now where I’m not doing a lot of either.
The point is, while often times writers and readers are one-in-the-same, you can’t assume that they are.
Now, at some point I do plan to build a page on Laura Teagan with links to great writing websites, but that doesn’t mean I’m dishing out writing advice left and right.
2. They’re two different topics.
Okay, I know this sounds like I’m shooting myself in the foot since Ginger & Co. covers a million and one different topics, but I’m very careful about the writers and readers. E.M. Welsh, a writing blogger (who also lives less than a mile away from me – but we still haven’t met yet), wrote about some of her favorite writing blogs a few weeks ago in her newsletter. I was honored that I was named in it, and there was one line she wrote about my blog that I think I really needed to hear and I’ve been obsessed with since. “Laura has created a life survival kit for the young author.”
But guess what, readers probably don’t care about a survival kit for young authors. They just want to read some good books, y’all!
Your author website and writing blog should be separate. Here's why >> Share on X
3. Your author website should really be focused on your books.
People go to an author’s website to learn more about their books. Everything you do should on that site should push toward your books. Most of the blog posts I’ll have on that site will be about my books and my characters.
4. Unless you have a specific content plan for your author website/blog, it should probably be static.
Kristen Kieffer wrote a great post on her author website about why she now has a blog on her author website. While it’s taken me a bit longer, I’m in the middle of planning out some interesting content for my author blog as well. So far I have a post about how I got started writing, plus my five favorite book series.
If you can’t commit to making a blog a steady part of your author website, you probably should just ditch one. You should engage people beyond “my book is coming out, you should buy it!”
5. For me, my author blog is much more personal
That may sound strange, but for me, my author blog is much more my thoughts and just my stories. On Ginger & Co., most of the content I create has my own story in it, but I make it applicable to other people, like you! On my author blog, I’m just telling my story, no advice needed.
But I’ll say, the main reason you need two have two separate places for writers and readers goes right back to number one. They’re two different sets of people, and your writing blog and author website are there to accomplish two different things.
Do you have an author website or a writing blog?