Getting a Taste of the Writing Life

I think the best thing about the blog for me is the taste I’ve gotten of what it must be like to be an author. Coming back to the blog only accentuated that feeling.

After Monday I can now say that I have a clear understanding of what it must be like to be an author who has taken a hiatus. The one who, for whatever reason, decided to take some time off after having a reasonably successful publishing career. In the blog world I think I’m that author.

In looking at my analytics I see that even though the blog has been closed for over two years we have still had close to 500 visitors or page views daily. That’s amazing to me. However, now that I’m back writing, like an author returned from hiatus, I have to accept that those 500 page views, a lot lower than the 1500 hundred I used to get daily, might be all I get. There’s no guarantee that my once faithful readers will return. There lives have changed too. Maybe they no longer have time for blogs, maybe they quit writing, or maybe their tastes have changed and my voice is no longer one they want to read. Whatever the reason, I can’t count on those past “sales” as any indication of what the future will be. Too much time has passed.

For me, yesterday was like starting over, as if I’d never been here. I need to go out and convince a new audience that I’m worth visiting 3-5 times a week and that they’re going to like what they read. Or at least have a strong opinion about what they read.

I also need to convince my once faithful readers that the new me is as good as what they once thought of the old me. We’ll see how that goes.

So as I climb back up that ladder on my return, know that I do pretend to have an understanding of what it must be like for all of you.

–jhf