I was originally thinking I would rest a bit on the whole blog thing for now, because I don't have anything to publish. I think Bransford makes a compelling argument that it is never to early to start.

Eerie.

1) middle-grade readers are not omni-present on social media yet (at least not connecting to us non-middle-grade-aged-writers.) - an author of middle grade that I very much admire has recently told me that it's very difficult for her/the other MG writers she knows to get buzz going on their books via social media (so she sent me an ARC of a friend's book that I'm going to blog about as soon as I finish it. I'll do my part to help them get the word out because i'm really passionate about getting good MG fiction into those MG readers' hands...)
2) Many in the indie publishing scene seem to think promotion/marketing is all wasted time. It's time spent 'not writing'.

I don't necessarily agree with #2, but I also don't think that one should spend much time attempting to pursue marketing via social media if it isn't a natural interaction style.

For me, I'm a little too old to officially be in the Digital Native crowd, but I grew up in a tech-heavy household and went into a tech-related field so I have always had a high comfort level with interacting socially online (I'd argue this is true for most of the Hatrackers, too, seeing as how we have this imaginary water cooler around which we congregate and we create real friendships with people we only know virtually.)

I think Nathan's point that it's *social* is of utmost importance. A friend of mine who does Social Media Consulting talks about it as *the conversation.* If you're viewing your method of interacting with people online as a one-way street, then your best bet is to set up a facebook fan page and just push announcements to it. Announce your progress on your latest novel, announce your publication of your work, announce your intention to be at a certain conference or book-signing, announce your preference for team A over team B at the super bowl, whatever.

But, if you're into the idea of social media for realz, that means talking to people, engaging with them. Having conversations. It's not just blasting out blog content, it's encouraging responses, taking the time to then interact with those who've spent time responding to you. It's posting things on facebook, and adding your color commentary, then engaging with those who also comment. I think this is where some in the indie world say it's a slippery slope, you could spend all day just reading/writing/commenting on other blogs/reacting to your own/etc.

I've definitely seen a lot of the firehose mentality of blasting it out there, or even a milder version of that with some authors who seem unable/unwilling/shy about engaging with their readers, even while they maintain a facebook page and post things to it. Then again, plenty of non-author friends don't seem to get the two-way street nature of facebook (twitter too, but I don't fully engage there, speaking of a firehose...eek.) You know the ones who post about the ball game or pictures of their kids but *never* reply back to the comments they get on their posts. I stop interacting with these folks quickly (and generally I hide them from my feed, too) because I just don't enjoy having a one-sided conversation. You end up feeling rather needy on the other end, "Hmm, she never replies when I tell her how cute her kids are. She must think I'm the weird stalker girl..."

And you know, none of us want to be the weird stalker girl...

BUT - sorry, this reply is wandering all over the place, I did want to say I'm heading into indie-publishing my own MG sci-fi novel and the thing I've been tinkering with in the back of my mind (and literally just wrote a to-do for myself for) is writing up things like discussion guides, character FAQs, things that teachers could use with my short stories or novels in a classroom, set fees and create a page on my site to offer skype visits, etc., because frankly most MG readers are still in school and my best bet to really get known is to be where the readers are...

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Then again, plenty of non-author friends don't seem to get the two-way street nature of facebook (twitter too, but I don't fully engage there, speaking of a firehose...eek.) You know the ones who post about the ball game or pictures of their kids but *never* reply back to the comments they get on their posts.

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How can I not reply to your post now?

You make solid points and I think the key is interaction. I think at this point in time the decision to go indie (be it POD and/or eBooks) probably means that you would focus on a small audience at first. Actually, that is one of the things I like about Hatrack. This is a smaller community than a few of the other writing communities and many people are regulars here. That is probably the main reason why I spend more time here than on other forums.

I think with blogging, the blogger needs to offer something compelling. I did an experiment of blogging on a few topics (faith, fatherhood and fiction) and I found that for me I got a positive response when I posted things such as microfiction or other creative posts. Nobody showed any interest on random stories about my kids (they're too small to do anything of writing interest) or "what I am writing now." I think the purpose of my blog would be entertainment -- perhaps a weekly microfiction and weekly comic and a weekly text post.

But as you mention, all of this takes time away from writing. I don't have plans of quitting my day job to be an author, but I want to get more serious about the craft (i.e. have multiple published works that reach an audience larger than my personal community).

Now I'm rambling from the top of my head. I have no plans right now, so ...