Keeping it Interesting

My associate and I are have been doing a lot of reading about blogging, SEO tactics, and social media, we’re in the throes of launching a new business that will help published authors generate more traffic to their websites, and lead to sales. As we learn more and more we’re also applying more of these tactics to our own sites to see what works and what doesn’t.

The key element to have readers keep coming back to your blog or website is to keep the content interesting, but what might be fun for you doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be page turner or a click through for your audience. I discovered this last month when I decided to run a special month-long series on the Spanish Civil War on Alvah’s Books. So the question is do I write for my audience to keep them coming back and review books I know they’ll like or review what’s interesting to me?

The same question applies for writing a novel. Julius has a lot to do with the politics of the left, the Depression, the Abraham Linclon Brigades, the Spanish Civil War, the Rosenbergs, and the blacklist–topics I find fascinating. However, a few people who have read the manuscript have commented that I need to make the story more commercial for it to sell. But does commercial value equal an interesting story? Does it motivate a writer to create a piece that will resonate with both him and his audience? I don’t know. I can only speak for myself, but I’ll keep on writing and researching what interests me–commercial value or not.