I think one of the things you have to admit to yourself when doing a writing blog is that unless you've got a book contract, you aren't going to get much traffic. I think it's human nature. We go visit the blogs of people who've published books, or recently sold books, because we're looking for the secret. (This is not to say that all published author blogs get a lot of traffic.) There's no secret here. Not yet anyway. When we head over to JA Konrath's blog, for example, we're looking for things to amaze and inspire us. Joe manages to do that pretty regularly, by the way.

I'm always trying new blogs, refining my list, but I do have some must reads (and yes, I think they're all published/contracted). Many of them you'll find in the sidebar: Alison Kent, Murder She Writes, JA, Miss Snark, Pub Rants, Paperback Writer, Tess Gerritsen. I also like Diana Peterfreund's blog, though I haven't put her in the sidebar yet. Inevitably, from these blogs I find others. Romancing the Blog is great too (see sidebar).

I also have friends' blogs to read, and I love keeping up with them and reading their posts. One of the best for general interest to a wide audience, however, is I See Invisible People. Terry's my friend, but also a great blogger.

So, what makes you want to read a blog? Do you find any value in the blogs of the unpublished? (I have short pieces print published, but by RWA standards I am unpublished. This is fine with me because I don't see it as permanent.) Or do you prefer to read blogs by published writers? Is this simply another way to portion out what may be already limited blog time? If you visit other people's blogs, do you expect them to visit you in turn (I'm not talking about the popular bloggers because they are too busy to be expected to visit everyone who visits them)? Does it bother you if you visit people and they don't return the favor? Do you think there's a club mentality at work in the blogging world? (PBW once likened it to high school.) Any other thoughts?

And thanks for reading. πŸ™‚