Authors are people who write. End of story. Right? 😉 But with so many options out there, it’s tough to balance blogging, newsletters, or other forms of writing when you’re trying to reach your readers efficiently. I’m facing this right now in my own career as I try to streamline my work. It all comes down to intention, audience, and time.

Every piece of writing has an audience–even if it’s a diary or to-do list written for an audience of one. Personally, I love communicating via written word. Because of that, I’ve been blogging for years at this point (seriously–one could almost say decades). During all that time, my attitude and intentions for blogging have shifted, and I’ve added other forms of writing into the mix: newsletters, social media campaigns, even a recent foray into Substack.

Unfortunately, there are only 24 hours in a day; that’s one thing that hasn’t changed over the years. Lately I’ve realized that all this exploring new writing forms and adding more blogs to the mix has become unsustainable. It’s time for an audit!

And so, here are the various forms of communication open to authors, as I see them:

Writing Books

This is the obvious one, but it needs to be said explicitly because writing takes time. And as an author, you are talking to your audience through your books, albeit not as directly as through other forms. Exactly who your audience is, what your intentions are, and how much time you devote to it is up to you and your genre.

Regular Newsletters

By this I mean email communications with your readers. The intention, at its most basic, is to sell books and/or make personal connections with your audience. Not all authors write a regular newsletter; some only send out an email when they have a new release, and some never bother with a newsletter at all. Personally, I buy into the idea that a newsletter needs to be regular to be useful–especially as an author starting out. When you write regularly, even just once a month, your readers are less likely to forget who you are!

That said, of all the forms of writing, I think writing newsletters feels the most like making a public presentation. It certainly gives me, a classic introvert, the most nerves. The flip side of this is that it also has given me the most room to be creative–adding in images, silly or amusing segments, polls and contests, etc. My newsletter required a lot of thought and time in its set up, but has become more and more second-nature to write; I’ll absolutely continue writing it twice a month.

Author Blogs

Example A: what I’m writing right now! Traditionally, blog posts are limited to one topic, and they essentially come off as essays or opinion pieces. The intent is often to teach or vent. In my experience, all authors write books (naturally, haha), many authors write newsletters, but only some authors write blogs. I think this is in part because blog writing is a different skill from book writing. And, of course, it takes up precious time.

And what, really, do you get from a blog? For me, it’s a secondary and more technical opportunity for communication. The way I see it, my newsletter’s audience is readers and friends; my blog’s audience is, increasingly, other authors. I get a lot out of that, because it’s important to me to share what I’ve learned (and readers don’t necessarily need to know the ins and outs of IngramSpark, for example!). But if you’re a busy or already established author, you might not feel the same way. For my part, I’ve decided to continue with my blog posts–once a week. This is a downshift from twice a week; more on that below!

Substack

For this we could also say subscription-based writing, and expand it to include Patreon and whatever other platforms are out there but are not on my radar. (I’m not including Wattpad or Vella or other serialized fiction-writing services, because that falls under “writing books,” in my opinion.) This is a growing field, and I find it’s tricky to navigate when you already have a blog.

While there are free options for posting/following an author on Substack, the basic point of subscription-based platforms is to be paid monthly for your writing. Essentially, it’s taking that second stream of communication–technical tips and musings for other authors, rather than connections with readers–and turning that into an income. (You absolutely could use Substack/Patreon/etc to connect with readers, but so far, I’ve seen them more successfully used for professional communities and advice.)

Now, I personally can see value in Substack, but as I said at the beginning–it’s only the most recent edition to my writing repertoire. I find I’m having difficulty shifting from blog focus to subscription focus. Silly, right? They’re basically the same thing; either way, you’ve (presumably) set a schedule for yourself and promised to produce content every week/month. But for me, subscription comes with an assumption of consistent new value. With a blog I can sometimes share old posts or fun posts when I need a break or am out of office.

So far I am on Substack but am treating it as one big experiment–and an arena for fun. For example, my current plan is to switch my old “fun fact Friday” blog posts over to Substack and change them into “writing prompt & book excerpt” posts. What was a blog post with an audience of mostly readers is now a (currently free) subscription mostly for other writers. My plan is to continue nurturing this new habit and learning about the platform. I may have a follow-up to this post to write in a few months!

What’s the Point?

The point is to communicate! That’s what writing is for, right? 😉 Though many of my thoughts here are framed by my own need to streamline my process, every author will have their own priorities. So: which audience do you need to focus on, and why? How much time do you have to devote to this? Let those answers guide you, and see what forms of writing call to you. The good thing is, you can always change your answer later, as needed.

Psst! Could you use a little help?

I’ve added coaching, research assistance, and classes to my offerings! Check out my author services and group workshops. It may be a tough, dark world out there, but together we can share some light.

Want to Keep in Touch?

Options! You can sign up for my newsletter, which comes out twice a month and includes sneak peeks, book recommendations, cat pictures, and a round up of recent blog posts. Or, you can subscribe to the blog itself, to make sure you never miss an upcoming release. You can also do both! Either way, I’ll never share your info, and I’m looking forward to sharing with you again. 🙂

Newsletter:

Blog: