Booksie

It's been interesting writing and publishing on this website. Firstly, it is one of the only writing sites that is not specifically a 'writing workshop'. It has no forums, no writing advice, no promotion of less well known poets, no competitions and no exciting facebook widgets. You might think this is a bad thing, but I actually would rate this as a positive for the website. It's simple. I've known other websites, Neopoet.com for one, that although good, takes awhile to understand. So, it's professional and it doesn't break down much. On the downside, this means that despite the dramatic increase of writers coming to Booksie there is actually less of a chance of you being noticed unless you're either a) something special b) great at marketing c) very, very friendly.

Whilst other websites facilitate the coming together of writers and consequently promotion of work, Booksie is limited in helping any writer to get feedback. This is because Featured Writing only features the most popular (which can sometimes in cause and effect stay the same for some period) and the Read tab also features only the most popular. The problem being that if your work is not immediately eye catching then nobody will read it. The new writing section is very small and has been reduced since the upgrade.

So, how can you make your work appealing on Booksie? Number One. Say hello to people on their pages, or even consistenly invite them to read your work. The Rogue Hat Company tried to use this tactic and had some success, but it was clear that in the end it was the quality of the work that made the difference to how popular it became. It can also be a bit frustrating when everybody wants you to read their work but won't take the time out to read yours. Other websites like Writerscafe have 'Read Requests' that you can enable or disable depending on whether you want people to suggest their work to you. Number Two. Make Everybody your Fan. This had very little effect. It is my opinion that people only really take an interest in your work if you follow the third suggestion. Number Three. Take time to read and review, and to make friends, with the writer. Generally, this is how writers on Booksie have their works in lights. In some ways this means that the more introverted or culturally different members of Booksie don't get the same attention as others, however good their writing is.

I think this is where the problem lies. Booksie is one of the best, if not the best, writing site available on the web, but it's a hard website to become successful on. I  am pleased that writers no longer have to include the word 'SEX' in their title just to get heard, but I still believe Booksie could do with focusing on promoting ALL writing, not just popular people. If you do want to become successful on Booksie I would follow these top tips:

1. Be A Good Writer - learn, practice and improve on your writing. In the end, this is what will determine success.

2. Be A Good Friend - look at other people's work, however good you think you are, people won't just find you out of the blue. Take the time to do a proper review of somebody elses work, not just 'like it. Please look at all my stuff. Thanx.' 

3. Be A Good Marketer - find new an innovative ways to make people interested in  you. I'm not a big fan of it and I still don't think it works as good as the above points, but by creating contests and challenges and projects and all this jazz, people might look at you.

4. Finally, Don't Get to Hung Up on It - It's not the end of the world!

Thanks for reading,

The Rogue Hat Company