Blog
3 min read
Since launching our new-look Writers’ & Artists’ website, thousands of you have dropped in to see us online, which is what we’d only dared to hope back when we were tweaking designs and sorting out coding.
But are you getting the very most from the site? There are a few simple things you can do to boost your experience, other than the obvious, of course, which is to add www.writersandartists.co.uk to your bookmarks and then have a mosey around the home page:
- Get snooping around the articles as they’re jam-packed with helpful advice from people who’ve been there, done that, and come out the other side with pearls of wisdom. Check out Q&As with artist 'Edward Monkton', author Neil Gaiman, or literary agent Catherine Clarke.
- Once you’ve soaked up the Most Read blog posts, browse the blog by category – we have added nearly 100 posts on everything from using your website as a portfolio to publishing in the year 2020. There’s a huge depth and variety of info hiding just below the latest posts.
- If you haven’t done so already, register on the site. It doesn’t take long and it’ll give you unlimited access to our full range of independently researched listings, covering everything from publishing houses to magazines to literary agents to commercial art studios to radio producers to picture libraries to, well, it’s a long list. Sign in and you’ll see what I mean!
- The extra benefit of registering is that you can create a user profile. Hundreds of you have already done this and I’ve been enjoying the biogs, not one of which is average or typical, rather you’re an inspiring and diverse range of creative people, spanning students about to embark on creative writing courses at university to professional actors, published authors, keen bloggers and contributors to some of the longest-standing publications in the UK.
- Get in touch with other users, either by adding a comment to the blog, or by registering and then searching those carefully crafted user profiles. Perhaps you want to collaborate on an exciting new project, or you admire someone’s artwork and want to know more. Maybe you’re just a friendly sort. Whatever it is, find a fellow user and get messaging via their Contact Me box.
After all, it’s good to share. And it’s very good to get into social networking - more on which will be appearing soon in an upcoming post from one of our guest bloggers.
Best wishes,
(Publisher, Yearbooks)
Writing stage
Hi suey_sue,
The great thing about blogging is that it's free (unless you want the fancier add-ons) and easy to get started, even if you haven't done it before. I've used Wordpress, which I found very user friendly - addictively so in fact - but Blogger and Typepad are among the other popular ones. Why not take a look at other writers' blogs, find the ones you like best and and see what platforms they use? There's an article on Writing a Blog, including lots of tips for getting started in the Writers' & Artists' Yearbook 2010.
What blogging platforms do other users like?
And suey_sue, do let us know how you get on.
A lot of writers now seem to do their own blogs and some have even used them as a showcase for their own writing. I'm ok on the computer but not yet got into the blogging thing. I know there are blogging sites out there but how do you choose a sutable one and what exactly would you blog about. I'm an avid journal keeper and love all kinds of writing. Has anyone any advice on getting started?
Hi Kaz,
Sorry, there was a technical glitch! It's fixed now, so you're all set to contact our users via their online profiles
Claire