Hello everybody,
I am a writer currently working on various projects and want to elevate my status to looking more professional for potential audiences/ literary agent. I am struggling to know whether a blog or portfolio via my own website is a more suitable option. I mainly want to provide references for the different publications I've had, plus perhaps showcasing snippets of my own work. Could anybody give me guidance on this? thanks.
Hi Dan,
Jonathan is absolutely right that blogs do need to be maintained in order to build up a following. The same goes for websites as well, although you definitely don't need to spend much on author websites. A simple WordPress site could be a good option to start with, if you intend to use it simply to showcase your work.
Depending on what you're writing, it can be useful for literary agents to see previously published work, accolades etc. This sort of information would definitely be beneficial in including in a covering letter to agents when you start to submit your work.
This can be useful for fiction and non-fiction, although I'd argue that the latter is the sort of area that agents might want to see previous work in. Obviously depending on what you're writing. For example, if you were writing a narrative non-fiction book about politics, it would strengthen your submission to include links to articles you may have written for various outlets - both online and print.
A little while ago, I believe some agencies/agents asked for Writing CVs (which would obviously detail all of your previous work) but my understanding is that is no longer necessary and the standard documents as outlined on agency submission pages are all that's required.
Clare
Thanks Jonathan, the prospect of regular updating can be quite challenging to navigate amongst other projects/ daily life grindings. I will consider further which one I wish to pursue, I'm gearing towards a website at the mo but like everything in this life, it's precarious. I hope you're well.
I've used both a website and blog in the past. The site's handy for posting excerpts and anything a potential reader might find handy as references (I had a page of cavalry-related terminology) while I used the blog for posting more regular things - short articles relating to the period of my stories, links to other articles or content readers might find useful, that sort of stuff.
The problem with blogs is you need to post fairly regularly to build up a following, which I found difficult to do amongst everything else that's a normal part of life. And websites need regular updating, too, another time-consumer.