Kerry Clare is the author of two novels, Mitzi Bytes and Waiting for a Star to Fall. Her third, “Asking for a Friend,” is due out in Fall 2023. She has been blogging since October, 2000. Her blog can be found at Pickle Me This.

I’m having a hard time deciding on where to begin! Maybe let’s start with the beginning of your blog. Can you explain how and why you started it, did you start it on the platform you’re currently using (WordPress), and what was it about in its infancy?

Oh my gosh, I started blogging in October 2000 on a platform called Diaryland.com after I read somebody’s Livejournal and decided that I wanted a place to use my voice too, and the result was pretty terrible, mostly just me quoting angsty bad pop song lyrics and being sad because I didn’t have a boyfriend. I was 20, and it was actually the best time in the world to be becoming online because nobody was paying attention and everybody was a little bit weird, and ever after I’ve been kind of annoyed by people not adhering to this very uncommercial and unpolished approach to being a human on the internet.

But of course, the people annoying me aren’t “doing it wrong,” it’s just that the internet is ever changing, and my blog changed too, as I grew up a bit, started leading a more interesting life and putting my actual name on my website, which moved to Blogger, and then finally to my own Wordpress site years later with my own domain. After I did a creative writing Masters degree from 2005-2007 and failed to launch to literary superstardom from that point, my blog was a lifesaver, a creative space that was mine no matter all the rejection going on elsewhere. And once I was finally ready to create my first book (an anthology of essays with a multitude of voices) and then my first novel (which I wrote in short bursts, 1000 words at a time), everything I’d learned from years of blogging was a huge part of why both these projects were successful.

Now, can you tell me how your blog has evolved over the years and how you would describe what you do with it now?

A blog needs room to grow and space to wander, just like a life does. I went from angsty post-teen blogger, to travel blogger, to literary blogger, to blogging about parenthood, always with a throughline about books and a resistance to pigeonholing (because I am a person, not a pigeon). Like everybody, I got very excited about social media and far too obsessed with it, which put me at a distance from my blog for a while, but then in 2019, I deciding that coming #BacktotheBlog was good and necessary, and ever since (and for always, really) it’s been my home base online, a place for me to figure out what I think of things. And because my blog has ever been a place for me to write about whatever is occupying my attention, when it comes time for me to write about my own books and begin promoting them, such content does not seem out of place.

The main reason I’m doing this Q&A with you is because I see your blog as an example of how a writer can develop a following, which will then help them to … let’s say progress in their writing career, sell more books, get good publishing deals, etc. Can you describe to me how you think your blog has contributed to your career as a novelist? You have two (almost three) novels out with big publishers—the first being a novel about a blogger (Mitzi Bytes)—so I’m guessing the success of your blog had something to do with that first book deal? How did it all come about?

I think it’s complicated. One of my catchphrases is that “well-known blogger is an oxymoron.” My blog has always been niche with a small but steadfast following. I’ve never had the kind of a following on my blog or on social media that could lead to a book deal—I remember reading once that 100,000 is the baseline marketers look for to determine popularity, and I’m far from that.

But what my blog has brought me is connections amongst literary communities, particularly through me writing about other people’s books, which I started to do around 2007. Reviewing other people’s work put me on the radar of readers and editors (and also has led to me writing book reviews professionally). And around 2008 or so, my blog was why a couple of editors did request to read the novel I was trying to sell…but that the novel itself WAS NOT VERY GOOD was the reason no one ended up publishing it. (An online platform can only get you so far…)

Through my blog, however, I’ve become a better reader and better writer. I’ve also learned to make writing a habit, showing up again and again for over twenty years, which is the kind of stamina necessary to write a novel. And through blogging, I’ve written my way toward being a better writer, one capable of writing a novel that was publishable, which I finally pulled off when I sold Mitzi Bytes in 2015. Blogging has very much been part of my process, but in a more creative sense than a marketing one.

Even though writing blogs, or newsletters, or non-fiction articles on topics we are passionate about can be enjoyable, it can also be frustrating when you sort of take on the responsibility of something like a blog and, even though you know it feeds your novel-writing career, it also ends up taking “novel writing” time away from you. Do you have any tips for writers who are thinking of starting a blog in terms of time management?

Shun perfectionism! I am very fortunate in that perfectionism and I have never met, and so I’m comfortable with the rough and unpolished nature of blogging. I write my posts as quickly as possible (though I spend a lot of time thinking about them before I sit down to write) and don’t waste time on editing or revising, for the most part. The job is to GET IT DONE, not to make it perfect. Also, use the material you have at home rather than having to do lots of research to write a post—blogging is about the quotidian, the view from where you are, so lean into that. And make sure you’re having fun and learning something from your blogging process, because all that free labour has to be more than a time suck. And if your blog is not fun, or not fun anymore, don’t be afraid to shift gears and change things up.

And, any other general blogging tips? How often should someone post, how to promote the blog once created, good platforms to use, etc. Please also use this opportunity to plug your Blog School!

My main blogging tip is that blogs are elastic and you should feel empowered to make yours ANYTHING you want it to be, and that means that advice about what to write about and how often to do it is going to be different for everybody. When I started blogging, there were no templates for how it was done—everyone just made it up as they went along—and I think that kind of sensibility leads to the most interesting and sustainable blogs. Also, be flexible—use a free blogging platform to get the feel of the project and what you want to do with it before you invest in your own site and domain. Feel free to try things out and see what fits, what clicks, what you like to do. And don’t start blogging for the sake of anything except the blog itself—that’s why you have to make sure the immediate process is rewarding. If you’re lucky, your blog might get you places—you’ll make friends, learn new things, perhaps find professional opportunities—but there’s got to be a reason to be doing it in the meantime.

And yes, check out myblogschool.ca! If the kind of guidance I’m offering here sounds good to you for how to be human online, then you will likely enjoy my courses.

And finally, you probably have many, but are there any final tips you have for emerging writers on the business side of writing? Maybe what has been the most helpful thing to you in terms of getting readers to know about your novels?

Show up on platforms where you’re comfortable and having fun. Instead of trying to find “connections,” make friends. People and relationships are everything, through the highs and lows of the writing life. Be a passionate champion of other people’s works, which means that even when you’re not having tons of success professionally, you still have lots to celebrate. Buy lots of books when you can and support independent bookstores, doing the best you can to be the kind of reader you wish to see in the world. I think that when you put out that kind of generosity, some of it can’t help but come back to you.

Kerry Clare is a National Magazine Award-nominated writer, editor of The M Word: Conversations About Motherhood, and author of two novels, Mitzi Bytes and Waiting for a Star to Fall. She teaches blogging at MyBlogSchool.ca, is editor of the Canadian books website 49thShelf.com, and has been a blogger since the turn of the century at PickleMeThis.com. Her next novel, Asking for a Friend, will be published in September 2023.