I've been trying to run a WordPress blog on and off since 2017. I was required to build a brand based on a project and arrangement I don't want to discuss much here. I debated over whether to nuke this site but seeing how much work I eventually put into it, I persisted, despite hating the interface and being a long term Blogger user. How long, you ask? Since 2004. I have maintained my main blog since then, gradually building up posts purely based on how much extra access I had to an internet connection (to a point, some years were very dry and I had a connection and nothing to say).
I went to WordPress out of paranoia if I linked this new project to my current blog under the same account, I'd be found out. I vent on my main page. I'm angry on main, basically. One of my contract requirements was to write monthly blogs my "employer" wanted to post for promotional purposes. They were insistent upon it. Sadly, to the detriment of what I wanted out of them. But I wasn't about to waste the work I did ahead of time so I posted them myself.
Anyway, the WordPress blog is more an archive of a three year period I thought would end very differently to how it did. This blog contains the posts (out of chronological order) that I felt were worth preserving. I'm not ready to end the WordPress blog so I've privated it for now. My reasons for leaving are petty. They make the smallest changes to how the site functions, suddenly I can't change banner photos as easily, and posting has changed as well. I lose my mind. I come here, where I have one login, and I can effectively operate this on the side when I like. I can mess around with it and edit the posts based on how much people need to know, I guess. I feel like I have stuff worth publishing in terms of advice but nobody's asking. When they do I don't really feel like discussing. And I'm not in any position to mentor. So this is just my scribe blog. Bare bones BS.
For all intents and purposes, I've been traditionally published, which was a firm goal I wanted when I decided to at least do this in earnest so some degree. The particulars of this aren't worth mentioning anymore. Nobody's going to care about them, suffice to say, it didn't work out. But I'm one of the lucky ones. I got to walk away with my work, I wasn't left thousands in the hole, and I get to say I had a couple of contracts. I could even show these people my personal self published versions of these books and say they were the same editions and unless they knew me, they'd probably know no better. I've shown people the website they were on and they weren't like, oh this looks suspect. Other people would see it a mile off. I'm playing on the layman's ignorance here, and if someone knowledgeable actually knew what happened, they'd probably still feel kind of sorry for me, so hey. Whatever. I did make one final pitch to another publisher recently who passed on my work based on being unable to give it the marketing they felt it deserved, which more or less confirmed what I had was good but not marketable. It'd be great if rejection letters just said this. You're fine, we just don't know what to do with you. Cool, thanks. I've got regrets I need to put aside, decisions I made I'd have done differently with hindsight, (which we all would)... I also avoided pitfalls others fell into, and I learnt a lot, even with the knowledge I had going in. Most of all, I tried to keep people out of it. I had nowhere to vent where people were willing to hear me out and understand my frustrations. So, I blogged a lot, and my author blog was relatively censored until the last year.
Right now, I have two personas: one for adult content and one for a new children's project I decided on finishing. I don't love my adult pen name, I wish I'd picked a different last name but for some reason in my head it sounded cool back in 2012. The other one links directly to my relatively "public" profile. I rebrand sometimes but now there's probably less consistency, not that it matters. I prefer to use easy sites like Blogger and Wix (to some extent). Any major roadblocks in formatting, I'll delete everything and stick to what I know.
Depending on how things go from here, I'll either update or not. Right now, my blogs are mental archives. If people find them or not I'm not as concerned. My free books still get hits even now, eight or so years after I decided to self-publish. I'm self-taught in terms of editing and formatting books. I haven't opted for 100% professional covers knowing it's not cost-effective.
Anyway, if you're at all interested, go here, and there's a little Easter egg to get you to the other stuff.
As a further update, I've finally nuked not only my WordPress blog and site but my entire account, and damn did it feel good. I hate archiving blogs when I get big messy files but the content is mostly there, plus it was painfully copy/pasted into a document (where I hadn't already kept copies from when I drafted future blogs for publication). So this archive is all over the place technically. Mostly I've kept what I felt was worth mentioning and shelved the rest, the WordPress site really was the last relic of that period I've kept just for the sake of having it. I having it out there. Like I said, I hated the interface overall and as a blog site it's intolerable. My only attempt with Weebly died when I realised I had to create a text box before pasting the entry, and with that I scrambled to delete my new account.
Consolidation makes me feel better. I'll probably curate these posts now too and weed out any info I don't need. Otherwise, that's it. This is my blog and I'm not doing a new one for any reason.
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