My Take on the Death of Google Reader

For those who don't know, I work with computers as my day job. There is a saying in my field: the only constant in computers is change. I'm sure that also applies to life, and it is certainly a current reality with the writing industry.

There were two recent changes that kind of took me by surprise. I was going to share my reaction to both the death of Google Reader and Amazon acquiring Goodreads, but I'll save the latter for later since the former topic is getting pretty long.

Google Kills Google Reader and Google Friend Connect

A few weeks ago, Google announced that Google Reader will be shutting down on July 1st as part of their spring cleaning.

Bye-bye, Reader

My first thought, and I suspect I'm not alone, is how I'll be able to keep up with all of the blogs that I commonly read. A few replacements have stepped up to the plate, and one of them caught my eye since it seemed well developed and (most importantly now) supported. So I've converted to Feedly, which allowed me to import my feeds list and my favorites.

Hello, Feedly. Thanks for saving the day!

I'm a big fan of Evernote, so I'm slowly going through my favorites and storing the posts I really want to keep in Evernote. This will make these posts more accessible to me, and take away my reliance on maintaining favorites.

Okay, with that squared away, I then thought of the other side of the coin. What is going to happen to my followers? As of this writing, I have 209 followers, which is managed by the Google Friend Connect. Will they disappear with Google Reader? Sure enough, Friend Connect is also going the way of the dodo bird. I don't know if most bloggers realize this is headed their way. I had to dig around to confirm it's eminent departure since it isn't receiving the publicity and reaction that Google Reader's death has received.

And what of RSS in general? Some say that the death of Google Reader and Friend Connect, which made RSS management easy, could be the final nail in RSS's coffin. I'm inclined to agree. As great as I'm finding Feedly to be, I don't think it is enough to save RSS.

Why? It all comes back to why Google Reader is being shut down to begin with. Google says that usage is down and that social media is what drives people to your content, not Google Reader. And... I think they're right. If I make a blog post and don't mention it on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, I'm most likely to receive a small handful of hits, comments, and other social interactions.

In fact, I'll test that with this post... I'll not advertise on my social connections and see what kind of response I get for 24 hours. Then I'll hit the social networks as I usually do and see what that does. If I were to put money on it, driving people to my blogs via social media is going to be a lot more effective than waiting for my followers to catch me through their RSS feeds.

A side effect is that I'm going to have to change my blog around. I won't bore you with the details, but pardon the dust while this blog goes through some changes. I've already done some behind-the-scenes testing and changes and I look forward to pushing out my new look and feel. Soon. It is part of why I plastered my face all over a recent blog post.

So, what do you guys think? Are you going to miss Google reader? Are you ready for the disappearance of Google Friend Connect? What have you done to prepare for July 1st?

Update 1:

I went about a day and a half to see what my buddy list did. I got 32 visits and five comments, though one of those comments were mine and two of the comments was from the same person. Now, I'll make mention of it on social media and see what that does.

Update 2:

Well, another day and a half (roughly) has gone by, and I threw things up on Twitter, G+, and Facebook. The number of people who visited rose to 70 and I got one more comment.

I know, this isn't scientific, but I now think Google has got it wrong. Google Friend Connect does help drive people to my blog, and it seems to do a better job of driving people willing to comment. I'm wondering how this will impact Google themselves, since Google Friend Connect drives people to Blogger, which is owned by Google.

Conclusion: Nobody wins.

Author Interview: Wendy Knight

Yay, I'm excited to have Wendy Knight as my guest of honor today. She just came out with her book Feudlings last week and I've been excited to get her over here to learn more.


JD: Hi, Wendy. Can you tell us a little about yourself? 

Wendy Knight: Hi! So. I have three adorable children, the most amazing husband EVER, two tiny little dogs, and an obnoxious cat who is freakishly smart. I’m a freelance writer, and I write for the small local paper. AND I just released my debut novel, Feudlings, with Astraea Press.

JD: What would you like to tell us about Feudlings? 

WK: Feudlings is the first in a series. Here’s my short pitch -- Arianna has been hunting Shane since she could throw her first spell. Now she’s falling in love with the nemesis she is prophesied to kill – until Shane tries to kill her first.

JD: When did you know you wanted to be a writer? 

WK: When I was teeny-tiny. As soon as I could pick up those fat crayons in my little fist, I was trying to write stories.

JD: What keeps you motivated to keep writing?

WK: I got very discouraged once when I was querying Feudlings. I was going to quit. My oldest daughter (she’s ten) asked me, when I was little, what did I want to be when I grew up. I smiled and told her I wanted to be a writer, and she said, “And you are a writer! You followed your dreams!” It was impossible to quite after that. Every time I get discouraged, I remember her face when she said that.

JD: Now that your book has been out for about a week (and doing quite well), how has your life changed? Do you have any new insight on publishing or promotion?

WK: It doesn’t seem real! So, it hasn’t changed much. BUT I do have insight. When I was thinking about Feudlings’ release, I figured family and close friends would buy it. But the day it was released, I was blown away by how much support I was given – friends and acquaintances (who are now friends) sharing the buy links, getting their friends and family to buy it, offering me support, hosting me on blogs and posting reviews. It was amazing. If I never sell another copy again, it will be okay because of the love I received that first day!

JD: High-heeled shoes? Really?

WK: Oooh yes. If you were short like me, you’d totally understand. I can’t see over the weeds in the summer!

JD: And your kids… could they be any more adorable?

WK: They could, if they would sleep in their own beds until at least 7 a.m. every morning.

Back Cover Blurb

Nothing makes a new school suck worse than discovering the guy you’re in love with is your prophesied nemesis.

Ari is the most powerful flame-throwing sorceress ever, and her people’s last hope in an ancient war. But she’s also a seventeen-year-old girl, and in her free, not-hunting-nemesis times, she jumps from school to school, trying to figure out regular people her own age and pretending she’ll get the chance to graduate.

Shane lives a double life. He goes to school and masters the art of popularity, hiding the fact that he has a fate with a slim chance of his survival. He’s destined to end a 300 year-old war by killing or being killed. He knows he’s hunted by a powerful enemy who’s not afraid to die. Only problem? He has no idea who that enemy is.

When Ari shows up at Shane’s school, angry and sullen and determined to keep him at arm’s reach, neither of them realize they are supposed to be killing each other, not falling in love. Until Ari does realize it, and she almost dies – by Shane’s hand.

Author Bio 

Wendy Knight was born and raised in Utah by a wonderful family who spoiled her rotten because she was the baby. Now she spends her time driving her husband crazy with her many eccentricities (no water after five, terror when faced with a live phone call, etcetera, etcetera). She also enjoys chasing her three adorable kids, playing tennis, watching football, reading, and hiking. Camping is also big: her family is slowly working toward a goal of seeing all the National Parks in the U.S.

You can usually find her with at least one Pepsi nearby, wearing ridiculously high heels for whatever the occasion may be. And if everything works out just right, she will also be writing.

Links

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/wjk8099
Blog: http://www.writethroughthenoise.blogspot.com

Purchase Feudlings

Amazon: http://amzn.to/14ngaHB
Astraea Press: http://www.astraeapress.com/#!/~/product/category=662245&id=21444479
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/feudlings-wendy-knight/1046265853?ean=2940016387277

A Shoutout to David Farland

This is unsolicited. In fact, David doesn't even know I'm doing this. I'm inspired to give a quick shout out to David Farland, a man who has encyclopedic knowledge writing who I consider both a mentor and my friend.

I was interviewed by Melissa Lemon on her blog this Monday and I alluded to the fact that I had put writing on the back burner while finishing my education and getting on my feet vocationally. After doing this, when I promised my much younger self  I'd get back into writing, I had a totally off the wall encounter with David Farland. I won't go into details now, but I couldn't even consider what odds had to come into play for this encounter and I felt like it was fate telling me it was time to get back into writing.

When I met David, he told me about his daily kicks, or as he had explained it to me, his daily kick in the pants to get readers of the newsletter writing. Subscribing and reading that newsletter put me back on the path to writing and taking it seriously. I had a lot to learn. I'm glad that all of my stories died when my floppy disks all got thrown away, I'd shudder to subject myself to reading them right now. I feel I've come a long way since my writings in high school and David Farland had a lot to do with that.

I've since had several (not as odd-ball) encounters with him. He's always made himself available whenever I've sought his advice (like he did with Stephanie Meyer when he gave her some pointers on this little series she wrote called Twilight). He is very knowledgeable and willing to share where he thinks the writing industry is headed and has given great advice on making my own writing come to life.

Not only that, but he is a great author. Not only has he authored the Runelord series, a great fantasy with engaging characters and an amazing magic system, but he recently authored Nightingale. Nightingale is the start of a new series that I'm going to be watching very closely. I reviewed that about a year ago here. If you remember, constant blog reader, I also named it a winner in my First Annual Duckett Reader Choice Award.

I haven't announced it on here yet, but now is as good a time as any. I'm a podcaster! Last month, I recorded 11 podcasts with authors and David was one of them. We did two fun shows together, and the first one came out this Monday. You can listen to it here, or download the podcast using iTunes. We discussed writing systems, which I find quite awesome because I feel like I have a lot to learn about putting together an outline. I don't think David's system is exactly what I'd use, but I felt I learned things from him to make my outlines that much better.

Speaking of outlines, I just finished another book by David. It is called Million Dollar Outlines, and I think every writer should read it. He talks about a lot of things that every book should have if you want a bestseller on your hands. He gives great advise on things to include when putting together an outline so that it resonates with readers, makes the story exciting, and could become the next big hit.

Anyway, my hats off to David. I appreciate everything he has done for me and look forward to many more encounters and books.