Letting Others Have Their Say: Yamina on Yamina Today

As the founder of the educational and entertainment literary blog, Yaminatoday.com, I must confess that I love letting other writers have their say when it comes to the craft and business of writing.

Then again, I’ve always enjoyed hearing the wisdom of what my favorite writers of the past had to share about their art.

In fact, I’ve devoured lit-friendly books either by or about authors such as Stephen King, Toni Morrison, F. Scott Fitzerald, Zora Neale Hurston, Truman Capote, James Baldwin, Jane Austen and Jessie Redmon Fauset – to name a few.

But, let me back up a minute before I tell you how letting authors have their say ties in directly with what I do here as the administrator of Yaminatoday.com.

As a fellow writer, I must tell you know there’s no getting around it: in this new information-driven millennium, we writers must not only practice our craft by reading other books and disciplining ourselves at the keyboard every day, but we must also engage and connect with our immediate audience (the ones who buy our books and e-books), as well as with the unknown – and possibly indifferent – social universe around us.

Gone are the days of just writing a great book and hoping that the publishing houses will do all the hard work of publicity for us (and, perhaps, those days never really existed, except for a select few authors).

Instead, these are the days of realizing that we are and must be the captains of our ship in every aspect of the publishing business – either that, or get left behind by such savvy upstarts as John Green,  J. A. Konrath and Amanda Hocking— (indie and non-indie authors who, in some cases, have literally sold copies of their books in the millions because of their strong internet presence).

But, writers also need to be informed on just how to go about being captains of their own ship – life is getting both simpler and more tricky for writers in the 21st century.

This need for writers to be informed is the main reason I started Yaminatoday.com; I wanted to present an information highway to would-be writers and interested readers, showcased by published writers who’ve gone through the hurdles already.

Sure, I admit it. The blog is named after me. There was definite intent on getting my name out into the blogosphere by doing this.

But my plan genuinely serves others too: I honestly do love hearing what other writers have to say.

Most of the blogs I’ve come across are either book review blogs, or blogs by authors who focus solely on their own work…

….but since I’m not interesting enough to have an entire blog revolve around me every day, for weeks and years at a time – and since I hate doing book reviews, I wanted to go back to my roots and hear the wise and inspiring voices of other writers come to life.

As authors building our platform – and our own name brand – I realized early on that it was important that we give back to readers more than just the value of a good story, but also useful tools to help them along the routes of their own literary journeys.

I even do a bit of vlogging (video blogging) at the site because I love visiting libraries and bookshops and conventions (where I get free books, yummy), and seeing all the literary goodies stored up in these treasured “vaults”. I hope that readers will enjoy them, too, virtually.

Indeed, the blog is growing nicely and I continue to welcome various published writers to the site, though I do have guidelines.

Alas, I don’t mind having a little corner in my own world at all – because by letting others offer their voice to share, I’m sharing my true voice, after all.

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Tags: about Yamina Today, blogs that help writers, creative ways to develop a platform, creative writer blogs, literary blogs, new york city blogs, new york women writers, video blogs, vlogs

Category: Contemporary Women Writers