Should you spend all your time possible on 'writing a damn good novel?' Or should you also spend time to see if you can develop a following in one of the Internet venues, such as MySpace, youtube, podcasting or writing an almost daily blog?

Should you start getting a following now on the Internet of those who like what you say? Or wait possibly years while you write and rewrite an eventually successful novel, should that ever truly happen?

We see from the following excerpts from comments on a writer's forum the issues highlighted in the commentator's own words.

-FROM A WRITER'S FORUM-

A Wanna-Be-Published Writer: I have a page on myspace which we know is huge and can be a very valuable networking resource. I am trying to build a fan base even before I become published, that way if publishers see I already have a following they may be more likely to offer a contract. I post excerpts and works in progress as blogs. Does anyone have any tips or tricks on how to generate more traffic to my page especially to my blogs? And also how I might attract a few celebs to my page. Thanks in advance. -- A REPLY: MySpace is not a good place to build a fan following of the kind publishers really care about.

Then again, neither is anyplace else. Publishers aren't really interested in fan following, they're interested in books that are well-written, that have good, memorable characters, and great dialogue.

If you can do this, you don't need to build a fan following first. If you can't do this, all the fans in the world aren't going to help.

-THIS ARTICLE WRITER'S OPINION-

I just started with myspace and don't know what will happen. But I have eight months with Libsyn.com doing around fifty podcasts and getting after eight months 40,000 listeners. The rate of increase is 1000 a week and rising. At this rate I will have anywhere from 100,000 to 200,000 listeners by the end of next year.

I continue my comments, trying to stay with my actual experience.

The question still is: should a writer who wants to be professionally published spend time developing a fan presence for his expression and views on the Internet?

The point of view of a long-time commentator, who also works as a editor: he considers developing a strong presence on the Internet a waste of time for a serious novel writer.

Is it? And how can we evaluate the issue and decide for ourselves as writers? I continue my remarks:

-WHY I NEED AN INTERNET AUDIENCE EVEN IF I PUBLISH BOOKS-

While I realize that my novel or memoir has to be well-written, the fact that 100,000 to 200,000 actual people will have listened to me one year from now does count for something.

I have read statistics that one out of ten published fiction books sells and makes money? Is this because publisher-editors can't tell what good, readable fiction is? I just don't know. Or are the figures off?

COMMENT: Here in the above I suggest that publishers and their editors are not so hot. This means that they cannot show a high success rate for publishing printed books that sell well. Surely publishers should have an eighty percent success rate? My success rate in university was more at the ninety percent level. To continue my forum response to our opening issue:

I only know that from the Google advanced search that 18,200 know my name and work, and from the podcasts 40,000 right now.

A publisher or editor who does not put some value on an author being known to the public I would hesitate to publish with.

-ONLY WANT AN INTERNET SAVVY EDITOR AND PUBLISHER-

COMMENT: The truth is that I would not go with an editor or publisher who did not highly regard a strong Internet presence. The Internet is looking really good these days for establishing outreach. But I go on:

My total count of books sold is around 350,000 over the years. This is significant since it says that what I write sells. With Simon and Schuster, when the Dream Cards were in print it was over 70,000 in sales in the United States and over 40,000 in sales in seven other languages.

So I can write serious books in non-fiction. Now I switch to fiction and see what I can do.

COMMENT: As a writer this is my current big issue, at which I spend a lot of time. Can I switch from non-fiction to fiction and be successful? I am already age 72 and how many years left do I have to learn novel-craft at a high and successful level? Back again to my original forum entry:

What I have gained so far in an internet presence is market testing, not in sales but in interest. 40,000 listeners in only eight months? That shows some talent to communicate, and relevance to modern people hungry for information and stimulation.

Any writer who narrows down to just one form of communication is more likely to fail than succeed. A writer is a communicator, not a machine. If you get any kind of large audience you can capitalize on that if you find the right forms for you.

I don't know if I can write good novels or memoirs yet, since it has taken me over six years study and writing my half million pages so far. I have put the results of this study into my The Writer's Interface, which is just starting to sell to other writers. Who knows how it will all work out?

Maybe don't get stuck on the old forms of being a writer, like writing a novel that is supposed to go big. Be a communicator instead and build on that.

-BUILD AN AUDIENCE ANY WAY YOU CAN AND START NOW-

COMMENT: This may be a major point. Only time will tell. For you, for me, not whether we will build a presence on the Internet or not, but more, how shall we do it?

-IS THE INTERNET BECOMING THE MAJOR PUBLISHING SOURCE FOR ALL WRITERS?

Many blogs and experts are saying that the Internet is now becoming the major source of information that people turn to. Couple this trend with the recent trend that people are now willing and wanting to do their shopping on the Internet, then you do have the Internet being the Information Storehouse of the world. How will we as writers take advantage of this new trend, and maybe make more money on the Internet than we ever made as a whole with paper book publishers?

Writers in today's world should realize that publishers today and in earlier years never paid writers a fair share of the money publishers earned with a book. Getting only ten percent of cover price for a book never enabled most writers to earn a living publishing their writing.

Today on the Internet it may be possible for many writers to publish and self-publish their work quickly on the Internet and earn more money than they ever did or would do with a paper book publisher. Why? Because as an Internet publisher you get more of the price of your writing and there are less expenses to publish information on the Internet electronically.

Back to my original forum comments:

A chapter of my Jesus novel is up as a blog and a podcast and has over 3000 listeners so far. I like to think that with the complete book there will be a lot more buyers and listeners.

COMMENT: Remember the rather righteous comment from the editor quoted above that you should sit down and write your novel and that getting fans on the Internet is useless? Well, it isn't, as the following will show:

-USE THE INTERNET TO TEST THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR WRITING-

So I use the Internet presence to test the waters. This gives the writer instant feedback. I hope some of you can recognize how lonely it is to write a serious book, a novel or otherwise, and now the Internet allows a writer to communicate with an audience a lot more quickly. I have a following again. No one has commented negatively on what little I have shown of the Jesus Novel. That's good. The numbers of over 3000 listeners says 'good' also.

A writer-communicator needs to have an audience.

Any way you can get one is feedback on your ability to communicate. So I say to anyone who wants a presence on the Internet, use whatever possibilities there are for your style of communicating and telling a story.

-IT'S ALL FEEDBACK-

No one can tell you a presence on the Internet won't help you. That would be arrogance. Why? Because the Internet is fast evolving and so everything is so new in this new style of communicating, and who is to say about its future?

I found that one of my audio podcasts, Loving Laurie, has the second highest listener response rate: 2600 listeners. That's significant because of the title and content.

Thus I make sure I also write the Loving Laurie memoir. I am now forming the outline for doing a complete audio book to sell online with some free chapters to listen to.

If I can succeed at telling this story effectively enough that readers buy the audio, then I will put it into text form as well, and present some agent or publisher with the statistics. If they see potential in good statistics then that is probably a publisher I want to be with.

In the meanwhile I have tested the market quickly for my writing by going Internet. That gives me feedback as a writer-communicator. Hope this helps.

See Rachel Vater's blog on agent evaluating writers. She is Miss Snark at raleva31.livejournal.com. She's a wonderful example of building an internet following through publishing in her expert field. And she gives you what it's like out there in the current publishing world. She will write paper books someday maybe as well. Right now she edits and agents them.

-BE A COMMUNICATOR AND NOT JUST A BOOK WRITER-

My conclusion is more that the new, modern writer going into the future has to have communication success both on the Internet in one of its forms, and in the old paper world of the past, which is paper book publishing.

You want to be a professional communicator? Build your audiences wherever and whenever you can find them.

ACTION TO TAKE: Stay positive. Listen positively to negative people and views if they seem expert enough. What they say might dampen your enthusiasm, but it might also ground you in reality.

Yet to be positive is to believe something new and of greater value can happen for you if you pursue it. Look at how you can accomplish much more than look at what can make you fail.

Also, test your plans where it is easy and grounded to do so.

Internet publishing is largely free information these days as what is most popular. Yet, people won't take free information if it is lousy information, poorly presented. Get some kind of numbers feedback to confirm where you are with your communicating and writing.

-READERS ARE FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN AGENTS, EDITORS, EXPERTS AND PUBLISHERS-

A so-called expert or professional advice is only one person's view of things. Don't put your trust in editors, agents, experts and publishers. Don't pay for professional readers and editors.

Create an audience of readers of your work. Only the reader, or listener, is the reality test of your work. Editors don't buy your books. They expect you to give them to them. Readers who must pay are paying hard-earned money usually to own your work. The best vote is the dollar!