Monday Guest Blog by Lisa

A few years ago I fell in love with writing novels, and since then I’ve discovered other loves: one is tea (I can’t even think about writing, without a cup of tea to hand and preferably a cake). Another is blogging. However, blogging can be a rather risky activity. You might have read something in the news last week about the fact that more bloggers than ever are facing arrest. *Looks over shoulder*

Luckily for me, I live in a country where, theoretically, I have a right to free speech. But in practice, is that really the case? Perhaps nobody is going to come knocking at my door with handcuffs at the ready (not on account of my blogging activities anyway ;) ) but if I said the wrong thing about a certain book, author or publisher, (nothing libellous, of course) could I blacklist myself?

I don’t think I’m the only writer who worries about this. A while back I wanted to write an article for Corvaceous on the publishing industry. I asked one question: “Where is the publishing industry going wrong?” and I presented this to various people within the book industry, including literary agents, authors and booksellers. The booksellers and the literary agents came back with interesting answers, but could I get the authors to speak up? Could I heck. One or two authors were willing to participate but were very wary of talking about certain problems. It’s something I’ve also wondered about with the Vulpes Thursday Soapbox – where we commission authors write an impassioned piece on something close to their hearts – do these writers feel that they can say what’s truly on their minds, or are they worried that Industry Insiders Will Find Out, that their cards will be marked if they say the wrong thing? Are they censoring themselves?

These days it’s hard to even mention a famous book or company without people connected to those books or companies finding out, because many net-savvy people have Google Alerts set, so that if certain words are written in cyberspace, the alert-setter receives an email telling them about it.

As an aside, around the time that I was talking in interviews about my novel, and the significance within it of the Armenian genocide, I noticed my website started getting a lot of hits from a certain government office. Coincidence? Probably… but it still spooked me, as the issue was something of a political hot potato at the time. Eventually the visits ended, but for a while I wondered if I should stop talking about the fact that my family were survivors of that genocide.

So what do you think? Is it possible for writers to damage their writing careers, simply through blogging? Should we say what we really think and forget the paranoia, or should we quietly sip our tea and keep schtum? Is it always better to be safe (and silent) than sorry?

Lisa Glass blogs as part of the Vulpes Libris (Book Fox) collective. Her novel, Prince Rupert’s Teardrop, is out in paperback now.