Followers = Readers?

Does this statement ring true for every author's blog you follow?

Do you follow blogs because you actually read them or the author's works? Do you follow blogs just to follow blogs?

Part of the strategy of having blogs is to build a web presence and to gain readers for your books. Authors should have blogs which are constantly changing as well as a website, which doesn't need to be updated as often but still needs to be updated, especially if you have new books, works in progress, and things that aren't going anywhere for the rest of your life.

In my social networks - FB, twitter, plurk and my two blogs/websites (one is for my JGDS series only and the other is for all my other writing plus family and life in general) - I have over 1000 followers combined (may be even closer to 2000 but this was my closest guestimate). By all accounts, I should have some pretty consistent page visits on my blogs. I don't. My book sales are next to nothing for everything I have published, but I'm at a loss. How do you increase sales? How do you get more followers to be readers of your books? This is a dilemma that has me perplexed.

This year I'm making some changes to my blogging schedule and hopefully will pick up more followers, which hopefully will mean more readers of my books/stories. I will do a Book Review Friday, every Friday throughout the year except for the month of July and probably the month of December. The last week of the month on Monday and Wednesday, I will have guest bloggers (and the schedule is still open as I've put a call out to librarians, teachers and authors but have had no responses yet, other than the two for February) and then will post announcements and writing related information on Mondays and Wednesdays. Tuesdays and Thursdays will be open for reposting things of interest to my readers from other blogs, so there may be several postings on one day if I feel there are postings from several other blogs I follow and read consistently that may be of interest to my readers. Hopefully by being a more consistent and almost daily blogger, I will draw in more followers and thereby more readers of my stories.

So I ask you the reader, why are you following my blogs and other blogs that you follow? Do you actually buy or borrow the author's books and read them? What is it that has attracted you to that person's blog? Feedback encouraged and welcomed. - E :)

Tomorrow, find out what book reviews have to do with readers and followers over on the Writers on the Move blog. They are all connected and shouldn't be exclusive of one another since writers need reviews as well as readers. E :)