So Karen wants to know if we’re losing our community spirit

I dunno. Do I read as many blogs as I use to? Nope. Do I comment on as many? Nope.

But my main way of contributing to the romance community is through writing. That’s what I do. I write. And since I’ve cut down on how many blogs I visit, my writing has increased. So in my way of thinking, I’m contributing…I’m just doing it in the way best suited to me.

Which is what all of us have to do-as fun as blogs are, we can’t let them become our lives, intrude upon worktime (too much) or family time…or reading time. 😉

But then she posted something Angie had mentioned on her blog:

Then, as I was blog surfing this week, I commented on a few blogs (I do comment when a topic strikes me), and of those, there were several looking for feedback about things. But the blog owners never commented back. Not to acknowledge that I’d “helped” them out, or that anyone else had either. In fact, I then realized that these bloggers almost never comment on their own blogs. And I was irritated. I thought “how rude”.

I do this. I have no problems stating that I don’t always think to comment back. But again, I have to go back and think about how my time is best served. Since a lot of the commenters here are readers, I figure they want me writing, right?

I tend take a decent amount of time commenting on blogs, even my own and responding to five or ten comments can easily take me a half an hour or more. Should I spend that half an hour commenting? Tossing out a generic, hey thanks for coming by just strikes me as empty manners and if I’m going to comment, I want to do it individually, not just toss out a blanket comment directed to all.

I do read all the comments. If something strikes me as funny, odd, weird, or otherwise makes me think, I do comment back. If somebody asks a question, I respond. But to go back and address every single comment…well, to be honest, if I felt I was required to go back and respond to each individual comment just for the sake of ‘politeness’, chances are, I’d stop blogging.

I figured things up…I don’t have a super busy blog, but I’ve had about 4300 comments here thru this blog.

Say I take five minutes to respond to each comment…and I’d have to respond to each individually-blanket responses don’t work for me personally.

That’s about 21,500 minutes…or close to 360 hours. I can write a novella, if I’m inspired, about 40 hours, give or take. That’s nine novellas I could have not written, if I keep taking time out to respond to comments.

So again, I gotta think back to how I best contribute to the community. Since I’m a writer…writing is how I best serve things. My blog is a side project-nothing I do or say here in the blog is going to affect how I put the book out. It can affect promo, and yes, it can affect sales but if I don’t write the books, there’s nothing to promote…nothing to sell.

I hope nobody who visits here feels left out when I don’t respond to each comment. I do always try to respond to questions, but…well, like I said, my best way of contributing is through writing.