Will I Stay with Blogger?

As I start to flesh this out, I am finding so many problems and options for solving them. Blogger is a great place--one that I'm familiar with--for, well, writing a blog. But this author platform needs to be so much more. I am probably going to need many if not all of the following:

• A real web address that is not linked to the tool. It looks like blogger can support that naturally, but I still need to buy the domain.
• A mail list manager, like MailChimp. Blogger has no natural way to do this, but it looks like I can embed HTML into it to make that work.
• Expandable ways to add more books, stories and other tabs to the author site. That top tab has already filled up for me. I think I can contort Blogger to do that for me, but it is not natural set up to do that. Something like SquareSpace would be a good fit.
• A way to sell things directly including taking money, delivering, and even giving refunds. Like with mail list management, Blogger doesn't do this naturally, but I could shoehorn something into it.
• A good way to contact me that doesn't expose my personal email to the world. I suspect I can get that with the real web address and a forwarding service, but I have more research to do there.
• Ideally a way to manage beta reader, although that might be a mix of a special mail list and sales at zero cost. I've got more to think about there.

It is looking likely that Blogger won't be the most natural platform for me to grow with, but it will serve for now.

Slow Start on this Page

Looks like I haven't made progress on this page in three years. Huh, what could have been happening in the last few years to get in the way?

When I made that first post, I noted two completed novel drafts. Now I have five. That's progress for sure. Still, I find that I'm not so good at the social media/self promotion/sales side of the writer life. I think I can live with that.

Time for an Author Page

Who knows if I'll stick with Blogger for this page. Heck, who knows if I stick with writing as a hobby. I have two completed novel drafts, MirrorEarth and The Eternal Man, and I've started working on a third, as-yet-untitled novel. More on those later.

The writing community says that successful writers need to build a place for their readers, to connect with them. They say it's never too early for that, but it feels like I'm yelling into the void. If you're reading this, you are helping to fill the void. I'll write you some stories that I hope you enjoy reading.

I've always liked the motivational question, "When is the best time to plant a tree?" - "Twenty years ago." To my 20 years old self, you're welcome.