Poblog Linking Habits and On-line Publishing

American poet-bloggers are fanatical linkers, and usually to other American blogs, yet this trend doesn't repeat with English poetry blogs. What's astounding is how many English blogs link to absolutely no-one. And if it isn't no-one, it's no more than half a dozen.

Of the twenty-four out of twenty-seven* English poblogs in the sidebar, here is the number of links they had to other poet-bloggers:

• 0 = 11

• 1-7 = 7

• 7-15 = 3

• 15-20 = 2

• 20+ = 1
  

The only blog to break the twenty 'barrier' is Jenny Allan's, and for all i know she's Scottish or Welsh. . . . (Update: Jenny Allan isn't Scottish or Welsh ;]) There seems to be a stigma around breaking the fifteen -- or, gosh, even twenty -- mark.

I'm also amazed at how few English poet blogs there are. There's over 120 links to some variation of writer, in the sidebar, which means less than twenty per cent of them are such -- and that would be my emphasis.

The number of electronically published works seemed to roughly equate links; and, as such, and as far as i've discerned over the months i've been contemplating this, there were very, very few who had published more than a dozen poems on-line (again, usually only half a dozen). You could count the people on one hand . . . with a few fingers missing. AnnMarie Eldon is most obviously the forerunner.

Last year, i spent a while actively tracking down U.K. writers' blogs, specifically poets; so while my sidebar isn't completely up-to-date, it's roughly about as good as it gets.

And all the while, there are people (and, seemingly, a many number of English writers) who seem to think that words on paper, as opposed to words on screen, is in some way 'better', in the sense of 'repute' -- which, i guess, offers explanation for the lack of enthusiasm to/in, or unwavering protestation at, blogging. Bands/musicians, actors, journalists have long since realised how important on-line publishing, web presence, citizen journalism is, and how it's continuing to become more and more important. . . .

I've seen on American poets' blogs -- and in the many on-line zines -- that this is all very much the opposite: utmost solidarity and unrequited linkage, and saturation of on-line publishing, while people like my creative writing lecturer remain virtually unheard of outside of the country because they stubbornly refuse to create a blog, or even maintain any digital presence. This blog has brought me many more readers than all of my published work combined** -- there's little doubt of that in my mind -- and therefore, perhaps, increased readership of my work as redirected from here. Let's not dance around: I write this blog for three main reasons:

1. I'm a compulsive writer;
   
   
2. I'm highly nostalgic, sentimental and orderly, and keeping everything in one place, neatly filed, gives me a serious hard-on;
   
   
3. Upkeep of a free, world-wide-accessible promotional tool/H.Q. that people can link to, stumble upon, garners increased readers. We blog so people will notice us. If i didn't want people to take notice of what i do here, i would either put the blog on private or keep a hand-written diary, or both.
   

My overall point is that while American poet-bloggers are supporting, reading, and promoting one another, we are manning all posts of our ships alone, blindly scurrying past each other in the huge sea, instead of uniting fleets -- if we're not neglecting the entire on-line opportunity altogether. I just think we could do a much better job at actually creating this sense of 'community' that everyone keeps referring to; and people representing scenes outside of the two most dominant superpowers today could do a better job of ensuring their voice isn't drowned out.

'We' wouldn't make very good ants. . . .


*Three were excluded; one being a Tripod site that never fucking loads, one a LiveJournal -- it, i assume, not being advanced enough to have a sidebar of links -- the other temporarily unoperational.

**Except, probably, an article i had published in a local paper that has a circulation of 10,000 and an estimated readership of at least 15,000.

20/2/07: Because there's been interest in this (thanks for drawing attention to it), i'm going to support my claim with examples, so there's no gaping hole in the argument. Let's make proportionate values of population for England and A*****a. 301 million, minus 2 million for Alaska and Hawaii, equals, let's say, 300 million. Let's round down England from 51 to 50 million. So, roughly six people to every one. If i can find seven American poet-bloggers with 20+ links to other poet-bloggers, it'll prove my point; however, i'm going to double the figure for the fun of it, and to take into consideration the fact that most English poets are 'above' the 'net/blogs and prefer crusty, dusty, yellowing, tree-killing paper.

Andrew Lundwall (at rough glance, probably 80-100), harry k. stammer (about 27), William Allegrezza (about 80), K. Silem Mohammad (roughly 300), Ron Silliman (over 500 [or is it 1,000?]), Jessica Smith (at least 100), Ken Rumble (about 60), Amy Bernier (about 40), CS Perez (50-60), Anne Haines (50-60), Justin Evans (30-40), Tony Tost (about 40), Joshua Corey (about 200), Gary Sullivan (about 30). Will i keep going?

Further, i found each of these blogs by easily hopping from one to another, as, like i said, they're all linked. I'm sure i could do multiple circling with all of them. . . .

They just mopped the floor with you all -- i had nothing to do with it.