New Sydney Morning Herald interview May 17, 2010
Posted by William Kostakis in Media Stuff.2 comments
It’s been a bit slow on the publicity, front but: HUZZAH.
(If it isn’t clear, click the huzzah for the interview 
… and how are you?)
Heaps of LOATHING LOLA Google searches tonight… May 11, 2010
Posted by William Kostakis in Random Musings.2 comments
Someone’s been searching for Loathing Lola themes and a plot synopsis… so I’m guessing some cruel teacher has set it as a school text. If you’re looking for all that stuff, chuck me an email: w.kostakis@williamkostakis.com 
Win a copy of Loathing Lola May 9, 2010
Posted by William Kostakis in Random Musings.Tags: Loathing Lola
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My good friends at Blurb It are giving away TEN copies of Loathing Lola. Click here for your chance to win.
I love blog. May 4, 2010
Posted by William Kostakis in Random Musings.3 comments
I love blog.
It’s a wonderful medium that privileges honesty above all else. There’s something brilliant about sharing your diary with everyone, it allows for an unrivaled intimacy between (in my case) author and reader.
For me to blog honestly, I have to be able to blog the happy with the snarky and rant-y, or else, blogging would just be another manufactured promotional exercise. There’s something so empowering about not having to run work by a series of editors, but, that said, it can be dangerous. Sometimes, I’m all sunshine and roses. Other times, well… it’s another story.
Recently, I discovered, the benefits of blogging bitchery:
Exposure the likes of which I had never known. I credit the first hit-hump to my open letter to Sunrise, and the second, to my anti-plagiarism rant. I received a month’s web-hits in a day. Since then, my daily hit average has doubled. I’ve thought about it, and I think I know why.
Whether we admit it or not, we all love a mean, ranting book blogger. Why? Because they’re so rare. So many author and literary blogs feel so restrained, they are less diaries and more promotional material. While this is probably the professionally responsible route to take, it builds a need in readers for something more than empty posts riddled with pleasantries. Something more real, more varied, more… mean.
Regarding my newfound web-hit popularity, I wondered – should I be that person? Should I be that consistantly mean blogger who stands apart from others? The one who fills everybody’s rant quota? I could be honest, and really go to town, and watch the blog-hits go up and up and up. I could be that asshat who writes those posts, that popular asshat.
Heck! I didn’t even have to voice my own views… I could just make fun of everyone and everything, whether I believed what I said or not. The smoke from web flame wars brought the visitors, and it brought them in droves…
And that’s when it hit me. I was betraying the very reasoning behind my posting rants in the first place. I was no longer being honest, but instead, treating blogging as another manufactured promotional exercise, trying to rally visitors instead of simply being honest.
Being honest means you let yourself have bad days. Sometimes, if you’re angry, you have to chuck a Network and scream, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not gonna take this any more!” If the mature, level-headed bloggers stop fearing the repurcussions of a tad of controversy, then, the market for mean blogging will disappear. The only reason why we have mean bloggers is because their negativity is refreshingly honest.
So let’s all get a little negative some times. For a good cause.
