The question of “to blog or not to blog” seems to weigh heavily on the minds of authors at many Book Expo sessions that have web savvy panelists. This was most evident at the panel titled "Authors and Their Online Communities: the Perils, the Opportunities and What’s Next". During the discussion with pre-eminent author-bloggers such as Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos, Cory Doctorow and John Scalzi, an author in the audience asked “What does it take to blog? It’s so exhausting!”

Scalzi, the author of the wildly popular Whatever blog and the newly published Zoe’s Tale, said very sweetly to the group of about 100 listeners: “Give yourself permissions not to blog. Do something else with your time.” For those who do want to, a few rules from the masters: "Don’t blast your publisher in print" (Doctorow), "Middle of the night is good time to write" (Moulitsas). That’s when everyone else is asleep and not demanding an immediate response to you latest post and you can concentrate on your book.