This is something I always think can round up a good discussion since hyped books are such a big part of the book blogging community, I mean after all it’s kind of our thing to talk about books and promote them! However, hype isn’t always a good thing and I’m here to discuss both the good and bad.
I actually think about this quite a bit as I never know if I should do a short review or a longer review. I’m interested to know what you guys prefer in reviews, shorter or longer ones! I honestly don’t really prefer one strongly over the other and both have their own pros and cons, which is what I’d like to discuss.
I have a lot more pros for each than I do cons, because honestly I think both short and long reviews are great!
Definitely let me know what you think down in the comments and join the discussion!
What are some pros of shorter reviews?
What are some cons to shorter reviews?
What are some pros to longer reviews?
What are some cons to longer reviews?
Which style of review do you prefer more, shorter or longer?
I really do enjoy both styles of review! However, I think I lean more towards short reviews when I’m writing them and towards longer reviews when reading them (that might just be me being lazy though). Although sometimes I prefer a quick, short review to read just to get a general idea bout the book and if I’d like to read it or not!
What are some of your pros/cons for shorter reviews?
What are some of your pros/cons for longer reviews?
Do you prefer one over the other? Why?
Let me know in the comments and come join the discussion!
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I thought about doing a tips post about juggling both your blogging and reading but realized I don’t have much to say about it because I’m literally the worst at it. So here we are having a discussion post instead! I was also thinking that maybe I could make a collection of replies and then use those in a sort of mass collaboration post of tips. Let me know what you think!
How do you make time for writing and posting blog posts?
I personally am always a mess when it comes to this because to make it easier on myself it requires a bit more planning and scheduling, which isn’t my strong suit in this case. I kind of fly by the seat of my pants most of the time as far as planning posts goes! I try and type up a post of some kind daily during the week when I have time and post it the same day as well, it’s rare that I get a chance on the weekends to do so. Sometimes if I’m REALLY good I will schedule some up ahead of time but I’m lazy and that usually never gets done.
Basically if I’m lazing around not doing anything I will try and type up a post, that’s how I make time. Or if I’m doing something else such as watching TV then I’ll put it aside to do up a blog post instead.
How do you post when you DON’T necessarily have time?
Mostly I say if you can’t make time at all don’t stress about it, blogging is supposed to be a fun hobby after all! However, something that can be a real savior when it comes to stuff like this is scheduling your posts up ahead of time. This is a very good way of keeping up with your blog, just type them up when you have a chance and don’t worry about it! Of course, as I mentioned I’m really terrible at this but the few times I’ve gotten around to doing it I found it to be very helpful!
How do you keep up with comments and other blogger’s posts?
Yet another thing that I tend to fail hard at. Normally I sit down and comment and read other posts all at once, but this is a harder way of doing it. It ends up being a lot more work than it should, I SHOULD comment and read posts immediately. But I don’t. I think one of the easiest ways to do this is to have your blog provider’s app (WordPress in my case) on your phone and just comment/read whenever you have a few minutes throughout the day.
How do you make time for reading books?
We all know how hard it can be to balance blog posts AND reading equally! I, probably like the rest of you, always ensure that I have a book with me when I go places because you never know when you’ll get a chance to pull it out and read. If you have an appointment somewhere, read while you wait! If you take public transportation to work or other places, read while you ride! I find this to be one of the most helpful ways to get extra reading time in, plus I read when I get home of course.
Come Join The Discussion!
How do you manage your time with blog posts?
Do you try and schedule posts up ahead of time?
How do you make time to comment and read other blogger’s posts?
What do you do to make time for reading?
Let me know in the comments!
Hello fellow book lovers! Today’s discussion post was something I dug out of the depths of my “post idea notebook” and realized that it’s also something I think about A LOT and would love your input on! This is pretty straight forward so it may not be as long as some of my other discussions.
How often do you mention your blog out “in real life”?
I personally do not mention my blog all that much out in the real world just because it’s something a little more personal for me and I’m not super comfortable sharing it with everyone. Of course I’m not embarrassed by it, per say, I just don’t have a reason to go around discussing it. Maybe if I had more bookish friends I would, but sadly I don’t but that’s what I’m blogging for!
Is it something you’re comfortable sharing with everyone or just select people?
Select people for me! As I mentioned with the above question I barely talk about my blog in real life so when I do choose to talk about it’s with certain people, mostly my family and very close friends. People that I’m comfortable with and know won’t “judge” me for blogging about books.
Normally I don’t worry about what people think of me but when it comes to my blog I don’t want to give people a reason to say hurtful things about something I enjoy. So I choose to keep my blog to myself and the chosen few. I honestly wish I didn’t feel like this about my blog but part of my anxiety holds me back in this way.
How do you choose when and who you discuss your blog with?
As I stated I only mention my blog to close family and friends as far as WHEN I do this it really depends. If I’m super excited about a book or ARC that I got then I will briefly mention how it is I’m able to receive an ARC and then dive into the details. Also when I’m just excited in general about a post or book and the same goes for when something upsets me as well.
Are you loud and proud about your blog or like to keep it more to yourself?
This is kind of where I’m in between. On the one side with certain people I am very loud and proud about my blog and will talk about it endlessly like it’s my baby (which it is!) and then sometimes I just keep it to myself and don’t mention it a whole lot. I’m definitely very proud of my blog and all of the work I put into it, which we should all be, but sometimes I just like to keep some things personal.
Come Join The Discussion!
How do you generally feel about discussing your blog?
So, do you mention your blog in real life or do you keep it more to yourself?
Is there a reason you do or don’t mention it a lot?
Are you comfortable sharing with everyone or no?
Do only certain people know about your blog?
Please let me know in the comments!
Hello my fellow book lovers!
Today’s post is a sort of Q&A/Discussion Post in collaboration with Ashley @ Inside My Minds! So be sure to head over and check out her wonderful blog!
We are going to be discussing ALL different kinds of comments we, as bloggers, may receive on our blogs! Of course being a part of the book blogging community I find that generally nice, genuine comments are the norm but there are all kinds which is why we are here to discuss them!
So come and join our discussion but please remember to, of course, be polite and respectful of other’s opinions! Now let’s discuss!
How do comments on your blog generally make you feel?
Ashley- I would rather have comments than likes. I could really care less about “likes.” Comments make me feel that all the time and effort I put into a post was really worth it.
Heather- I would also much rather have comments than likes! I feel that comments are a little more genuine and mean a lot to me, it’s such a wonderful feeling knowing that someone wanted to take the time to drop by and comment on a post! Plus the reason I started book blogging was to be able to chat books with other book lovers.
How do you respond to “nicer” comments to your blog? (Long replies or shorter replies)
Ashley- It usually depends on the comment. If it’s a nice comment that I can really build off of and generate more discussion, I’ll try to leave a longer reply. But if it’s a short reply like “good luck” or “good job” I’ll just leave a short “thank you.”
Heather- Once again I’m mostly agreeing with you Ashley! I find that pretty much all comments I get on my blog are very, very polite and genuinely nice! If someone leaves me a paragraph sized comment that’s fantastic, I actually like long comments more, and I will try and leave an equally long reply and generally this can bring about an awesome discussion about books or other things. If I get a shorter comment that’s just “hey I loved this post!” or “ I really loved this book too!” I’ll usually just leave some sort of “thank you” comment in reply since there isn’t much more to go off of with shorter comments!
How do you handle any trolls commenting on your blog?
Ashley- I moderate every comment I receive on my blog, so I’ve been fortunate enough that I haven’t really dealt with trolls.
Heather- I haven’t had any experience with trolls really but WordPress does a great job of blocking spam (which are kind of like trolls a little bit…) and I also moderate most comments on my blog as well. So if someone leaves a comment just to be rude they’re going to go straight to the trash more than likely.
How do you respond to self promotional blog comments aka people who leave only their links with a “hey check out my blog!”?
Ashley- The majority of time I don’t even bother checking out the blog. I also always send those comments to the trash, I don’t want them on my blog. The only time that I will read a linked post is if I asked for in my original post.
Heather- If a link to the blog is left on a post such as “Top Ten Tuesday” or “Top 5 Wednesday” then I think it’s perfectly fine, I’ll definitely go check out the post and answers! Or if we are discussing a book etc. in comments you they leave a link to something they posted that is relevant I have no problem checking that out either. However, if someone drops by and says “hey you should really check out my blog!” or just a link I’m probably not going to go take a look since I feel that they didn’t take the time to even look at the post they dropped a link on.
How do you handle negative comments on your blog?
Ashley- I don’t want any negativity on my blog so negative comments just get deleted. I don’t have time or patience for negativity on my blog.
Heather- For the most part I find that the book blogging community is very easy going and laid back so there really aren’t that many people who are negative or would leave negative comments. However, if I were to receive one I would probably either delete it or try and handle it in the most respectful way I can manage. I’ve always been told to “kill ‘em with kindness” so that’s how I would more than likely treat negative comments as well!
Is there any blog comment advice you’d like to give to any newbie book bloggers out there?
Ashley- If you need something clarified ask for clarification. Also, don’t leave links to anything unless the blogger asks you to leave them, especially self-promo links. I feel like self-promo links look desperate. If you want to leave a comment, make sure that the comment is actually relevant to the post and not something random.
Heather- Mostly I’d say if you’re new to try and keep away from purely self promotional comments such as the “hey check out my blog” type, if you want people to take a look at your posts then try and leave polite and genuine comments and they’ll maybe come take a look! I’d also say try and be as respectful as possible with other bloggers even if you disagree with what they’re saying!
Come join the discussion!
How do you generally handle comments on your blog? Positive, negative, self-promotional, trolls?
Do you like getting comments more than likes?
I know, I know I do a lot of “versus” discussion posts but that’s just how my mind seems to work! I think of topics and boom suddenly it’s a battle of the topics! Today’s discussion post is pretty straight forward and it came up when I was looking at the stats of some of my book reviews. So of course the idea came to me that I’d like to hear your guy’s opinion as well!
Why are reviews of newer releases more popular than reviews of backlist books?
Well this is pretty obvious……we read reviews of new releases because they’re new! We want to know what the general consensus is on a book before we buy it, right? Is that new mystery/thriller full of twists and turns, or is it a flop? Is the latest contemporary or fantasy problematic? We want to know these things before we go reading or buying a new release so we read the reviews for these more than those for books that are older.
However, does this mean reviews of backlist books are obsolete?
Definitely not! At least in my opinion. After all a backlist book is anything that was published last year or later and a year really isn’t old at all! Remember all of those new releases you bought last year and haven’t read yet? Those are now backlist books too!
I find that I care about backlist book reviews as much as new release reviews, especially if the backlist book was very popular (or still is) when it was released. I like to see if a book is worth my time no matter when it was published!
Does this affect what books we decide to read and review as bloggers?
For the most part I would say no but there are also a couple of other factors that make me say yes.
If you want your blog to grow quicker or get more views etc. I would say reading and reviewing more new releases is the ticket since they are more widely read, in which case this would affect what you read as a blogger. Do I advise doing this just for that stats? No. You should read what you want to be reading!
Another thing to factor in is ARCs which some bloggers receive to review before the release date in which case you HAVE to read these new releases which would clearly affect what you are reading and reviewing as a blogger too.
So I’m a bit in the middle on this part because no I don’t think this SHOULD affect what you read and review drastically but sometimes it does regardless.
So what side am I on?
Both!
Reviews of new releases and backlist books are BOTH useful because opinions are important no matter how old the book is! I personally love seeing reviews for both types of books since I’m a book addict and am always looking for new books to add.
Do I find that this affects my own personal reading and reviewing habits? No, not really. The only time I HAVE to read and review a new release is if a receive an ARC of that book but other than that I read and review whatever I’m in the mood for!
What reviews do you like to read more?
Do you find new release reviews or backlist reviews to be more useful? Or both?
Do you find that your new release reviews are more “popular”?
Do you find this affects what you read and review as a blogger?
I have been meaning to discuss in some way, shape, or form ARCs on my blog for some time, however, I just feel that I don’t have that much experience with them to properly do a post about them. That being said I’d just like to take the time to discuss with all of you, no matter your experience, physical ARCs and digital galleys.
This isn’t going to be a super in-depth discussion on my part about the pros and cons of each of these but to just kind of discuss everything about them in general depending on your experiences with ARCs as well!
I will be doing a full length post discussing ARCs and tips on how to receive them at some point!
Of course everything I’ve written in this post is just my own opinion, I’m not trying to offend anyone by any means. Please keep that in mind while reading or commenting back! Thank you!
What’s the big deal with physical ARCs?
Let’s face it: everyone wants physical ARCs. Don’t lie! Getting an advanced reader copy of any book in any form is awesome but as book lovers I feel a lot of us still covet those physical copies a bit more. Because they’re right there in your hands with their beautiful covers and their pure awesomeness!
Physical ARCs are a bit harder to obtain than e-galleys so getting one kind of makes you feel good about yourself and your blog, like you’re doing something right in order to have received one! It’s almost like getting a huge compliment!
However, like I said they are much harder to obtain and can therefore lead to a lot of disappointment as well and some publishers don’t offer e-galleys at all! Some publishers are easier to work with than others, some will send you ARCs and some won’t, some will email you back stating whether you’ve been approved or not and some won’t. This can get frustrating at times since most of us don’t know what we are doing wrong!
Personally, I have yet to receive any ARCs or even feedback from publishers or imprints of Penguin, Harper Collins, or Simon & Schuster. There’s also no real way of knowing what kind of stats they like to see in order to be considered either, at least not to my knowledge. If ANY OF YOU KNOW THE ANSWERS PLEASE TELL ME YOUR SECRETS!
What’s wrong with just requesting e-galleys off of Netgalley or Edelweiss?
Nothing, absolutely nothing!
Netgalley is very easy to navigate and getting approved is fairly easy there, Edelweiss on the other hand is a little less user-friendly in my opinion and also a little harder to get approved on. But I digress…….
E-galleys are great for many reasons such as: they’re much easier to request and obtain, you get access to them a lot quicker, and there’s no adding to the clutter on your shelves!
However, one of the biggest drawbacks to e-galleys (at least in my opinion) is that if you request them on Netgalley you have a feedback ratio. Which I understand helps publishers to see if you actually read and review they galleys they give you but also it can hurt bloggers as well. Let’s say you’ve read and reviewed maybe 30 books on Netgalley and you’re always good about reading and reviewing the ARCs you request, well if you receive let’s say 4 or 5 ARCs your feedback ratio will immediately drop below the wanted 80% before you send feedback in. (PLEASE DON’T JUDGE MY MATH TOO BADLY, I’M TERRIBLE AT IT)
It’s kind of a bummer! Some bloggers are more than capable of handling multiple ARCs but maybe won’t be approved for them because their feedback ratio is slightly below 80%. It’s just sort of annoying sometimes.
My slight irritation with this came from my experience last week emailing and requesting a few physical ARCs. I was told by the publisher that they would send me these if they could but that I should request them off of Netgalley which is problematic for two reasons: one being that if I request them off of Netgalley will I end up getting an e-galley and a physical ARC of one of them? You said you’d send them if you could but to also re-request them? Makes no sense to me.
And reason number two being that if I requested the 4 ARCs I wanted off of Netgalley and somehow got approved for them my feedback ratio will drop, potentially stopping me from getting approved for any other ARCs until I finish these. Which as we all know ARCs have different release dates, we are more than capable of reading and reviewing ARCs with differing release dates.
Join The Discussion!
What are some of your experiences with physical ARCs or e-galleys?
Do you prefer one over the other? Why?
Do you find it easier to obtain physical copies or e-copies?
What do you think of Netgalley’s feedback ratio?
Are there any pros or cons to either that I didn’t list?
Do you have trouble requesting or being approved for physical ARCs?
Are there any publishers you find easier to work with?
Do you know the answers to the SECRETS I mentioned above? (If so I’d appreciate it!)
Let me know in the comments!
I actually had this come up this week and tweeted my slight irritation about it on Twitter and I was actually surprised that a lot of you had problems with it before! Thank you so much to all of you who replied to that tweet and inspiring this post: Michelle @ Book Adventures, Swetlana @ Reading Through The Nights, & Joce @ Write Through The Night!
So of course that gave me the idea to bring the discussion over to my blog and hear from the rest of you as well!
Of course everything I’ve written in this post is just my own opinion, I’m not trying to offend anyone by any means. Please keep that in mind while reading or commenting back! Thank you!
What Exactly Do I Mean By “Self-Promoting Blog Comments”?
Just to clarify what this whole discussion is I’m talking about other bloggers who leave comments on our blogs that are only self-promoting their own blogs. For example those comments that are: “Hey check out my blog!” or “Hey, nice blog check out mine!” or even “I have a blog, bookstagram, booktube channel please follow them!” or literally just a link to their blogs and it goes on and on and on.
Strictly any comments that don’t discuss the content of your blog or post at all and only discuss their own blogs and material.
So What’s So Bad About It?
To be blunt it can get pretty annoying and down right rude at times. We all put a lot of effort and time into our blogs and posts and to have someone just comment on it to self promote themselves and not acknowledge YOUR content at all is a little impolite. I mean I’m sure they wouldn’t like it if we went over and commented “Hey check out my blog!” on THEIR posts would they?
When it all comes down to it we are all here, blogging, to chat with other people with similar interests ( in this case mostly books!) and it’s hard to do that when some bloggers only care about getting views by leaving comments all over the place self-promoting themselves. I think the phrase “what goes around comes around” really applies to this because if you don’t LEAVE genuine comments then you probably aren’t going to GET genuine comments either.
When Is It OK To Leave “Self-Promoting” Comments?
There’s a very fine line between ONLY self promoting yourself like in the examples I’ve used and leaving a link to your blog or post while also leaving an appropriate comment on the other blogger’s post. I personally am 100% fine with you dropping a link to one of your posts if it’s relevant to mine or what we were discussing! I will be much, much more likely to check out your blog if you leave a more meaningful comment!
So if you wanna drop a link to your blog or post, do it! As long as you are also leaving a genuine comment on our posts as well and not JUST trying to get views and visitors to your blog.
Tip To New Bloggers: If you want to converse with other bloggers and maybe have us check out your new blog then all you have to do is like what I said above! Leave a more meaningful comment and maybe explain that you’re new and looking for other bloggers to talk to and we will be much more inclined to go over and check it out!
What are some of your experiences with this?
How do you deal with self-promotional comments on your blog?
What are your thoughts on bloggers leaving self-promotional comments?
Join the discussion and let me know in the comments!
This is a discussion post I’ve been wanting to do for a while and this may be viewed as bloggers requesting to review a book that isn’t what I’m looking at today, what I am looking at is authors requesting reviews from us when we don’t want them.
I could easily do another post on handling review requests when you get the book and actually read it but like I said today’s discussion is all about those unwanted review requests. If that sounds like something that might interest you, let me know in the comments too!
I’m definitely curious to see what your thoughts are on this!
Do You Accept Review Requests From Authors/Publishers?
I personally do not most of the time and usually my Review Policy page states I am not accepting any at all. Why? Because I find that when I do receive requests they aren’t anything I’d be interested in. (which I will get to in my next point…) Am I grateful? Of course! But my reading time is precious to me and I just don’t like wasting time with books I won’t enjoy.
I find it a lot easier to just request books I want to review myself.
Do Authors/Publishers Even Read Review Policy Pages?
***First off before I get too far into this one, of course there are people out there that do but in my experience it seems that generally people do not! I’m not trying to say everyone ignores the review policy pages! ***
While it isn’t essential to have a review policy page on your book blog it probably is a good idea when it comes to receiving and or accepting review requests. It lets authors or publishers know if you are even accepting review requests at the moment and if you are what kinds of books you will accept and in what format. Just makes sense right? This way your time is not wasted and neither is theirs! However, this only works when PEOPLE ACTUALLY READ THE REVIEW POLICY PAGE!
*Cue Rant*
This right here is the reason I quit accepting review requests: because generally people do not read what books I accept or if I’m even accepting any at the time. Then they proceed to send me requests in genres I have absolutely no interest in and send them when I specifically stated I am not accepting ANY at the time.
I’m sorry but I find it pretty annoying when I get sent requests for Adult Fiction when I mostly read and blog about YA Fiction. I wrote down exactly what genres I accept and it seems I get sent nothing but the opposite of those. That really makes me lose hope in accepting review requests.
What is even worse than that is when I get emailed the full book in a PDF format along with the request!
“Hey I was wondering if you’d read my book! Here it is, read it!”
Um, excuse me? I’m sorry but that, to me, is downright rude. I get that you want to promote your book but sending a review copy when it was not approved is not okay. It’s one thing to send me a review request when I’m not accepting any and it’s a completely different thing to just send me a copy and expect me to read it.
How Do You Handle Unwanted Review Requests?
Honestly? I just ignore them. At first I’d email back and politely tell the requester:
“I’m sorry but as you can see on my review policy page I am not currently accepting any review requests at this time.”
That went fine as most people apologize and were polite back but THEN I started getting some people that would tell me they “didn’t see that on my page”. Um yeah sorry but….it’s at the top in bold and red type so if you didn’t read that you didn’t read my policy at all. So if you didn’t read what I accept then why bother sending me a request?
So my conclusion was that most people requesting reviews from me didn’t bother to read my review policy page and just plain ‘ol didn’t care. So if you don’t care why should I care to email you back at all? Which lead me to just ignoring unwanted requests.
Of course as I said not everyone was like this but my experiences so far have just lead me to not accept requests at all, I get tired of telling people no. Maybe one day I’ll go back but not for a while.
Overall I hope this didn’t sound too incredibly negative! I wasn’t trying to go into full on bitch mode but this is something I get pretty frustrated with as a book blogger and hopefully some of you can relate!
Do you ever accept review requests?
What are some of your experiences with unwanted review requests?
How do you deal with unwanted review requests?
Do you ever get sent unapproved review copies?
Do you get requests for books that aren’t on your review policy?
Do you ever get frustrated with unwanted review requests?
Come join in on the discussion!
This post is going to be a part of my book blogging tips series of posts (even though it’s only the 2nd one it’s still a series!) and one in which I’ve been having a lot more experience with lately. While book blogging is a super fun and wonderful hobby to have it still has its downsides and those are what I’m going to be talking about in this post.
I’m not trying to scare anyone away from starting a book blog but I thought it’d be a good idea to get some of the cons to book blogging out there in the open since they are important too! So hopefully this will either help some of you know what you’re getting into or it will remind those of you who already blog of some of the things we go through.
Here’s a link to my other Book Blogging Tips post: How to Start a Book Blog!
The Pressure of Consistent Posting
This one is definitely one of the bigger pressures for me because sometimes there just isn’t enough time in the day to get lots of posts done to schedule for later and then you may end up going a day or two without ANY posts getting posted! This can ultimately lead to feeling the pressure of trying to post consistently even if you get up a few posts every week you can feel that it “isn’t enough” when really YOU decide what’s enough and what’s not on your own blog.
Sometimes this can lead to a blogging slump (which I’ll discuss as well) and you won’t feel motivated to post at all let alone consistently.
This is why it’s important to take breaks when you need them and de-stress yourself!
The Pressure to be Unique
This is actually a little more minor than some of the other topics I picked but it is definitely still a pressure. With so many other book blogs, bloggers, and weekly bookish memes it sometimes can feel hard to be 100% unique with your own blog, posts, and ideas. It’s definitely easy to do weekly memes since those post ideas are already thought up for you and as I said it can feel harder to come up with your own ideas when you have such easy access to others.
I know such things, for me, can lead to feeling like your own ideas and blog “aren’t good enough” which definitely is NOT the case. If you can’t come up with post ideas it’s 100% fine to do memes, I love memes! It may also be a good idea to take a break and try brainstorming ideas and then come back to your blog too.
The Pressure of Blog Stats
I think this is definitely something we can ALL relate to, right? Watching our blog stats day in and day out and probably feeling at some point that they (once again) “aren’t good enough” or “why don’t I have lots of views/followers?”. The pressure to get “better” blog stats is immense when it comes to blogging, we all feel it!
It also gets worse when you’re on hiatus or in a slump because those stats will decrease even more, the key is to not get caught up in your stats because they really aren’t that important. Your stats don’t make your blog wonderful YOU do.
The Pressure of Gaining Followers
This one goes hand in hand with the stats thing I mentioned and once again I think this is something we can all relate to. It’s always nice to get followers it makes us feel good because someone cared enough to follow our blogs and read our posts! So of course it’s easy to get caught up in gaining more and more followers and wanting our blogs to be “big”. However, it’s important to remember followers are not everything and your blog is still amazing because of the work you put into it and not the number of followers you have!
The Pressure of ARCs (Advanced Review Copies)
ARCs are a really big thing in the world of book blogging and they can actually add a lot of pressure though. Such as trying to get your hands on them, over-requesting and getting approved for more than you can handle, and lastly trying to get them read before their publication dates! Of course ARCs are a wonderful privilege but they can get overwhelming sometimes.
The Pressure of Catching Up on Posts
The longer you’ve been blogging the more you’ll run into other wonderful book bloggers to chat with and follow! So of course all those bloggers add up quite a bit after a while and sometimes it’s hard to find the time to catch up on everyone’s posts which can ultimately, like with me, make you feel guilty for being behind on posts. I find it helps a lot to dedicate a certain amount of time just for browsing other posts that way you catch up without feeling too much pressure.
The Pressure of Commenting
This goes for commenting on other blogs as well as catching up on comments left on your own blog. As with catching up on posts it can be hard to find the time to give your comments the proper amount of thought and therefore it’s easy to put it off. The amount of comments and posts can get overwhelming sometimes so like I said earlier it’s a good idea to take separate time for JUST catching up with comments.
The Pressure of Reading/Blogging Slumps
Slumps come around when you burn yourself out on something from doing too much all at once. Reading and blogging slumps go hand in hand too, you either can’t read and don’t have enough material for posts or you can’t post and then you have nowhere to discuss the books you’ve been reading! Sometimes you just need a break and it’s 100% okay to take that break, come back when you want to everyone will still be here for you!
The Pressure of Blog/ARC Envy
You know that tiny little inkling of jealousy you may get when you see someone’s gorgeous blog design? Or someone whose blog has thousands of followers? Or a blogger who has that ARC of a book you’ve been really looking forward to? Yeah we all get a little blog/ARC envy every now and then and sometimes that will make you feel some pressure because you’re thinking your blog isn’t “good enough” for all of that.
The important thing is to remember to keep your blog fun and know that eventually you WILL get that many followers and you WILL get that ARC you’ve really wanted just keep working for it!
The Pressure of Review Requests
This isn’t as big of a pressure as these other points I’ve brought up but it does still show up every now and then for me. When you’ve been blogging for a bit you will be approached by self-published and Indie authors to review their books now this can go along with ARCs and the pressures that come with those or it can be a different kind of pressures, such as feeling guilty if you do not want to review the book. You are, however, never obligated to accept a review request if you don’t want to!
Sidenote: another thing that can get pretty annoying about review requests is if you state which kinds of books you read in your review policy and people STILL send you the requests. Or if you state you are NOT accepting review requests and STILL get them. I always feel you are 100% in your right to not only say no but also ignore requests from people who did not take the proper amount of time to properly read your review policy.
What do you think are some of pressures of book blogging?
Do you experience any of the ones I listed?
How do you deal with some of these pressures?
Let me know in the comments!
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