To celebrate, Tez suggested I write a ‘what I’ve learned about blogging in the last three years’ post. So here it is!
What I’ve Learned About Books and Blogging in the Last Three Years
- I mostly hate what everyone hates to read, but I don’t love what everyone loves to read.
- I miss out on A LOT of events based on where I live.
- Paying for shipping on books sucks ass.
- My most popular posts are giveaway posts.
- Giveaways are becoming less and less popular due to an overabundance of them. Giveaway hosts need to invest more to entice entries.
- I’m not sure self-hosting is all it’s cracked up to be.
- I feel more isolated since I became self-hosted because the wordpress.com community doesn’t find my blog so easily anymore.
- I should probably embrace using tags, but I just can’t be bothered.
- You should only request to review books you are REALLY TRULY interested in.
- Try not to be sucked in by pretty covers or the fact that it’s ‘free’.
- Sometimes authors can be REALLY COOL and are happy to be friends.
- Authors DO read their reviews, even though they know they probably shouldn’t.
- Don’t let the fact that authors read their reviews affect the way you write them.
- Reviews are not written for authors and don’t have to follow any rules ie ‘provide constructive criticism/feedback’. Any real author would have sought feedback before publishing.
- Publicists aren’t scary.
- Publicists really don’t care if you write a negative review.
- Publishers don’t care about bad author behaviour. It’s a business, not personal.
- It’s almost always the authors who cause drama.
- Authors have learned that the quickest way to get publicity is to shit on bloggers.
- Authors using sock puppets or otherwise disguising themselves to sabotage other authors have given book bloggers a bad, unfounded reputation.
- People who try to silence reviewers are trying to silence criticism. Criticism is one of the few areas we can quote under fair use.
- I can’t emphasise this enough: Criticism makes things fair.
- Sometimes, no matter how much you love reading, you just need to take a break.
Enter my fantastic blogiversary giveaway here!
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About Nemo
A lover of kittens and all things sparkly, Nemo has a degree in English Literature and specialises in reviewing contemporary, paranormal, mystery/thriller, historical, sci-fi and fantasy Young Adult fiction. She is especially drawn to novels about princesses, strong female friendships, magical powers, and assassins.
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Cheryl
I love this post! Very helpful for newer bloggers! And congratulations on the three years! What an accomplishment 🙂
Nemo
Thanks Cheryl! I’m glad it was useful.
Shelleyrae
Happy blogoversary!
Nemo
Thank you Shellyrae!
Bekka
I love this post and agree with every point! (Except maybe self-hosting because I love the freedom – but I totally understand about the isolation and yeah, sometimes it seems to be more work than it’s worth.) Happy blogoversary 😀
Nemo
I know, people say ‘I love the freedom’ but I’m much more of a guided structure sort of person. I was perfectly happy with my non-self-hosted theme and once I realised I wasn’t allowed to just post blog tours I could have worked around that, too. I dunno, I just guess I think maybe I don’t really know what to do with all this ‘freedom’ and it’s not that big a deal? I could quite happily go back to non-self-hosted except that after the scare I had with my blog being suspended I feel better knowing I own and control all of my content.
Eilonwy
Congratulations!
It’s a real shame that authors are the people making life toughest for book bloggers. Please do just keep writing your reviews the way you want to, since I love reading them.
Nemo
Thank you so much! I admit, normally the idea of an author reading my reviews doesn’t sway me. I just pretend they don’t.