Bookish Thoughts / General Books

Let’s Talk Bookish: Pros and Cons of Book Blogging

Dini @ dinipandareads29 Comments

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @Eternity Books  & Dani @ Literary Lion, where we get to discuss certain topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! I’ve listed the upcoming topics in brief at the end of my post, but check out these pages for more information on November 2020 prompts & a list of past prompts!

This week is actually a ‘freebie’ and we could either go back and do a topic we missed or take a break. I decided to go waay back and do a prompt from September 2020!
Check out the other bloggers who already did this prompt too!

Now without further ado… This week’s topic asks us about:

the pros and cons of book blogging

Examples: What do you love about being a book blogger? What do you hate? What makes you stay in this community, and what’s one thing that could possibly drive you away? Do you feel appreciated as a blogger? Are book bloggers given enough credit?

IT’S A BLOGGER’S LIFE FOR ME

I decided to start my book blog after starting a bookstagram. I wanted a better platform for posting reviews and engaging with other readers, and while I was worried about starting another blog after the one I had for 15 years fizzled out, I found I really enjoyed talking about books and now here we are almost two years later!

there’s so much to love!

  • The community: The book community is truly the best! I’ve met so many amazing book lovers across the world and it has been so great to share our book loves and dislikes, and even tidbits about our personal lives. I don’t have (m)any book loving friends IRL, so it’s refreshing to be able to fully geek-out with people who understand why I’m freaking out over fictional events and characters in the first place 😂
  • Finding new favourites: I can’t even count the number of books and authors that I’ve discovered and ended up loving since joining the community. I’ve branched out of comfort zone more times than I can count and the result has almost always been positive. I don’t know how I used to find new books/authors before but there’s no going back now!
  • Sharing recommendations and getting others to try new books/authors: I’ve loved sharing my favourites on my blog and it’s always so exciting to see people mention that they’ve added books to their mountainous TBRs on my recommendation or because of a review I wrote. It’s a crazy incredible feeling especially when they love the book as much as I did! It kinda makes me feel like I’ve levelled up! 🤣
  • ARCs and Blog tours: NGL, one of the reasons I started blogging was because I wanted the chance to access ARCs! Who wouldn’t want to read the latest books before everyone else?! Then I discovered blog tours and discovered indie authors and got access to more new releases and well, the rest is history!
  • Becoming a smarter/better reader: Obviously it’s a process but I’ve definitely become a more conscientious and purposeful reader since I started blogging and that’s really thanks to the community. I never used to really pay much attention to what I was reading–I would just mindlessly consume for pleasure, and while I still do that, I’m also more critical of what I consume and I like to think its made me a better reader 😊

IT CAN GET HARD though…

As good as it’s been having a book blog and being part of the community, I’d be lying if I said it was all roses all the time.

  • It’s time consuming. No matter what anyone tells you, making posts takes a lot of work and eats up a lot of time! Even if I was better organised and actually scheduled ahead of time (cough), I’d still probably spend a big chunk of my free-time on it. I work full time so I mostly work on my blog before/after work or during work breaks, but a lot of my spare time does go toward blogging, including engaging with others! My friends/colleagues who know I have a book blog always comment on how it’s like a second job (albeit a very enjoyable one) and they’re not exactly wrong!
  • The pressure. I feel like there’s a lot of pressure to constantly be reading, churning out content and engaging with others in order to “stay relevant”. It’s not a competition but it can feel like it sometimes when everyone is trying to read more, review more, engage more, etc. All of this obviously comes as part of having a blog but at the same time, it does get overwhelming and can lead to serious burn outs too!
  • Kissing that hard earned money good-bye. As an international blogger, I don’t have access to the majority of ARCs or a library, so 90% of the books that I read are bought out of pocket. Plus, I rarely get book gifts because my family doesn’t believe I need more 🙄 While I’m happy to be discovering new books my savings certainly don’t feel the same way 😂 I’m really thankful to have a steady job that allows me to indulge in this increasingly expensive hobby and I do know how lucky I am!

FEELING APPRECIATED AS A BLOGGER…

I never put much thought into whether or not I’m appreciated as a blogger because I do it for my own enjoyment. It’s a topic that I’ve noticed frequently come up on socials when bloggers share how little they feel appreciated compared to bookstagrammers, booktubers and book-tokers (or whatever they call themselves). But it’s something that I personally try not to think too much about because it’d probably stop me altogether. 😂 There are definitely good days when stats don’t matter and those really bad days when I question what the hell I’m doing, but I do think it’s all part of the process. I don’t believe that people on other platforms don’t also feel the same way sometimes!

2020 has been a rough as year and reading and book blogging has really helped me push through the tough times, so right now my hope is that I won’t stop blogging anytime soon? Being part of the community and engaging with others really gives me the motivation to keep doing what I’m doing, and I’m still loving (almost) every minute of it! 😉

So, what. do you think about book blogging? Do you feel the same way about the pros and cons I listed? What do you love most about book blogging? Do you feel appreciated?

29 thoughts on “Let’s Talk Bookish: Pros and Cons of Book Blogging”

  1. I’ve also found a lot of new books because of book blogging. And I’ve also met a bunch of really awesome people on here as well! Though I do admit that I sometimes wonder why I’m doing this whole thing too. I only have a small amount of followers compared to a lot of people, and sometimes it feels like I’m screaming into a void. But then I get amazing comments and that makes it all worth it. Because we’re all here to share our love for reading and books.

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    • Oh, absolutely! My TBR has grown exponentially since immersing myself in the book community and my savings really do not thank me for it 😂 And while sometimes it can get a little demotivating when so much effort is put into this without much obvious result, it’s still probably one of the best things that I’ve committed myself to do. The comments from fellow bloggers, engaging with others and being able to connect with strangers across the world over amazing stories is such an awesome experience and I wouldn’t trade it ❤️

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  2. I agree! The benefits definitely outweigh the cons to blogging. I’ve met so many awesome readers and bloggers and have found so many great books through blogging. That’s the best part for me, but I never realized how time consuming it would be! 🙂

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    • Haha, I don’t think I realised how time-consuming it would be either. But if given the chance to “start over” or think again about starting a book blog, I reckon I’d still do it coz the pros definitely outweigh the cons and it’s been such a fun and exciting experience 😃

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  3. Fantastic post! 🙂 I agree with everything you said. I’m a newbie blogger myself and had hesitated to start a bookish blog because of the time it takes to produce content. That being said, I am so glad I can find people to discuss books with now, especially since I’m not around anyone who share the same hobby.

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    • Thank you! The biggest perk for me really has been finding other people who get my love for books and stories and fangirling over fictional characters! Everyone else in my life doesn’t get that and I feel like I always have to censure myself whenever it comes to talking about books with them 😂 Even though it does take up a lot of time it’s so absolutely worth it and I hope you continue enjoying it too 😊

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  4. Such a wonderful post Dini and I agree with all of your points! 👏 Book blogging has introduced me to so many amazing books and friends. It is very time consuming, but it’s that rewarding I don’t mind.
    And you are 100% appreciated as a blogger, not least by me 😊

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    • Ah, Stephen, I appreciate you and your kind words so much ☺️ I definitely agree that it’s so rewarding that I don’t mind spending the time on it either. It’s 100% worth it to engage with other awesome bloggers and I’m so glad I met all of you! 🥰

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  5. Hard agree, Dini! I think the book blogging community is one of the friendliest communities out there, and I love how we’re all able to meet other book lovers from all over the world to share our love for stories. I also love that the majority of people within the book blogging community are also excellent at having discussions when we don’t feel the same way about the same book, so even if two bloggers don’t agree on something it’s very rare that there’ll be some kind of drama over it.

    You’re right, though, that it is very time-consuming, but I think the most important thing is making sure we’re doing it for ourselves. 2020 has been so hard and I think my mental health would have suffered so much more if I hadn’t had the book community to escape into when I was furloughed and I didn’t have all my blogging friends across the world to chat to. I never know how to feel when I see bloggers on social media talking about how they don’t feel appreciated because it does make me wonder if perhaps they aren’t blogging for the right reasons? Ultimately we have to blog because we enjoy it. Of course it sucks if a post you worked hard on doesn’t get the amount of engagement you might have liked, but I still think it’s amazing when one person takes the time out of their day to leave a comment on my blog.

    I do get very annoyed when I see authors being rude to bloggers, though! That’s not on at all, and I don’t understand why some authors speak to bloggers the way they do. The majority of us do this for free and ultimately direct our readers towards their books, so I really don’t like it when they’re rude or inappropriate – especially when blogs are for other readers, not authors!

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    • Totally agree, Jess! Everyone is so welcoming on here. I remember being so nervous when I first started and then the more I started engaging I realised wow, everyone is so nice 😍 I love it! Book Twitter does get in with the drama a bit more than if you’re just engaging on blogs but I do love the maturity of readers as well.

      I’m so glad that blogging has helped you through the craziness of 2020! I can’t even imagine what this year would’ve been like if it weren’t for books and blogging! It’s just unimaginable and makes me even more grateful for this community! I also absolutely agree with you about the whole “appreciation” thing. I think at the end of the day you should always be doing this for yourself first and foremost, but I do think it’s always easier said when you put so much effort into something and human nature just wants it to be acknowledged. But I’d definitely not be doing this if I wasn’t doing it mostly for myself and I didn’t enjoy it! It’s the best feeling when people engage with me, even if it’s just one or two others!

      Oh, I also can’t stand it when authors are rude to bloggers and I think perhaps that’s also where the appreciation feeling comes in too. We make the time and effort to do this for free and I don’t see how people still don’t get it and that our spaces are not for them to bash 😂 I guess you can’t win them all… Thanks so much for leaving such a thoughtful comment, Jess! 🥰

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  6. I’ve come to really appreciate how long tour posts take, even though most of the content is already written. I have at least one tour post on my blog every day (some weekends are bare, like this one) and I never manage to get more than 3 days ahead scheduling them. I guess I should try to get a head start on the vacation week we’ll be taking between Christmas and New Years, because I really DON’T want to be blogging via chrome book running on cell phone data hot spot.

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    • Haha omgoodness, yes! I think for me it’s not just with blog tour posts as well but like… All kinds of posts, especially reviews (even if I’ve already written them up). But the formatting, going over the text again (coz I go over it countless times before I hit publish LOL), and getting it just right ends up eating so much time 😂 I really need to learn how to properly schedule ahead of time; I’m just too lazy (and tired) at the end of every day and I spend so much time staring at screens as it is! LOL I totally agree with you about scheduling over the holidays though–defo a good plan!

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  7. I feel like you highlighted several good points, good and bad! I too started blogging because I wanted ARCs too 😂 it’s really fun to be mire in the know about what’s coming out, but its true that it’s time consuming and takes energy to product content And read often. Especially working full time (hey, me too!). If I start to think too long about the small amount of likes i get or my following in comparison to that of others I’d definitely feel bad, so I don’t spend too long thinking about it either. My bookish friends who don’t blog are always wowed by ARCs and the experience, so it’s always fun to talk about it with others. And the friends we make!!!! Totally a huge plus!!!!! Great post Dini.

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    • Thanks Tina! When I tell my family and friends (who aren’t really in the book community) about being approached by authors or being part of blog tours for upcoming releases they’re always so wow-ed but they still don’t really “get” my passion for books and why I need to blog about it! Haha. But it’s so worth it! I think at the end of the day if we enjoy it and are passionate about it, we should keep doing it even if it’s time-consuming! The new bookish friends are the best and really keep me motivated too 😍

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  9. I agree with everything! I have been doing this for two years now and I wouldn’t change it. Sometimes it takes up a lot of time but I just enjoy talking to others who love books as much as I do!

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  11. You make a lot of great points in this post! None of my friends, outside the book blogging community ofc, read and it’s amazing to be able to gush or rant about books with an amazing community who loves to read as much as I do. That’s the main reason I started blogging and it’s still the reason I keep doing it even when sometimes I struggle to have time for blogging (hence my disappearance last week). Great post Dini!

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    • Thanks Andie! It’s so good to find other people that just get your craziness for books, amazing stories and fictional characters 😂 I always feel like I have to hold myself back when talking about books and stuff with those outside of the community, so it’s freeing to be able to gush on here! Haha I’m so glad you’re one of the bloggers I found on here, and although we all defo need to take breaks every now and again, I do hope you keep blogging! ❤️

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