Let’s Talk Bookish // Pros & Cons of Book Blogging
Hi my darling readers! Happy Friday! We’ve made it through another week. Claps all around!
I hope everyone is doing well – I myself am ecstatic that the summer season is winding down and we’re finally dipping our toes into cool fall weather. It’s been more in the 60s today, meaning that I’m not as hesitant to drink some hot coffee and snuggle up in my sweatshirt for the majority of the day! What’s your take on this chilly weather?
On this chilly fall Friday, I’m doing another Let’s Talk Bookish, which is a weekly topic prompted by Rukky and Dani. These weekly prompts really get me thinking, and I’m excited to have joined this fun meme!
So this week’s theme is “Pros and Cons of Book Blogging”. I haven’t been blogging for too long (about 3 months now!) and so my experience is by no means extensive.
A platform to gush/rant
I don’t have many (okay, really any) friends who like to read. At least, not what I read. Before I started this blog, I found myself finishing a book that I loved or hated and just wishing I had someone to rant to (now, I can rant into the void)! It’s nice to have this site to express my thoughts and ideas and feelings, I think it’s definitely bolstered my creativity!
A lovely community
Sure, we’ve got our issues (at least not as many as Book Twitter lol) but so far I’ve found everyone I’ve interacted with on this platform to be wonderful. Book bloggers are so kind and genuine and love to connect with each other, and I’m so so lucky for each and every one of you who take the time to comment or follow or like my posts!
I get to write!
Growing up, people always thought I’d be a writer because I love to read so much. Much to their surprise, I’ve never loved writing. I never wanted to be an author and write my own stories (okay, maybe not never…) and when I decided to go into communications, it only took one journalism class for me to decide it wasn’t my thing. But I LOVE the kind of writing I do here! I love putting my own voice into the things I write and truly feeling excitement about the content I produce.
Book recs galore
A blessing…or a curse? Book blogging has opened my eyes to so many diverse and underrated books that I never would have known about otherwise. Granted, my TBR is now long enough to fill 3 lifetimes, but I guess that’s the price you pay as a reader!
Growing your platform
As someone who grew up in the world of social media (and later went on to study it in school), the pressure to perform online is infinite. It’s instilled in us from a young age that unless you’re growing your platform, you’re failing. I think that puts a ton of pressure on book bloggers to be increasing in followers consistently, even though the whole point of this community is to share a love of reading!
I always need to be reading
Having a book blog means that I have to, ya know, read. If I’m not reading, I feel like I have nothing of value to talk about! Just last week I did a quick re-read of the ACOTAR series and felt immense guilt that I wasn’t reading something new that I could include in my September wrap up. This can be dangerous for people who struggle with anxiety and a feeling of obligation!
Engagement with the community
When I started this blog, I spent an hour or two every. single. day scrolling through my reader and commenting/engaging with other bloggers. Don’t get me wrong, I’m incredibly grateful for every single interaction I’ve had so far on this blog. But that habit took a ton of time out of my day, and I soon felt like if I took a day off to do something else, I wasn’t “maximizing” what I could do with my blog. Again, this is something that I need to reevaluate and decide what’s going to work best for me, my mental health, and my time management!
Well my friends, there it is! I love these discussion topics and am going to try to do them going forward, but who knows where my crazy big-girl schedule will take me!
Do you agree/disagree with any of my comments here? What are your biggest pros and cons of book blogging?
Thank you my lovelies!
22 Comments
Taylor @ plantyofpages
oh my goodness, the amount of time I spend on the reader page is insane. it’s frustrating because I want to engage with others and support their blogs but, I agree, it takes a lot of time! I really enjoyed this post, I agree/disagree on lots <3
Here's my post for Let's Talk Bookish if you want to check it out 🙂 https://plantyofpages.wordpress.com/2020/09/18/lets-talk-bookish-the-pros-and-cons-of-book-blogging/
erin
YES like I’ve been spending this morning on Reader and now all of a sudden it’s 12 PM?? Where did my morning go?? A blessing and a curse!!
Maggie
I just noticed I responded to a comment and not the post. So sorry about that!
erin
No worries!! (:
Maggie
This was a lovely post! You’re so right about all the pros and cons of book blogging. I had a book blog for a short while in the past, but the things you talked about I can also relate to as a personal/lifestyle blogger.
When content is tied in to what you spend time doing that’s NOT blogging, it can be a great thing and also a negative! I’ve found that it’s nice to have a balance of things I just blog about, things I just enjoy experiencing in my life, then picking some of those things to blog about. When there’s an imbalance, blogging subtracts from my life.
I also wanted to quickly say that you have such a beautiful blog! The colors, fonts, and design are wonderful. 😊💛
erin
That’s a good model to base blogging off of – like not only doing books 100% but also tying in other things that excite you!! Thank you so so much, you are the sweetest!! ♥
Tasya @ The Literary Huntress
I love blogging, I enjoyed having my own space to share my thoughts and feeling like being part of a community, but at the same time, it takes so much time 😅 From reading, creating content, to engaging with the community, it’s very time consuming…
erin
Yes absolutely, like wow who would’ve thought writing a blog post could take me hours?? Thankfully the pros outweigh the cons!! ♥
Ashleigh Mordew
Great post I agree with all your pros and cons and think the hardest part about blogging is growing your platform and engaging with the community.
erin
Thank you!! ♥ It’s hard sometimes not to feel pressured to “grow” even though in the end it’s all just for fun!
emme
This was such a lovely post to read and it’s been so interesting to see everyone’s pros and cons. For me the biggest pro is having a place to chat about books with other people who like books just as much as me! Even though I won’t have the same reading taste as everyone, blogging has allowed me to discover so many amazing books that I would have had absolutely no idea about had I not read other blogs. Plus the community is so lovely and it’s so nice to chat to like-minded people in the book community.
Definitely agree though that pressure to read/blog regularly can sometimes take the fun out of it. I used to put so much pressure on myself to read lots in a month to ensure that I had as many books as possible to chat about on the monthly recap which took the fun out of reading. Thankfully I’ve totally removed that pressure for myself now and so it’s made reading and blogging so much fun again, but it’s definitely an easy hole to fall into. I do think that’s the same as any hobby though – sometimes having a social media page or turning a hobby into a business (anywhere where there’s numbers to add pressure with) can decrease the fun of the hobby itself which is such a shame. Definitely good to have that balance though.
erin
Aw yes totally agree! I feel like the blogging community in specific is just so friendly and welcoming and it’s so nice to have people to talk to about books! (: That’s a great point – turning a hobby into a business can definitely take the enjoyment out of it and turn it into a chore. I think I’ll definitely have to reevaluate how reading and blogging fit into my life going forward to get max enjoyment out of it!! ♥ ♥
Veronika @ Wordy and Whimsical
Answering comments and visiting blogs is SO TIME-CONSUMING, but it’s probably my favorite part of being a blogger, haha. I love to interact with other readers. I feel you on feeling a pressure to constantly grow my blog – we’ve had really great months when we had a very steady growth and now I always want to recreate that growth, and I’m sad when a month performs worse than the previous one(s). It’s something I constantly have to work out within myself, because I don’t want to make blogging stressful. Great post! 🙂
erin
Yes absolutely – it’s so hard not to feel that pressure to always be growing!! It’s so hard to tell what works and what doesn’t :/ Thank you!! ♥
Dini @ dinipandareads
Great post and I agree with pretty much everything! Lol oh man, the amount of time spent on the reader page but also reading, commenting, responding is really a lot! I love it and I love seeing people’s posts but after a full day of work it can also get incredibly tiring 😂 Also yes, the pressure from socials to keep getting more followers is intense 😅 While it’s easy to say “it doesn’t matter” or “don’t let it get to you” sometimes the pressure can get overwhelming. Still, I love blogging and this community so much! ❤️
erin
Oh absolutely agreed! It’s also hard not to feel guilty when I spend all day on the reader page and then only have an hour or two to actually read, haha! ♥
Molly @ Molly's Book Nook
I totally agree with the growing your platform one! I didn’t really care for a long time but ever since I’ve gotten back from my almost year hiatus, I’ve found it difficult to find my place back into the blogging world. Like, what is twitter? lol It’s pretty stressful. Oh and the feeling like you need to be reading all the time?! YES. That is actually WHY I took a hiatus in the first place. I felt like I couldn’t keep up. But…I’m glad I have a little space to gush about things when I want to 🙂
erin
SO valid, I think it’s such a good idea to take a step back when you get overwhelmed, after all you don’t owe anyone anything! I love the blogging community but there can totally be a sense of “I have to keep up” and wow is it exhausting!! ♥
Ruby Rae Reads
Omg Erin, I LOVED reading this post so so much and ah so relatable and TRUE. I love the community and the creativity, but its also sometimes super hard. Especially like these past few weeks where I’ve been feeling a bit blah and just busy, so I haven’t been reading or really blogging. So the struggle is real. And the reading part, I feel that. Because like you have to be READING SOMETHING to be able to BLOG ABOUT BOOKS. Which has been happening to me this year welp with my sporadic reading lmao. Agin, LOVED this so so so much xoxo
White Rose Stories
Loved this blog post as I related to it so much! One of the biggest “struggles” for me is engagement. I’m a really introverted person and need a lot of “me time” so, when I have to interact with others in person and online, it drains me. It’s not that I don’t enjoy talking to others but I recharge, after a long day, by being by myself. 🤍
erin
I’m the exact same – I love my isolation and alone time! But that can make it so hard when you feel pressured to interact – totally get it ♥ ♥
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