5 Reasons For Book Blogging Celebration
Day 10 of the A-Z challenge.
J is for Jublilation
Do you ever get days when you wonder why you ever decided to start that blog? It seemed like a great idea at the time. But now you’re not so sure.
Some days, blogging feels like a bind. You’d rather be doing anything than writing another review or dreaming up another topic.
Before you get too downhearted, let’s take a moment to think about the times when blogging can be a cause for jubilation rather than despondency.
We’ll start by taking a trip down memory lane to the first days of your new life as a blogger.
You publish your first post
Remember that day when, after hours of toil (and maybe tears) as you fought with the blogging programme, you managed to send your first darling into the world? It felt good didn’t it?
Holding that memory in your head will help you as you get ready to write and publish your next post.
You get your first real comment
Another day to remember with affection. No you can’t count the comments from your mum, your partner and the cat. I mean the first comment you received from a reader – the kind of person you hoped to find when you decided to become a blogger.
With that comment you gained proof that there was someone out there listening. It might have been only the slimmest of comments rather than a discussion of the finer points of your review, but so what. It was a comment.
It took two days before I got my first comment. It was a reaction to my review of The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens.
I can still remember how that comment had me walking around with a big smile for the rest of that day. It made the effort of blogging feel worth while.
Guess what?
That feeling of jubilation might fade occasionally but it never entirely goes away. I still get a buzz when I see comments on articles I’ve written. Other bloggers who’ve also been in the game for several years , like Sue at Whispering Gums will tell you that it’s the interaction that also keeps them blogging.
If you love comments here are some tips on how to get even more comments.
A Reader Takes Your Advice
Lots of bloggers start because they want to share their love of books with a broader group of people. For Susan at A Life In Books, it’s all about “getting books into readers’ hands”. How wonderful then to get a reader telling you they’ve bought the book you were just raving about, based purely on your review. Or a reader tells you they are going to try a tip you shared.
Reactions like that can be a great boost to the confidence.
A Compliment Comes Your Way
This is even more of a cause for celebration. As a blogger you always hope that readers find your posts interesting and/or useful.
Your visitor or viewer numbers aren’t going to tell you that. Neither will the number of followers you’ve gained. What you really want to know is that you have engaged followers; people who regularly read your content and signal their interest by leaving a comment.
An even better indicator that your content is valued is when a follower tells you as much. We all love compliments don’t we?
You Discover You’re On Track
Enough of the past. We’ll turn to a reason for a celebration in the future.
Imagine the day you realise you are up to date with your book reviews is cause for much jubilation. Yes I know there are some super bloggers who can review a book within hours/ a day of reading it. But we mere mortals need time to digest and reflect before we can even think of committing words to paper. So we end up with a backlog of reviews that seems to get longer by the week.
How magical it would be if one day we could clear that backlog. I live in hope that I’ll achieve that state of paradise. I guarantee you’ll hear me whooping and hollering when that comes to pass and the champagne will flow. Shall we make it a party?
Join The Discussion
What milestones have you reached that have given you cause to celebrate as a book blogger? Leave me a comment below to share some of your experiences.
I think with this I’m all caught up! At least, I hope I am. You must be feeling jubilation with all the comments you are getting on these posts – and they’re well-deserved because you’ve put a lot of work into this series. I’m greatly enjoying reading what you come up with, and I appreciated being asked to offer some comments for one of the posts!
My first comment came a few days after I started blogging – from Lisa! I had vaguely seen her around some of the internet bookgroups but had never really known who she was until then. We’ve been commenting on each other’s blogs ever since.
Like Lisa, I was thrilled when my blog was chosen for Pandora archiving. But I think some of my biggest thrills (besides a great discussion happening on my blog) has been having say that I “got” their book. I don’t write my blog to please authors, but I do want to “get” what they are saying. It’s very satisfying when you’ve worked hard on a review, to have an author appreciate the thought you’ve put into understanding what they were trying to do. Unlike some here, I get quite self-conscious when people say “oh, so you’re Whispering Gums”, and I managed for a long time to keep it hidden. It was years before my reading group knew I was doing my blog. I’m slowly getting used to it, but I’ve always preferred to be a behind-the-scenes person. I like being appreciated – don’t get me wrong – but I don’t like being told to my face!! Part of it is that I feel I’ll look a fraud as I’m much better at expressing myself in writing than I am orally.
What a lovely, positive post! 😀
I think we all need a positivity wave in our lives right now
Couldn’t agree more!
I am not a blogger but receive real pleasure reading the book recommendations of you wonderful people who take the time to write. Ofcourse my book buying has increased.
That’s lovely to hear. You are in good company with your book buying – we all get excited about the books other people are reading and want to buy them
I remember my first comment and how great I felt! These days what gives me the biggest boost is when a stranger happens across an ancient post and takes the time to leave a comment – that makes me feel as if each post isn’t necessarily just a one day wonder…
That’s a great example of how a simple comment can make blogging feel worth it. I’ve noticed that review posts have a much longer lifespan than other things like book list posts
My first comment was by Max and he’s still reading my blog, I think.
Comments are the best and the knowledge that someone read a book as you said, “purely” after reading my billet.
And yes, I’d love to be up-to-date with my billets. The TBW pile always has a few titles. A mythical goal, I think.
Glad to hear we are in agreement about the comments Emma. I think it will be a long while before I am up to speed on my reviews – but still like to have it as a goal.
As an author, I really appreciate the time, effort and passion of book bloggers who are in this basically due to a love of reading.
That’s great to hear Damyanti.
I’ve known from the beginning that I was enormously lucky to be followed and commented right from my first post by Sue (Whispering Gums), Michelle (Adventures in Biography) who introduced me to blogging, and soon after by Nathan (A Biographer in Perth) and Lisa (ANZ LitLovers).
I’m not sure about jubilation, though recently one of my posts on Aboriginal massacres was linked to the Facebook page of an Aboriginal elder and suddenly, for two or three days I had hundreds more readers.
Then of course there was the time I was criticised in the Sydney Review of Books for something I had written about David Ireland…
Hundreds of new readers must have given you some pleasure. Sudden spikes in traffic can happen but usually they are the result of bots. A genuine spike caused by interest in something you’ve written would be a delight.
I looked back to see when I got my first real comment, and it was while in coming, three months after I’d started. Interestingly, it also was on a post about a book I hadn’t liked, and sadly, (she must have been a newbie too) she didn’t leave her blog’s URL so I was never able to return the favour.
I don’t know if this happens in other countries, but one of my moments of jubilation was when the National Library contacted me to get permission to archive my blog through their Pandora program. I was flabbergasted: someone thought that my reviews of Australian literature were worth preserving for posterity!
I blog to keep my mind active and engaged and also so share the book recs.
Good reasons Guy
The inability to write during the COVID-19 shutdown has gotten me even further behind than before in writing reviews. When do you reach the point where you just decide to give up and start over from now?
Ah, good question Mary. I don’t think I have a specific number of unwritten reviews before I would say, I’m abandoning them all, and starting with a clean sheet. My approach would be to look at how many reviews I could manage to write in a week, divide my total number of unwritten reviews – that would give me a sense of how many weeks it would take before I’d finish them all. If it’s longer than a year then yes I would probably forget about the oldest ones.
One way of getting through a backlog is to do a few mini reviews in one post. It’s just a way of immortalising the fact you read the book and what you thought about it without having to expend huge amounts of energy to write a full review.
Being recognised by my blog name when I meet someone at a book event and they say ‘Oh I follow you’.
I would have been jumping for joy in that situation Jill. What a lovely thing to happen
I love comments, obviously, as one of the biggest joys of blogging is interacting with other booklovers. And when someone gets what you’re trying to say, that’s the biggest kick. So I’m not so interested in views, more interaction! 😀
Absolutely. Without the interaction I can’t really see the point of blogging – I may as well just keep a journal
Ha! My secret’s out.The other side of that coin is the number of books I’ve bought thanks to other bloggers.
That’s good to know that it’s not a one way traffic 🙂
Comments are treasures! I love the conversation and engagement!