Don't Count Out Book Bloggers

Welcome Back, Booklovers!

There's been a lot of recent conversation about book bloggers and where they fit in in the book community on social media among the Booktubers and Bookstagrammers and the newly formed Book Tok. And while it's great to have multiple mediums to promote books people need not forget their roots. Bloggers are often neglected and left our of the conversation. They don't get the sponsorship that booktubers and bookstagrammers do. I make a minuscule amount every time you use my affiliate links to shop from Amazon. Bloggers usually are not offered the book boxes or book candles when influencers are being looked at. Even authors will leave them out of events because they want to work with content creators who have a more visible and visual medium.  

It is not always easy to write a fair and honest review for a book. And sometimes it takes hours to write a solid review. And I know some bloggers feel pressure to give every book a good review because they're less likely to get arcs from publishers compared to booktubers or bookstagrammers.  But at the same time bloggers know they have a responsibility to give honest feedback because people defend on them when choosing books. A lot of those reviews on Goodreads that help you decide whether or not you want to order a new release are written by bloggers.

Especially when you have to post content fairly regularly to maintain an audience. I see some bloggers have a post scheduled for every day. In June I was posting 5 days a week and that was a lot of work. So much goes into pre-planning content. 

Blogs don't just consist of reviews. There's only but so many books you can read at a time and so many reviews you can post. I'm someone who often ends up reading 2 or 3 books at a time but not every book I read ends up as a full blog post. And not all books are finished at the same time. When book bloggers aren't posting reviews they're often trying to think of creative discussion pieces to keep people entertained. 

And then let's talk about bloggers of color and how they are often overlooked. Because the blogging platform is less visible than the popular social media  often they're overlooked for arcs especially when the physical arcs are being sent. If you think getting your voice to be heard on social media is a chore just imagine how much harder it is to direct people from those spaces to a separate website as a blogger of color. 

I actually saw some Black book bloggers talking about how they wanted to get involved with Juneteenth bookfest but when they reached out to those in charge their requests were ignored. The organizers had sign ups for Booktubers and Bookstagrammers but not book bloggers. And because these bloggers just wanted to see a successful Black book festival they didn't speak up about being excluded.

That's not to say all authors exclude book bloggers. I've been doing interviews with authors the past few months and they have been amazing. Very willing to show a small book blog some love and answer my questions. So shout out to Alexis Henderson, Alexandra Sheppard, Callie Browning, Brandy Colbert, Namina Forna, Sareeta Domingo, Roseanne A Brown, Liara Tamani,  and Kristina Forest. If you haven't already then you need to buy their books.

It's a hobby that requires the work of a 2nd job but bloggers are so passionate about what they post. So come join the discussions, read and share the reviews, and discover some new books to get lost in the pages of.