Top Ten Tips For New Book Bloggers

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for Top Ten Tips For New Book Bloggers. I’m no expert at blogging but these are a few things I’ve learned since I started this blog in Jan. 2010. I’m still learning and trying to find what works best.

1) Comment, comment, comment – if you never visit other blogs and leave comments on posts that interest you, then how will people ever find your blog?

2) Don’t accept every Advanced Reader Copy that is offered to you. It’s easy to get caught up in the “free book” mentality, but soon you’ll have a stack of ARCs and your reading will feel like a chore. I only accept books that I think I would actually buy or borrow on my own.

3) Write honest reviews – I would rather read that you hated my favorite book, than read a wishy-washy summary that gives a vague opinion but has no real meat to it.

4) Talk about the things that are important to you. The point of blogging (in my opinion) is to encourage connection and discussion. If you’ve been thinking about libraries or a specific series or about something completely unrelated to books, talk about it. You never know what great advice, wisdom or encouragement might come out of the post.

5) Respond to the people who comment on your blog and go comment on their blogs. Again, blogging is about community and it’s a two-way street. If people visit you, try to visit them as well.

6) Participate in readalongs. A great way to get to know other bloggers is to read a book with them and discuss it as you go. I’ve read Cranford, Moby Dick, Madame Bovary, The Handmaid's Tale and War & Peace as part of a readalong and I just co-hosted my first one last month! I think it’s a great way to get involved and it always deepens my appreciation for a book when I can see what other people take away from it.

7) Develop a thick skin. You probably won’t have 500 followers over night. You might write a review someone disagrees with. Someone might insult or offend you. That’s ok! Just don’t get bent out of shape about it. There are lots of people out there, which means there are lots of differing opinions. Learning what other people think and feel widens our view of the world and that’s a good thing. Besides, you’ll probably find a lot more people who are kind and encouraging.

8) Read what you love, not what everyone else is reading. It's great to discover new authors and books because of other bloggers, but it's also easy to loose track of what you actually like reading beause you're so caught up in checking out every new hyped book. Read YA or Classics or Sci-Fi or all of the above if that's what you like, then sprinkle in some new books along the way.

9) Participate in challenges, but don’t get carried away. I’d recommend picking no more than 5 challenges (you know what you can handle) and keeping up with them. It’s fun to join the R.I.P. Challenge or a year long one, like the Back to the Classics Challenge, but you won’t make any friends if you join 30 challenges and promptly forget about them or fail to complete any of them after signing up.

10) Have fun and find your own voice. If you try to be a perfect blogger or blog like everyone else, your blog will have no distinct personality. Just be yourself and you’ll find it’s a lot more enjoyable.

Image from here.