It’s Been a Year…!

A year of trying to blog more consistently and thoroughly. A year of trying to be more involved with the book community and content creation. Next month it’ll have been a year since I first created my Booktube. Though that didn’t last very long. And in two months, it’ll have been a year since I bought my domain, changed my WordPress theme and started to see a difference.

What a journey the last year has been!

I wanted to talk a little about the changes I’ve seen, the things I’ve done and to just celebrate a little. This week my blog has surpassed the number of views my blog got in 2020. And it’s not even been half a year. On top of that, my 2020 stats were almost 2k views higher than 2019. This astounds me so much. It’s shown me that if I put the work in? I can succeed. I love writing, I always have. But I was late to get into blogging. It was something I’d debated, but I’d put off. As I didn’t think anyone would care, which would lead to me getting bored quickly. I started off by just reviewing the e-arcs I got over on Blogger. I moved over to WordPress in 2018, but still, I barely used the blog. I was never going to get much attention when I wasn’t caring about the content I was putting out. I was on book Twitter and bookstagram in the meantime. But my content was still sporadic.

It was in 2020 that I really started thinking that I wanted to do something with it. I want to do something like this for a living if possible. And if not, at least this gives me a place to ramble about books where some people who might care can stumble across it. Hopefully, I can make friends with you all too.

One thing I’ve learned- other than to actually update regularly. Which seriously helps. Is to just talk about the things you like. I’ve rambled about manga and light novels, things I was a little worried about talking about on a book blog before. I’ve gone on about chick-lit and romance novels. I’ve even spoken about fae books, something I’m notoriously picky about. And I’m having fun. Okay, sometimes it can get a bit stressful. I try to eke out time to get stuff done. And when I only have reviews or no ideas? It can be difficult. If a post doesn’t do as well as I thought, that can suck too. But sometimes, the right person will share the right post. One you maybe thought was random, and you can get a lot of attention from it.

I want people to notice my blog. I especially want publishers to pay attention to my blog. And I’m getting there slowly. I might still have a long way to go. But that’s okay because I’m feeling good about it. I can see how much I’ve grown already, and that makes me so damn proud.

I still don’t always know what types of posts to make sometimes. I’d love to hear some feedback on the types of things people would like me to talk about. If there’s some sort of rec list or guide that you think I might want to write. I’m happy to hear your suggestions, whether I go with them or not. It’s just nice to get feedback.

There are also some things that I used to do at the beginning that I need to get better about. I always share my posts on Twitter. I haven’t really been sharing my posts on Instagram. It’s admittedly difficult. I don’t have enough followers to have the swipe up option. So I can’t link straight to my post in a story. But there is a link to my blog in my bio. And I can maybe get some photos of books I’m reviewing again so I can share those the day I put the post up. I also used to take or use my own photos for blog posts. I’d like to maybe look into doing that again, or at least find a PDF or XCF for some nicer looking graphics, at least.

That’s what a year has done for me. If you’ve recently started a book blog or have been thinking about it or getting back into it. Just do it. Find those things you love to write about, put the time and effort in. And you will be rewarded. It won’t be instant, and you’ll definitely still have moments where you wonder why you’re doing it. But for the most part? You can do things you never thought you’d get the chance to, and that’s wonderful.