Book blogging is more than ‘just for fun’

Earlier I spoke about how book blogging is so unlike other blogging niches and how we book bloggers blog mainly for ourselves. While there is no harm in that, I feel disheartened when some book bloggers dismiss their work as “oh, I blog just for fun”. My dear book bloggers, please stop doing that.

Recently I read a very powerful post by Marie about how book blogger’s services are not valued enough, and that completely resonated with me. And maybe, just maybe, such a dismissal from ourselves stems from that or just worsens it.

Book blogging is more than ‘just for fun’

I am a freelance writer, and every minute I spend on my blog is a minute I am not spending on my client aka I am not earning.

And that is how I came to realize how valuable book blogging generally is, given the number of hours I spend on it. I know it is a late realization and this came after about 8 years of blogging.

Since then, I sincerely want more book bloggers to understand that they are working really hard, for fun or not, and they should begin seeing their value, first. And sure you can blog for fun, but there is more to book blogging than you realize.

Let us talk about the benefits of book blogging and why book blogging is more than ‘just for fun’.

To be honest, this whole thing pisses the hell out of me. So if this post sounds a bit harsher than my usual nice tone, I apologize right now.

Your blog is your identity

When was the last time you tried to find a person online? We all know they don’t exist if Google or other search engine can’t find them.

And that is exactly what you are doing with your blog. You are creating a brand online for yourself, consciously or not. You talk about things you like and dislike, and you are brave enough to tell it so to the entire world.

Your information is already out there via social media, and through blog you have a say at how you make it available to others.

You are building your portfolio

Whether you use a self hosted site or not, you can use your blog as a portfolio for your business or style.

I am a freelance writer who started out with my old book blog as my sample writing portfolio. Even now when I have enough clips to show around, I never fail to link Elgee Writes as a sample.

I know I am not alone in that matter. Off the top of my mind, I can say Hannah from Bookwyrming thoughts does a similar thing. And Jenn from Jenniely uses her blog to sample her designs work.

You are a budding entrepreneur

Speaking of business, I know several book bloggers (including me) who started to “blog for fun” and then leveraged that to develop their business.

This practice is not new to the blogging world, irrespective of the niche.

There are so many book/reading/writing related businesses that one could start, based out of your site. For instance, I offer beta reading services and writing services. And almost every other business enquiry comes right from this site.

I might write a detailed post on bookish business ideas soon. If I forget, feel free to remind me.

Not to forget several authors and writers use their blogs and sites as a testing ground. Our own Cait from Paperfury did a fabulous job with this strategy.

You can earn through monetizing

While it might seem hard to get a steady size-able income from book blogging alone in the current scenario, it is definitely possible. And there are several other prominent book bloggers who do that very well.

Even I have used affiliate links (not anymore) and still display ads on my site to grab those meager bucks. It is not really hard and every cent would count towards your next book haul right?

You work hard for those freebies

Let us be honest, many of us started their book blogs, and are still working towards getting those free review copies and ARCs from the publishers.

You are working your asses off to get those copies, reading and reviewing them and then promoting the heck out of it. And are you kidding me with “oh it is just blogging for fun”?

And bloggers from other niches, do similar posts and even get paid for it. That topic is for another day, but hey, your blogging skills are no lesser than theirs just because it comes for free.

You help authors achieve their dreams

The next time you feel down or not motivated about book blogging, think of the countless authors, especially independent ones, that you are helping out through your shout outs and reviews.

I don’t think I have to explain the importance of posting reviews on the portals like Amazon and Goodreads for authors. So your hard work into book blogging is definitely important to them and they value it.

You are learning new skills

Book blogging, and blogging in general, involves acquiring new skill set. Most of us learn about blogging and everything around it like creating images for the blog, SEO or analytics on job, without much formal training.

And that is no mean feat. Just because we learn them out of our special interest doesn’t mean it gets any easier or that it is “just” fun.

I started blogging about ten years ago. Everything I have learnt about digital marketing, content writing and even technical stuff like keyword research or Google analytics stemmed from this site.

I am sure you have learnt so many new things for and through your blogging too. And that should have involved considerable amount of time and effort. So how dare you put yourself down and dismiss it?

You slay collaborations

The amount of work and creativity some book bloggers put into their posts astounds me. The number of hours they put into research and collaborate with other bloggers is unbelievable.

These collaborative and team working skill are highly valuable and cannot and should not be dismissed as they are done for fun.

You may never know when they are going to be useful in your life.

In summary

Being students, full time employees, freelancers or whatever your work status looks like, is not easy, and in top of that ‘real life’ you are killing it in the book blogging world. So don’t be so easy to dismiss your hard work as ‘just for fun’.

Previously on blogging tips for book bloggers

• Why Book Blogging Is Different From Other Niches?
• SEO For A Book Blogger – Things You Can Do Today!
• Blogging Terms You Have To Know As A Book Blogger
• Getting More Comments On Your Blog – Things You Can Do Today!
• Commenting On Other Blogs – Commenting Etiquette
• Does your blog have these? A checklist for new bloggers

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Let’s chat

Do you ever feel that your book blogging lifestyle is not taken seriously? What do you think we, book bloggers as a community do to be taken more seriously by publishers, authors and others? Let us talk.