Last Updated on June 18, 2021 by ThoughtsStained
I’m back this Friday participating in another Let’s Talk Bookish post, as always hosted by the amazing Rukky @ Eternity Books and awesome Dani @ The Literary Lion! For this week, our topic is Book Blogger Appreciation.
This is a controversial topic within the bookish community, but it shouldn’t be. I’m in the opinion that book bloggers are underappreciated, undervalued and often unrecognized in comparison to other bookish creators and supporters. Let’s explore this more in-depth below!
Books Bloggers: Who Appreciates Us?
I’ve seen this topic talked about multiple times before by some of my favorite bloggers (see Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books’ post here and May @ Forever and Everly’s post here, for some examples) and I agree with their stances: book bloggers are underappreciated. Blogs began as the foundation for supporting authors, books and the publishing industry, becoming platforms for reviews, lists, memes and hyping up books to connect to more readers. It has since expanded, thanks to social media. Publishers, book professionals, authors and reviewers now have many different platforms to choose from to help support books: book bloggers, booktubers, bookstagrammers, booktok and more.
I will never say that those who chose to promote books, reading and support authors and publishing on any platform other than blogging don’t deserve the support, interest and engagement they receive. All of those platforms are valid, take commitment and time to create, and deserve the recognition they receive!
However.
You can’t ignore the fact that the introduction of these various platforms–and the publishing support and investment into these platforms–has oftentimes erased and overshadowed the work of book bloggers; both ignoring the fact that book blogging paved the way for these new platforms, but also denying book bloggers the same opportunities and recognition that others have since received, most often in the form of monetary compensation and public recognition by publishers.
Book bloggers do a great job supporting one another. It would be nice to see publishing as a whole do the same.
Is it Wrong to Want Compensation?
I don’t think so. While my book blog personally also encompasses many other aspects, it doesn’t erase the amount of work I put into this blog to help promote and support authors I love; not to mention the time, attention and money it takes, from:
- Choosing to go self-hosted (a $100+ yearly commitment)
- Regularly posting 3x a week
- Writing, editing, formatting and posting
- Creating graphics
- Blog hopping to support other creators
- Reading and reviewing books (including cross-posting reviews to multiple platforms)
I easily put in anywhere between 6-10+ hours a week into maintaining this blog. I love it. I do this because I love it and because I believe in it. But, when publishers are willing to pay other creators using other platforms yet consider it unprofessional or taboo to even discuss the idea of paying book bloggers for their own contributions?
That is wrong. Plain and simple.
Do I Personally Feel Appreciated?
Despite all of this, I do feel appreciated. I have a number of bloggers I love who also read and support my blog. I have a great working relationship with Orbit Books, which is a dream come true. I’ve had so many wonderful authors I’ve interacted with and gotten to know thanks to the work I do on this blog. I feel very lucky.
Are there days when impostor syndrome takes over and I feel alone shouting into the void? Or days where I feel unappreciated when posts tank, stats don’t grow, social media interactions stay minimal or no paid opportunities come my way? Sure, of course! I’m human (unfortunately), after all.
But, on the whole, I’m very grateful for what I’ve built and hopeful (and willing to work) to make sure bloggers are more appreciated and recognized in the future!
If you ever do feel like going the extra mile to support me, you can always:
- Read my posts
- Like, comment and share them
- Subscribe to my newsletter
- Become a Patreon
- Tip me on PayPal
- Recommend, boost and hire me through my editorial services
What about you? How do you feel about book blogger appreciation? Do you think book bloggers deserve more recognition? Who are some of your favorites? Or do you think advocating for book bloggers getting paid doesn’t make sense? Let me know in the comments!
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I agree that I feel appreciated anytime anyone reads my blog, or drop in a like or a comment. And yes, if a blogger wants compensation, they deserve it 100% because it takes a freaking long time and a lot of energy to blog. Great post!!
Thank you so much, Jan! And yes, I feel all of that 110%!
I love this discussion Nicole! I think I feel most appreciated by fellow book bloggers more than by anyone else!
I definitely agree. Thanks for stopping by and reading, Kristin!
I agree with your views on compensation. I personally put in way more time and effort into my blog than other platforms. Based on that alone, I feel like it is unfair that us wanting compensation is taboo in anyway. It makes complete sense!
Yes!! I don’t understand why book blogging is the *only* platform where this is still considered taboo.
Exactly!
While I agree that book bloggers are not as appreciated as influencers of other platforms, I honestly I don’t look at it that much. Most probably because I concentrate on my SEO and focus on blogging alone and don’t even consider other platforms because they’re short-term content while I go for long-term and long-form content. But I also think my better perspective of blogging is because I follow a lot of bloggers who do make money through their blogs even though they’re not in the bookish community. A few of them ARE a part of the bookish community which makes it even better. So yes I do think bloggers are under appreciated but I also think that it doesn’t make sense for us to look at the same milestones and rewards as of other platforms. We keep comparing but we have to know that our content types and what we get in return are completely different. Instead of saying how we are just as good as other platforms we should be saying how we can provide for the books and authors which is long-time sales. When people want to find reviews they don’t go on Instagram and search, they google it. When people want to find book reviews they google for it. And the content that comes up is from blogs, not instagram or tiktok. The fact that publishers don’t look at long term sales is shortsighted in my opinion. Tons of bloggers are running on search engines and can passively market to people outside of the community. Not considering that is a bad thing.
Okay I pretty much wrote an essay so I’ll stop here. But I have a ton of thoughts in a different direction haha.
I appreciate your thoughts in a different direction and writing your own essay! ❤ I think you bring up some solid points and I *definitely* agree that publishing is shortsighted in this regard!!
I easily put in anywhere between 6-10+ hours a week into maintaining this blog. I love it. I do this because I love it and because I believe in it. But, when publishers are willing to pay other creators using other platforms yet consider it unprofessional or taboo to even discuss the idea of paying book bloggers for their own contributions?
That is wrong. Plain and simple.
Carve this into my gravestone if I die.
🙃💀
I also feel appreciated when people drop by my blog! It’s sucky that book bloggers are like the least appreciated, I know attention span is moving from the written word to video and even shorter video formats, but as a marketing tool I do think blogs and reviews have a huge amount of untapped power. Great post!
I completely agree! And while I definitely see the *why* people are moving to shorter formats and video and other mediums, I love how you frame book blogging as untapped! Imagine some of the things book bloggers could do–or continue to do–and who we could reach if appreciated the same way!
I love that you mentioned the cost of self-hosting etc. Book Blogging isn’t FREE it costs time AND money. Maybe I should start a patreon but I don’t think I’d make any money off of it…
Yeah, I started a Patreon but I am SHIT at maintaining it, and need to get better at that!!
Does it work very well for getting earnings? I just worry it would be effort to maintain but get very little support.
Personally, I’ve only ever gotten one patron, so it’s definitely not really been fruitful for me. BUT, I’ve also not done a good job of a) delivering regular content, b) promoting it and c) I still have a regularly small following, comparatively. So, I think it definitely varies and I know other bloggers who have a solid foundation with theirs! It’s something I want to work on, personally.
Maybe I’ll have to look into it. Thank you for being so helpful <3
Ohmygosh Dani, ALWAYS. I am happy to help whenever I can HOWEVER I can, anytime. <3
I agree that I love every ounce of appreciation I get for my posts. It’s the best compensation I could receive. But I’ll confess that I would love it if I could make up for some of the costs of blogging. I have made a small amount of money from my Bookshop affiliation (the most I’ve managed to make from any sort of affiliation), but it doesn’t nearly make up for what I spend.
Right? Like, it’s not like I’m trying to be ungrateful. I am SO thankful for this blog and what I can do with it; how it’s grown, the connections I’ve made and the ARCs I receive, which are a special privilege in and of themselves.
But, labeling compensation for promotional marketing as taboo doesn’t make a lick of sense.