Random Thoughts: Remembering Why
Jul 27
It is so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day. Meeting deadlines for blog posts and reviews and keeping up with all the social and marketing aspects of being a book blogger. It’s so easy to get caught up in the frenzy of the latest drama. It’s so easy to get sidetracked by all the animosity, all the fear, all the blog posts about who’s in the right and who’s in the wrong.
It’s so easy to get discouraged.
It’s so easy to feel disheartened.
It’s so easy to just give up.
Maybe when you started your blog you never envisioned a community at odds. Maybe you never imagined a world where book lovers could be divided by anything but genres. Maybe you thought that blogging was fun and friendly and simple and easy.
Maybe you’ve had to make a few adjustments to your mindset.
Maybe you’ve had to make a few more.
But even with all these… let’s just call them “distractions”… you still are committed to being a blogger and being the best blogger you possibly can. You still want your voice to be heard. You still want a little piece of the interwebs to call your own. You still want to make a name for yourself. You still want to create something you can be proud of. The only problem is you can’t remember why….
Why you got yourself into this in the first place.
With all the drama, all the squabbling, all the name-calling, all the insecurity of not being liked, not being the best, not being noticed, not being heard. Why did you get yourself into this?
Why you put all the time and effort you have into building your blog.
When someone else comes along and steals your thoughts, takes your ideas, gets the spotlight when you don’t, makes the friends that you don’t have, becomes an insider in a community that makes you feel like an outsider. Why do you put forth all this effort?
Why you continue at it day after day with little or no recognition.
When you know you’ve worked as hard as someone else, when it seems so easy for them and it’s just so hard for you, when you struggle for words that just don’t sound the same outside of your head as they do inside, when you feel as if you’re talking only to yourself. Why work so hard for so little reward?
Why?
Because you love reading. Because you love the authors that write the books you love to read. Because books are your escape, characters are your friends and you could never imagine a world without them. And because you have such great love for these books, writers and characters, you want to share your thoughts about them.
That’s why you do this.
Whether you want all the social aspects that come with being a “popular” blogger or the “free books” that come with being recognized by industry professionals, you choose to write about books because you love them. If you loved music or fashion or beauty or entertainment or technology you’d probably be blogging about those subjects… and probably be getting a whole lot more traffic and visibility. But YOU LOVE BOOKS.
You do this for free… or potentially at a huge cost of both time and money. You do this without any industry recognition… for the most part. You do this without any real sense that your blog will turn into a money-making endeavor. But you knew this before you started blogging, didn’t you?
Before you started blogging… Did you ever really think you’d be getting awards for your blogging efforts? Did you really think that publishers would be sending box after box of books to you? Did you think that authors would be clamoring to have their books read by you?
Or were these ideas put into your head after you started blogging?
After you saw mailboxes full of books.
After you saw bloggers getting kudos from events that put bloggers into the spotlight.
After you saw bloggers talking with authors as if they were colleagues and friends.
But did you really start blogging only to receive some form of reward?
And did you really expect to be incredibly popular? Did you really anticipate your blog’s daily traffic to be in the thousands? Did you really expect to have a twitter army? Or did you only hope to find a like-minded friend or two to discuss the books you loved with?
Did these expectations change after you started blogging?
After you saw how many followers the blogs you followed had.
After you saw bloggers with thousands of followers on Twitter.
After you saw bloggers’ pageviews and unique visitor stats.
Did you really start blogging for the numbers?
Isn’t having the opportunity to read countless books and share your thoughts enough of a reward? Isn’t even just one “thank you for reading my book” from an author you respect reward enough to last you a lifetime? Isn’t making one really great friend in the community more than you ever really expected when you first started out?
It’s so easy to forget why you started out. It’s so easy to lose track of why you love doing this. It’s so easy to feel defeated by things you never thought of as possible in the first place.
But unless your sole goal from the outset was to reap the rewards that came with being a book blogger – industry connections, advance readers copies of books, money from advertising – maybe just take a few minutes to remember just why you started and maybe you’ll realize just why you’re still here.
Best…post…ever. <3
Perfect post. It`s exactly why I am a blogger – to share my love of books. The end.
Great post as always!
I really enjoyed this post and oddly enough, I think it was something I needed to read right now. Sometimes it is so easy to get distracted by all the other stuff and forget why we do what we do…because we love to read.
Very well said!!
This was a fantastic post. Straight and to the point. Honest and thoughtful. I really liked it.
God this could not have come at a better time for me! And you are so right. I started because I loved books and wanted to discuss them. The books and characters are and always have been my friends, everything else is gravy. Thanks for reminding me all those other goals came AFTER I started blogging.
Heather
I love you for this post! You had me nodding my head in agreement the whole time! Thanks for the reminder – that I started blogging because of my passion for books. That, and nothing else, is the reason I keep going. Everything else is stuff I got caught up in AFTER I started blogging, stuff I wasn’t even aware happened. It’s funny how quickly our perspectives can change.
You are one of the most brilliant, thoughtful and generous person/blogger/reviewer (Whatever!) that I know. I have the highest respect for you and look up to you so much.
I really love this post. It speaks enormous amounts of truth and I think the blogging community needs it right now. I know I do. You know how much of a struggle I’ve been going through during the last year and just for the personal reasons, I’ve considered quitting numerous times. Now, on top of all of that there is tons of drama. EVERYWHERE! I’ve often thought lately how much better I might feel if I quit. The only reason I haven’t is because deep down inside, I really do love it. Everything else has just taken every ounce of energy out of me and fun out of reading, reviewing and just plain blogging.
I know what the right thing is for me to do and I’m taking the steps to make it happen. It’s just going to be a slow process.
Thanks for all of your inspiration. Always!
Amy <3
I don’t know if it is “easy to give up”, with bloggers (like you) that has invested in so much time. But I’ve seen it time and time again where bloggers get discouraged and after a lot of discouraging then it leads to fewer and fewer posts. I’ve felt myself leading in that direction and I’ve been really smacking myself lately to keep going.
I’m always sad to see a blogger that has just all together stopped blogging, or they have gone a long period of time without posting. Because I’m left wondering what the cause was that lead them stop.
I know my discouragement is a handful of things, and every time I’ve pulled myself out there is something else.
For me, when I started book blogging I had no idea that there was a whole community! But the more I put myself out there I fell in love with it and it made the whole thing more exciting for me. Accepting that part of blogging means you have to accept that there is bad as well. Booooo. I haven’t come to terms with that yet.
Great post, Rachel!
And exactly, that’s why I started blogging, and I keep blogging. Because I love reading books, and I want to share my thoughts on them & to talk about my fav authors & books, and recommend them, so more people read them & realize how amazing they are
I don’t care about anything else, I know there are some people that blog because of all that, and I hate some of the aspects & drama around the blogosphere, but I stay away from it, and trying not to get too annoyed or angry about it, so I just keep doing what I always did, after all, I’m doing this just for fun, and blogging should be fun.
So, yeah, this post should be read by every blogger, so he/she can be reminded why they started blogging in the first place, or at least why they should do this!
I’ve only been blogging since January, but this post resonated strongly with me. I started exactly for the reasons you brought up, but then started thinking I should be doing more…should be more popular…should have more followers…should, should, should. But that’s not why I started! I wanted an outlet to showcase books, movies and other things I came across. And when that first follower showed up I was thrilled. But I need to remember that I came first, and if what I post says what I needed it to say then I’ve accomplished what I set out to do.
Keep up the great work. Fiktshun is my favorite site, especially due to posts like this one (your one on “Followers vs Readers” was great, too).
Fantastic post. I think that all the drama that has been going on has been leaving a lot of people discouraged, but like you said, I do this for myself. I don’t let the drama that is happening affect me and how I do things. It makes me sad for sure, but I work hard on my blog because it’s something I enjoy. I try not to overwhelm myself, I don’t want this to feel like a job. I still want it to be a hobby that I do for fun.
You know, I didn’t even know I needed to read this until I did. Thanks for reminding us what’s important about book blogging, and why we started it in the first place. It’s so easy to get discouraged, especially those of us who are trying and trying and still don’t get as much success or recognition as we think we should. But then again, it’s not about the success–it’s about our love for books! I think everyone should remember that.
AMAZING POST – so so good!
Oh thank you so much!
I can’t even… T_T
First of all thank you for blogging.
And second…
Lately this is exactly what I had been wondering… Maybe not just the WHY do I keep doing this after all the awful things that have happened this whole year…but Why did I start it in the first place?
Then I remember the funny ‘Facebook – Giveaways’ story hehe And while that’s true I started reviewing books because I LOVE them so much it literally hurts.
I’ve met a lot of people I’ve made some few but the best of friends I got/get to talk books with people that love them as much as I do and in between I was able to meet my rockstars/heroes/angels… Call them whatever you like… But being able to do just the reading of books… is like a dream come true.
I never thought of ‘getting’ let alone ‘earning’ I never thought of ‘free books’ I didn’t KNOW you could get those… I think I was practically the only person who started this without knowing what ‘publishers’ ‘book blog tours’ ‘launch parties’ ‘ARCs’ ‘page views’ and so many other things meant… I didn’t know a zip about them all… I just started reading then reviewing then ‘meeting people’ and
With the few friends I’ve ‘made’ the tons of people I’ve ‘met’ and the amazing bloGgers~such as yourself~
I feel like I won the lottery or something…
But thanks again… for blogging and for being such an amazing person to everyone else but specially to me :’( for bearing with all the questions I dare to ask… and all my stalking…
Besides reading…and sharing the love I also keep blogging because I believe that all other bloggers out that may have, if only a tiny tiny bit, of your amazing-ness in them whether writing beautiful post or not ignoring me or their followers…
I believe in them and trust them to always keep true to sharing the author/reading/blogger love…
I don’t even know what I wanted to say now T_T
#Fail
As always…
But yeap! I LOVE reading and thanks to this, as always, I’m back on track… Come drama, drama, or more drama…
I will blog until I stop enjoying it <3
#1inspired-rambling-stalker
OOOH I remember now what I wanted to say…
Wait!
Nope… it’s gone T_T
Forgot it again :’(
#1old-stalker
Wow, thanks for that. mAde me reflect and realise why i started doing all this and you are so right with what you said. Wow. Thank u xx
Excellent post here. A collection of thoughts. that EVERY blogger should be reminded of. I can’t add much to the discussion that hasn’t already been said, but still I wanted to say: good job.
Thanks Jenna.
It is so easy to get distracted by everything going on. I always like to take a step back and think about why I do this. The end of 2011 was the closest I came to calling it quits because things were just getting so ugly and blogging wasn’t making me happy. I took that step back and thought about why I was doing this and everything flipped. Until this overwhelmingly negative atmosphere in the blogosphere, I was having a much better time. And seeing so many bloggers that have such wonderful and happy spirits get taken down by all this just makes me so very sad.
I am hoping for resilience in this community. I really am.