let’s talk bookish | tips for new book bloggers

Hello again, friends! As a book blogger of eight years (*squeals* oh my god I can’t believe it’s been so long now!!!), I’ve seen plenty of book bloggers come and go. Book blogging has changed a lot since I first started, but I’m always happy to see new people join our little community and I’m always happy to help newcomers! Which is why I was psyched to see this week’s topic for Let’s Talk Bookish!

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly bookish discussion meme created by Rukky of Eternity Books and currently hosted by Aria of Book Nook Bits. You can find all the info about it here.

tips for newbie bloggers

What have you learned since you first started blogging? What advice would you give to new bloggers? What is your favorite thing about blogging? What is the hardest part of blogging for you? Is there anything you wish you’d done differently with your blog?

Let’s Talk Bookish

pros & cons

Before you make the jump into book blogging, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons based on what matters most to you. Are you looking for a time efficient creative outlet? How much time do you have to put towards engagement?? Whattype of creative outlet are you looking for??? These are all examples of some important questions to ask yourself when evaluating the pros nd cons of book blogging. But let’s take a look at what exactly some of those pros and cons are…

PRO – You make plenty of friends. As I mentioned before, book blogging brings you into a great community! The vast majority of book bloggers are super friendly and helpful, so you’ll find with time, you’ll inevitebly make plenty of friends!

CON – It can take more time to build an audience than on other platforms. This one I think just has to do with the fact that blogging isn’t a medium built for short attention spans, like YouTube, Instagram, and Tik Tok are. Unfortunately that means book bloggers have to work a lot harder and for a longer timeperiod than other members of the book community in order to gain a healthy following. That being said, with patience it can be done.

PRO – You have a place all your own to gush about your thoughts. Blogging is nice because no one is really limiting you in what you want to say and/or how much you want to talk about it. You’re essentially running your own little platform without anyone else for your followers to be diistracted by.

CON – Writing can be time consuming and use a lot of mental energy. I’m not gonna lie, as a chronically ill and disabled person who’s also currently in college, the amount of time and energy that book blogging consumes can be really tough to manage. But eventually you learn how to pace yourself and manage your time so that blogging isn’t as difficult.

lessons learned & advice for newcomers

Now that we’ve looked at the pros and cons, maybe you’ve decided to take the leap and start a book blog? So what advice do I have for newcomers???

general

• Book blogging is all about the community, so don’t be shy! One of my favorite things about the book blogging community is just that: it’s a community. More than any other bookish social media platforms, book blogging allows you to really get to know people in depth (at least, in my opinion it does). This means getting to know people in your own comments section as well as blog hopping and befriending other bloggers through commenting on their posts.
• You don’t have to comment on any/every book-related controveresy (unless you want to, of course). I often see a lot of newer book bloggers get caught up in book controversy discourse, whether its on Twitter or on their blog/in a comments section and it always reminds me of how as a newer book blogger, I often felt pressured to say something about book related/book community controversies. The problem is, oftentimes as a newer book blogger, we’re not fully aware of the nuances and mechanics of the book industry on both a macroscopic and a microscopic scale. But our awareness that we may be missing key info doesn’t necessarily balance the pressure of feeling like if you say nothing, people will think you don’t care and/or mistakenly assume you just agree with whichever side they think is the “wrong” side. My advice? If you feel like you’re not fully informed on a subject to speak on it, then it’s better to stay silent, at least until you feel you’ve got the whole picture.

writing

• It can take time to find your own voice and style, so don’t be afraid to try different things and change it up. A lot of book bloggers will advise that finding your blogging voice and style is crucial, but rarely go into how exactly to find your own personal voice. The truth is, there’s no set path to finding it, the only thing you can do is write a lot and try a lot of different styles until you find something that you feel fits. That being said, while there’s no real path to finding your voice and style, there are a few shortcuts.
  • Try writing stream of consciousness about the topic of your blog post(s) to figure out how your natural style of thinking and writing sounds.
  • Think about how you speak naturally to your family and/or friends about topics you’re passionate about and try to mimic that voice when you write.
  • Study the voices of your favorite book bloggers. What makes their style of writing unique? What hooks you and interests you about the way they write?? How could you slightly mimic them while also adding your own unique sound??? In the wise words of Austin Kleon, “steal like an artist!”

design

• You don’t need to splurge on blog design. Between free resources like Canva, Pixlr, and Gimp, it’s relatively easy to design your own header, icons, dividers, and buttons! If you don’t feel like you have a natural eye for design, I have a secret resource for you: Tumblr. That’s right, everything I learned about graphic design I learned from masterposts and tutorials on Tumblr. Here‘s a great starting point and another and another and another and another and another and another and another and another.
• Learn at least the basics of HTML and CSS. It’s really helpful when there’s a clear formating issue with my blog to typically be able to go in myself and override it with HTML and/or CSS. Now, if you’re like me six years ago, what I just said sounds like a bunch of scary gobbledegook, but I promise you it’s simpler than it sounds. It’s very easy to learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript online for free, and all three languages are relatively simple and quick to learn. I highly recommend using the free classes from Codecademy and then using W3Schools as a reference when working. There’s also this Tumblr masterpost of free resources for learning to code. Between those three resources, you’re pretty much all set!

So that’s all I have for you today, dear friends! Hopefully you found this post useful! I hope you all are doing well, and if not I hope brighter days head your way soon. Until next time, friends…

spill the beans, friends!

Are you an experienced book blogger? If so, what is your advice for newcomers?? If you’re a newer book blogger, what’s your favorite thing about the book blogging community so far?

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Learn more the author of this post:

Lila @ Hardcover Haven

Lila is a 30 year old anthropology student and lover of literature who's been book blogging for an eternity. Her hobbies include reading, singing, writing, arts and crafts, and snuggling her two cats, Snoopy and Clementine.