Book Blogger Confessions is a meme run by Midnyte Reader and For What It’s Worth. Every first and third Monday participants post and discuss common frustrations to book bloggers. Link up your post on either blog and hop around to listen to and learn from your fellow bloggers!
This week’s question is:
Last year, and particularly in the latter half of the year, I wanted to quit. For all intents and purposes, given the amount of time I spent posting or commenting, I had quit. At the very least, I had mentally checked out from everything. I didn’t read as many books, I certainly didn’t review as many books, and mostly ignored the blog.
I think I reached a point where the stress of juggling too many things all at once meant something had to give. As we all know, blogs are incredibly time-consuming. The more time I spent doing my many other activities, the less time I had to write up reviews, post blog entries, and even read.
A lot of it had to do with second year blogging blahs. The high of creating it and push-push-pushing to get my name out there and draw in readers in that first year was novel and exciting. Last year I just didn’t have the energy to devote to it. Blogging lost its novelty and didn’t seem so fun and shiny. The pressure of watching all of the won, borrowed, toured, and bought books pile up in a never ending stream in my living room got to me. I would scan my list of NetGalley titles and feel nothing but overwhelming pressure – to read, review, post, cross-post, and submit back to the authors and publishers.
I freaked out. Finally, after several months of doing nothing but feel guilty and sad about the whole sorry situation, I deleted all of my review titles, had NetGalley deactivate my account, and stopped signing up for tours and giveaways. Snip. Gone. Cut-off.
What finally forced my hand in whether to officially retire the blog was that my domain came up for renewal. I had to choose – if I renewed, it would be money poorly spent if this site sat here with no entries. If I didn’t renew, it meant deleting forever the entries, comments, and memories from my little corner of the web. It also meant that I may never get this domain back. The finality of that decision was too much for me. Luckily the New Year’s holiday was right around the corner, and as I fired up my Reader again, I noticed it was reading challenge sign-up time, and darn it, I wanted in on the action.
Challenge accepted. Once I started writing up challenge posts, my passion came flowing back to me. I loved putting up all my new widgets and the challenge page. I loved visiting everyone’s sites and participating in events. That’s when I finally realized how much I had missed this.
In some ways, I wish I had reached out more to my fellow bloggers during my slump, but I didn’t think they could give me any advice I didn’t already know. I knew I needed to better manage my time, get back in touch with why I started this blog in the first place, and take whatever steps necessary to make it fun again. I hope that as I begin my third year of blogging, I can stay more connected and less pressured. Without accepting review titles, I guarantee that I will only ever have to read what I want, when I want, with no pressure to finish a certain book by a certain date. This helps me feel the joy of reading again, and that joy translates into happier posts and comments.
I want to thank everyone who has welcomed me back to the book blogger community with such enthusiasm. I came back because I missed all of you and it feels great to reconnect. Now let’s go read some awesome books!
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A lover of words and sparkly things.
I am glad that you didn’t quit. I have thought about quitting in the past too. It was when I switched from doing blog tours and such to just kind of doing my own thing. I made a decision just to keep it fun. I don’t feel bad when I don’t post or visit. I would rather do it with fun in mind than a sense of “have to”
Transition periods are hard. When I switched to WP my feed subscriptions disappeared and I felt like I was starting over and no one cared. I’m definitely trying to follow the fun model and not be so hard on myself this time around.
I missed you, too, Logan! I’m so happy you’re back.
What you said about second year bogging blahs really rand a bell for me. I felt the novelty had really worn off and I wasn’t sure why I was still doing it. Here’s to an awesome third year!
Yeah! Here’s to the best yet!
So glad you didn’t quit! I practically quit after only two months but since then I’ve been in it. I think forgoing review copies is a great way to improve your blogging experience-I know I sometimes feel pressure from trying to get all the books read and reviewed.
Here’s to your best year of blogging yet!
Right back at you! I’m glad you stuck it out. It’s sad when I see blogs disappearing.
This sounds a lot like my story. The pressure to make the blog a certain way and review everything got to me. I had to get back to doing it at my own pace and for fun.
I took quite a bit of time off and I don’t bother reviewing about 50% of the books I read these days. That has helped enormously. Reading for fun….what a concept lol
What was interesting to me is once I made that decision and stopped taking review requests the joy of blogging came back and I *want* to review. So yay! I hope it works out for you & thanks for sharing.
Thanks Karen. I can see that happening to me, too. I just need to get the joy back and make it feel less like a job. It’s a hobby, right? Right?! lol
Well I for one, definitely missed you. So, I’m glad you’re back. I never really took books for review because I don’t like committment and I want to read what I want to read. I’m so glad you found your enthusiasm again.
Thanks Pam! Missed you too!!
wow .. I glad that you didn’t quit and I could read about it. this year was painful for me. I was tired of the drama , but I enjoyed the community and there were some awesome books. Yes I am close to quitting and I just want read my books sometimes without reviewing them all. Great to meet you
Not having the pressure to review everything was a BIG weight off my chest. Hang in there! I hope you find the joy in it soon too!