The Pressures of Book Blogging. #BookBlogger #BookBloggers #Blogger #Bloggers

I thought that today I’d look at the pressures of book blogging – which I’m presuming you already gathered from the title of the post! I really need to think up some more flamboyant post titles, don’t I!

I’m sure that most of us, at one time or another have felt stressed and pressured with our blogs. Imagine Freddie Mercury belting out ‘under pressure‘ or we turn beet red with steam coming out our ears, or might end up tearing our hair out over a blog post (luckily I have none, so I just cuss out WordPress with my colourful language skills). We might even end up in a padded cell, shaking, dribbling, drooling and rocking backwards and forwards mumbling ‘it’s too much, it’s too much‘ or ‘fecking WordPress why won’t you do that and why are you doing that‘ while we are administered with some chill pills to make us chillax, mellow out and relieve the pressure.

So, like flasher Gremlin revealing himself, I will reveal the pressures of book blogging.

Regular posting.

Bran flakes, prune juice, laxatives, even a warm cup of tea I’ve been told can help….oh, sorry, it’s not ‘that‘ type of regular. Doh! I mean blog posts, not toilet trips! 🙂

Some people post every single day, some even post more than once a day, while others only post once or twice a week.

We’re all different and as such, all blog differently, but when you see bloggers posting once a day, do you feel under pressure to match them and post more? Or, are you happy to just post when you want and when you have posts prepared?!?

I generally just post when I want and don’t feel pressure to post every day as I said, we’re all different and we should all blog how we want.

The quality of your posts/blog.

Do you question if your posts and blog are good enough?!? I know I do! It’s something I question every time I post, not memes or poetry, memes are just fun and easy and with poetry, you’ll either think it’s good or it’s bad and then, you’ll either get the emotion and meaning behind it and relate or you won’t.

But for the more constructive posts, like this one and reviews. I find myself constantly questioning if what I put out is good enough, I’m aware that I’m not articulate and eloquent and due to that I always think my writing blows (a bit different to sucks, I’ve saved sucks for later in the post).

I try to put out what I believe is decent content but I always feel the pressure that both my posts and my blog aren’t good enough.

Reading every day.

We all love reading but do we feel pressure to read every day?!? Sometimes, life gets in the way and we can’t read, perhaps we are ill (when I have a bad headache I can’t read), maybe we have a new PS4 game to play, work, adult stuff, a variety of things might stop us from reading and maybe, just maybe we just want a break from reading, a day off and away from books or after finishing a book.

If I don’t feel like reading then I won’t, no pressure, no guilt, if I only feel like a quickie – sniggers and I manage around 10 pages or a chapter in a day, then fine, likewise, if I spend my whole day reading, it’s all good.

We all deserve a break at times even from things we love and there shouldn’t be any pressure to read every day.

Do you feel pressure to read every day and do you feel guilty if you don’t?

Reading quickly.

We can’t read all the books and I am a slow reader, some people can read fast and average a book every couple of days. Unfortunately, that’s not me, I’m a book a week reader and sometimes I feel like I should be reading quicker. I don’t think it’s pressure as such, as I enjoy reading slowly and becoming engrossed in a book but I often question if I should and could be reading quicker.

However, I’ve always been a slow reader and I always will be, so, tough shit, at times I might wish I could read quicker, but I can’t and I won’t lower my enjoyment of reading by skimming books just to get through them quicker, hell no! Fast readers, much respect, slow readers, holla at me playas!

ARC’s.

The pressure of ARC’s or for those unaware ARC = Advanced Reading Copy. You receive an ARC and feel the pressure and need to read and review before the book’s release date.

I understand that a lot of you feel this pressure but this isn’t something that I feel pressure over. I’m a mood reader and read what I want when I want regardless of release date. If it’s a book I’ve been looking forward to and I’ve got an early copy then I’ll probably read it straight away and I have read plenty of books before or around their release date but! If you don’t get an ARC read before release then it is not of major importance and it is not a world-ending catastrophe!

Often you won’t receive a book until it’s been released, obviously, then you can’t have read it before it’s release date as you didn’t get it until afterwards. Ergo, it’s now not an ARC as the book has been released and you received it afterwards, nothing advanced about that, ah, technicalities!

ARC’s aren’t something important to feel pressure over though – that’s my opinion, my blog, rules, but you know I’m happy for you all to disagree and voice your own opinions, after all, that’s what discussion posts are about, discussion! Unlike what seems to be a growing trend in discussion posts where if you disagree with the person you’re opinion is immediately deemed invalid I’m happy to debate and accept any opinion. It just seems wrong to stress over it, when most of us have out of date ARC’s even if we don’t want to admit it or are making out that we don’t. At least I’m being honest and saying I’ve got old ARC’s.

Do you feel pressured by ARC’s or are you like me and just read what you want?!?

Review requests.

Ah, the often dreaded review request from authors and the pressure that you feel like you have to accept it.

We are under no obligation to accept review requests and shouldn’t feel pressure to say yes, it’s OK to say no.

I understand helping authors out, which is why I’m happy to have them on my blog for excerpts/guest posts (though, it’d be nice if they sent the links, bios and all the stuff with the content to make a post, as it isn’t my job to find links) as I’m closed to review requests, but we shouldn’t feel pressure to accept and then even guilt about declining their request especially if the book doesn’t really interest us.

Reading/liking/commenting on other blogs.

You might feel the pressure to read, like and comment on other blogs. I guess this depends on your level of interaction with other bloggers and how much blog hopping you do as to whether you do actually feel pressure or not.

I suck at interaction – not in that way, I’m not that way inclined, dirty minded people! But I try my best to read and like posts. Though, I admit that I fall firmly (again, not like that) into the category of not commenting unless I have something relevant to say e.g in a discussion post, or if it’s a book I’ve read/I’m interested in reading and then finally, if it’s a blog and blogger that I exchange banter and can have a laugh with.

Time.

Tick tock! Tick tock! Oh man, always to much shit going on and never enough time! The pressure of time is ever-present to us in all walks of our lives.

Time to blog, time to write posts, time to read, time to do other hobbies, time to go to work/school – see, no discriminating on this blog as I’m including the kids! 🙂 Time to eat, time to wash/bath/shower (I’m presuming that you all have some semblance of personal hygiene). Time to socialise (loner, so that doesn’t apply to me much) and time to do our grown-up and adult responsibilities.

I think we all need a time-turner from Harry Potter to allow us enough time to do everything we want! Yes, I mentioned Harry Potter, obviously, the geekiness is running rampant today.

Stats.

Something that we all feel pressure over. Our stats and possibly the lack thereof. We ask ourselves why are our stats bad? How can we improve them? Is it my blog? Is it something to do with me? Where have the people gone?

It’s even worse if you’ve seen your blog grow and start to gain good stats only to see them once again fall away.

Stats really aren’t something that any of us should stress over. There’s a myriad of reasons why we don’t have great stats and other myriad reasons why other bloggers do. Some people put in hard work, dedication and interaction to gain their stats, hard work pays off, others just seem to look out and have a blooming blog and some might even buy their followers.

If we enjoy what we’re doing then that’s all that matters and stats should be irrelevant.

Popularity.

Do you stress out over being one of the cool kids? Mr or Mrs popular themselves?!? The jock or the cheerleader instead of the geeky book reading nerd?!? Do you and your blog aren’t popular enough?!? Thinking it’s not my blog, it’s me and taking it as a personal affront that you aren’t the King or Queen of blogging?!?

This ties into our blog stats (I mentioned in the above point) and while we shouldn’t get hung up on them, that’s easier said than done and at times it’s something we all do.

But I think whereas blog stats are general, questioning the popularity of our blog is personal, especially if we blog solely for the purpose of being popular and not just for ourselves and our love of books.

I know I’m not popular and as such, I know that my blog isn’t and you know what, I’m OK with that. I’ve never been one of the cool kids or part of the in-crowd and I’m happy to be the loner sitting in the corner making sarcastic comments about everything! – though, if anyone wants to join me in the corner the offer is open. 😉

Personality.

Do you feel stressed out over the need to be polite, happy and smiley all the time? A bright ray of pleasant sunshine on your blog? When in reality you might really be a sarcastic foul-mouthed and mean degenerate?!? Or maybe, you are a sarcastic foul-mouthed and mean degenerate on your blog who stresses out that they should be polite, happy and smiley?!?

It’s not something that I particularly stress over, I do on occasion take the sarcasm to far, I know and realise that but you all know by now what to expect from me and my blog. And, I’m guessing that if you didn’t like it, well then, you wouldn’t even be reading this post! 🙂

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Do you agree with my pressures of blogging?!? Disagree?!? Have any to add?!?

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