TTBG’s Book Blogger Musings

Happy Sunday everyone!

A few months ago I wrote a post about starting a book blog. You can find the link below:

• So, you want to be a book blogger??

Yes, the title is somewhat lacking in imagination!😂 But it does what it says on the tin and offers my advice to those starting a book blog.

Anyhow, I decided to write a follow-up (sort of) post musing on some aspects of book blogging told in my own sarcastic and foul-mouthed way.

Without further ado, here’s what I knocked out earlier. 😉

Incy wincy spider climbed up the hooker’s thigh,
Slipped in her clit and made that strumpet sigh!

Yeah, I included a ribald nursery rhyme near the start simply because I like to beat my own drum and I like to be different!😉

Your blog is relevant.

Whether you have 10 followers, 1,000 or even 10,000 your blog is relevant and your opinion is valid. Don’t let any fuckwit tell you otherwise and the same is true for how long you have been blogging too. A few weeks, a few months, a year or 10 years, of course, newer blogs won’t be as established or as respected as older blogs. Both of those things like gaining a reputation take time but even after only a few weeks of blogging your blog and your opinions are valid (hell, I’d say as soon as you post your first blog post your blog is valid). Don’t let anyone question your validity just because you are newer at blogging than they are or with a smaller blog than they have!

We were all book lovers before being book bloggers and just because lots of us are smaller and/or newer it doesn’t make us any less worthy of being a book blogger as we are all book lovers!

It’s OK to be negative.

I’m not going to go into any overt detail about being negative on your blog and whether or not you should or should not as it’s not my place to say. It is utter, entirely and irrevocably your own personal choice. I’m a firm believer in the saying ‘my blog, my rules‘ and I believe that everyone should blog how they want to and in a style that they enjoy. You want to be negative and rant, go for it! You want to basque in a zen place of calm and happiness, go for it! The world isn’t always full of rainbows, sunshine, fluffy kittens and cuddles. No, often there are storm clouds and you don’t need to be a positive Percy 24/7, it’s OK to be a negative Nelly!

It’s OK to be negative in ARC reviews.

This second point ties in with the first and is again about negativity. Obviously, because both have ‘negative‘ in the title! Way to state the obvious Drew! The only thing that you need to be in your review is honest, be it a positive, negative or a middling review. As long as your view is true to your thoughts and feelings on the book, that’s all that matters.

Book bloggers review honestly and that really is the only thing that you should be concerned with. Reviewing each and every book you read in a genuine and honest way.

It’s never nice to come across a book that doesn’t do it for you but unfortunately, it happens. No-one goes into a book hoping that they will dislike it but sadly we can’t like all of the books that we read, it’s impossible.

The point of an ARC is a promotion for an upcoming release, then again, a book review is a promotion for a book regardless of when it was released.

Remember that a review is your own personal opinion and just because you didn’t like a book it doesn’t mean that others will feel the same way.

Be constructive in your review and explain the reasons why you felt how you did. Don’t needlessly be hateful to the book and the author and, don’t constantly promote the ARC review everywhere, hating on the book, pushing your negative opinion and telling others not to buy the book based solely on your opinion, you are not a blogging God (some bloggers take note, big or small, old or new we are all the same, slide down from that high horse from where you think you are better than others) and the people that do that are uncool!

Publishers want honest feedback but it doesn’t mean that they want ‘I thought this book was shit’ plastered all over the place. Show some thought for the time, effort and hard work that the author put into the book and a bit of class and decorum when dealing with and writing a negative ARC review.👌

Yes, I wrote ‘a bit of class‘ and yes, I’m fully aware that I and my blog are not in the slightest bit classy! We are the sleazy tavern of sordid foul debauchery where anything goes!😂

How to review.

There are no set rules when it comes to writing reviews. We all review differently, there is no right way and there is no wrong way either, just the way that is right for you and your style of both writing and blogging.

And, to break up the tedium and monotony here’s another ribald nursery rhyme!

Blow, blow, blow your load,
Make that hooker scream,
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Her life is full of cream!

Pressure.

I’m not going to delve deep into the pressures associated with book blogging. I wrote a post on it a while ago if you want to check that out for an in-depth look at the various pressures we all at times feel and face. You can find the link below:

• The pressures of book blogging.

Remember how I said that my So, you want to be a book blogger??? post title lacked imagination! Well, you can see that title was even worse! It was as boring, bland and plain as it gets though it is by far my most liked post. It currently has 260 likes and still gets hits months after posting. That must mean it’s actually a decent post, yeah! I’m shocked too that I actually wrote something that was both popular and could be construed as being decent!😂

Anyhow, blogging can at times be hard and if you feel the enjoyment waning (let’s face it a hobby should be fun and not a chore) and the pressure starting to build then there is no shame in taking a step back or even having a blogging break.

Just know that a lot of us have been there and that if you currently feel or have ever felt the pressure associated with book blogging then you are not alone.

Blogging 24/7.

There is no blogging law that states that you have to blog all the time and no-one should feel guilty if they don’t, NO-ONE!

I’m not even sure why I need to mention this point! The only reason I can think of is that there seems to be a growing culture of bloggers who do blog 24/7 and post every day (often more than a single post) who look down upon those who don’t and frankly, it pisses me off.

If blogging 24/7 works for you then fantastic, that’s great but not everyone has time to do that. Blogging is a hobby, with all hobbies and pastimes there will be certain days when you don’t want to do it or simply can’t due to the demands of life and that’s OK.

Say it with me people, it doesn’t make you a bad blogger if you don’t blog 24/7!

And to those who think it does GFY, that is all. G. F. Y.

Grammarly.

I admit it! At times my grammar sucks more than a Dyson! Nope! That won’t do, it’s far too clean an analogy! OK, try again!

I admit it! At times my grammar sucks more than a hooker being paid extra! Aaaahhh, that’s better, far more filthy and Drew-like!😂

My grammar can really suck and Grammarly is a life saver. It helps keep the grammar nazis at bay!

I tried really hard when searching for fucks to give. I looked everywhere, I really did and do you know what?!? I couldn’t find a single fuck to give if I put an apostrophe in the wrong place, not one!

But! Some people are grammar nazi’s and when reading blog posts expect perfect grammar and no errors. Trump and Kim Jong taking the world closer to nuclear annihilation, it doesn’t matter, it’s all good! Bad grammar, world ender of biblical proportion! Yeah, they haven’t got anything else better to do!😂

The WordPress spell checker, to put it bluntly, is shit. All it does is highlight the wrongly spelt word with a wavy red line. Apart from that telling you you’ve made a mistake it’s no help.

Grammarly, on the other hand, not only highlights the spelling errors you make but offers you the correct alternatives to fix them and also, highlights your grammar mistakes and offers the correct grammar too.👌

Grammarly is free (there is a premium version but the free version is solid). It is a browser add-on (you can also download a version used on the desktop too) and speaking as someone who’s grammar isn’t great (if it bothers you then shoot me) I find that it really does help. I’d highly recommend that you give it a go.😀

Link to Grammarly:

• Grammarly.

My blog, my rules.

Similar to reviewing where there is no right or wrong way there is also no right or wrong way to blog. There are bloggers out there who think that their way of blogging is the right way and that’s their view. Gotta respect that (we are all allowed our own view). But really, there’s no specific way to blog that’s better or worse than others. Different people do things in different ways in all walks of life and blogging should be no different.

You don’t have to adhere to what you believe (or have been told) is the correct way to do things. While guidelines and tips are plentiful and helpful, actual rules and regulations, oh, hell no! And anyway, rules are meant to be broken!

The only right way to blog is the way that is right for you. Your blog is yours, make it your own.👌

Say it with me my fellow awesome book bloggers ‘my blog, my rules‘ it’s a mantra you should all adhere to and trust in.👌

Be yourself.

Don’t conform just to be popular, it’s uncool. Your blog should be an extension of you and your own personality. There are so many book blogs out there, lots and lots of truly fantastic ones across a vast variety of genres. Some, however, are indistinguishable from each other, they are carbon copies lacking any personality whatsoever and might just as well be called generic book blog 1 by nameless blogger 1 or generic book blog 3,585,785 by nameless blogger 3,585,785 for all the individuality and personality that they show.

Simply put, be true to who you are and let your personality shine through on your blog and in your posts.

Haters gonna hate.

In each and every walk of life, there will be haters. Just like we can’t read all the books or even love all the books – not in that way people, I’d presume that you use tissues and not books for that sort of thing!😉 I also don’t mean bookophilia (the bookish equivalent of necrophilia) or bookiality (the bookish version of bestiality). I simply mean that we can’t like and enjoy all the books out there and just like that statement, we can’t like and enjoy all the blogs either, yes, that includes blogophilia and blogiality too!😂

Sadly, not everyone will love you and your blog (you can come join me and we will form the unpopular bloggers club. I’m the president and you can be part of my harem of strumpets). As after all, for whatever reason, some valid (you don’t share the same taste in books, they don’t like how you write your reviews and posts, you have different opinions, etc), some because they are jealous of your awesomeness, some because they think they are better than you, some because they are all part of the same clique and you’re not ‘one of them‘ – yes, there are cliques in book blogging, don’t lie and tell me that there aren’t, some because you have offended their delicate sensibilities in a post or comment and they got their panties bunched – it’s the ones who don’t like swearing on blogs and in posts but have no issue reading books with copious amounts of foul language in that really annoy me. That one swear word you used in a review of a book or in a blog post and they unfollow you and think that you are the spawn of Satan and the devil incarnate. And, the ones who post ‘discussion’ posts but only reply to their clique and others who agree with them. They aren’t discussion posts, nope, they are ‘my opinion and if you don’t agree with me I’m ignoring you’ posts.) And some quite simply put, because they are cunts (yeah, even if it loses me, followers, I had to get that word in because I like it) it’s how it is, you can’t please everyone and haters gonna hate.

And you know what dear readers?! That’s OK, you shouldn’t be blogging for others anyway. If they hate you and your blog then the issue isn’t with you and there’s no need to change, it’s just life. And in life, some people come and some people go. And in blogging, some followers come, some followers go and bloggers who once liked and commented will move on to pastures new and other bloggers. All it means is that your blog and you just aren’t for them and if they don’t want to follow or interact with you then it’s their choice and you say ‘fuck them‘ and ‘good riddance‘.

Now say it with me, we don’t change to please others and we don’t pander to be popular.

And finally.

Reviewing for money (Cunts4Cash).

Book blogging isn’t a get rich quick scheme where you can earn mega bucks to live in a life of bookish luxury and retire on. In fact, you shouldn’t be charging for reviews anyway!

But!

If you do decide that you and your blog are so totes amazeballs and that you can justify charging for reviews. Obviously, you and your blog are better than the rest of us who do it for free! You must be able to guarantee that you will turn some random generic struggling indie author that you’ve fleeced cash from into the next GRRM, J. K. Rowling or Stephen Kingesque literary superstar due to the power, persuasiveness and scope of your review and reaching.

Then I ask you, with all the sincerity that I can muster, please, please don’t refer to yourself as a book blogger and give us all a bad name (I’m quite capable of giving myself a bad name in the blogging community without you doing it for me by fleecing struggling authors thank you) because you aren’t! What you are is……

……..drum roll please……and this is a phrase that I recently coined on Twittah…..

…..a BOOK HOOKER who pimps their wares!

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