I’m pretty sure I’ve answered this question a couple of times before, for tags and maybe a Twitter chat or two. I don’t think I’ve ever really gotten very deep about it. But I want to. 3 years and some is not that long, but it is a feat for me, the kind of person who has been known to leave things unfinished (I’m sorry mom, some day I’ll finish that tulips cross-stitching thing I’ve been working on for the past six years). Anyway, we take breaks, we get burned out again, but we’re always told to dig deep and remember why we’re doing this in the first place. This is sort of my love letter to book blogging.
My first contact with book blogs started back in 2009 when I discovered Juvenil Romantica, a spanish book blog that published book reviews, news and just… tons of interesting stuff. I loved it and checked it quite regularly because at that time I just didn’t know what to read next. Their review index was my TBR list, basically.
I was inspired by them so I started my own blog with Blogger and… it crashed and burned.
It was to be expected, really. I mean, I posted reviews but did I visit other blogs and commented on them? No. None. I was disappointed, but… meh, I moved on.
At that time, I was working on my very first story idea. How exciting and cliche it was! But anyway, I was so in the path of success. I finished it, I hated it, and I started another one, but this time in english. Boy did I need help. This is when I discovered Teens Can Write Too, my next blogging inspiration. I followed Michael’s and his team’s posts weekly, learning so much about the community through them. And so, they inspired me to create my second blog hosted with a free WordPress plan, A Writer’s Tales.
I was two posts in, when I came across a blog post on the web, talking about how writers, even without a published book, needed a blog. And I was like, ‘yeah, well I’m two steps ahead of you, lady’. But then she went on to explain about hosting and domains and… ‘wait, what?’. I wanted that. So I convinced my dad to help me out with the blog fees and self-hosted A Writer’s Tales was born.
My book blogging motivation came from wanting to be part of the community
I thought Michael and the other teen writers were so cool. Through them, and Twitter, I discovered more people to follow, more blogs to read, more books, and it never stopped. But you could say those bloggers from Spain, and Michael Waters were my initial blogging role models.
I learned that you can’t blog without a community
Well, you can, but where’s the fun in that? The people I’ve met, the books I’ve read, the authors who I’ve tagged in twitter and then replied with a ‘cool, I hope you enjoy my book!’… That’s the real blogging experience. Most people don’t know how amazing it is to be able to talk to someone who is all the way in France, or Sweden, or Indonesia, or in the Phillipines, like so many of our bookish friends.
Okay guys, so, just… I love you all.
What, or who inspired you to blog?
Oh what a lovely post, Pam <3 It's so great to come back to why we first started blogging and what is making us go on 🙂 I think I started blogging, just because I wanted to talk about books, to have my little place online to talk about books. Finding the community is what made me want to continue, before and now, every single day. It is amazing to be able to connect with other people from across the world, to be able to chat and fangirl together and form genuine, amazing friendships <3
It’s so true that you can’t blog without a community. Becoming a part of the blogging community is essential for making your blog work—unless you don’t mind just writing for yourself! 🙂
I totally agree that blogging is absolutely not possible without the community, and interacting with them. Your story of starting this blog and how drew inspiration from such amazing blogs is so cool! And three years?? Congratulations on continuing this passion of yours 😀
Thank you! I try to keep on going so let’s hope it can last many more :3 I love your blog btw! Your post images are so creative!
I love this! Like you, I started by finding other blogs, not really realizing there was a huge community out there. I started my first blog on Blogger and……eh. I don’t want to be TOO harsh on myself, but yeah. Well. it’s a thing of the past. When I realized I wanted to get serious about my writing, that also meant getting serious with my blogging. I’m still learning and trying my best, but I hope in a couple my years I’ll be able to look back and see how far I’ve come. Congrats on 3 years!
Loool Thanks! And that’s exactly how I feel as well. I’m still learning but obviously, it’s so satisfying to know that it’s better than when I started. It seems Blogger has been witness to so many of our blogging begginings XD
Good luck with your writing! :3
I love reading and always want to share great books with other book worms, my friends and family couldn’t keep up with my reading, so blogging to a wider audience became the next step.
Few things in life are as sweet as getting someone to read a book you adored XD My friends were non reader potatoes when I started so I turned to the internet. This way we can book push all the time!
I originally started my blog as a personal blog. Over time some issues with family members and mental illness came up and I couldn’t write about a lot of things because of privacy concerns. I had been doing a weekly book post so that just expanded and started taking over the blog.
I think it’s great and totally valid that our blogs change as we do. They’re expressions of ourselves so the content will not always remain the same. And that’s good, because it can also be an improvement. I saw you’re into quilting, and that’s so cool! My mom loooves quilting. I know basic cross-stitching but she’s really into all those things and is always in some project.
Thanks for visiting! :3
It’s wonderful that you’re taking the time to look back and remember what inspired you to book blog… honestly, more people should do that with every aspect of their life. 😊 For me, I want really into this MG author, Shannon Messenger, and she had her own book blog (which is sadly no longer in use 😔) and I loved going back to the very beginning of her blog and watching her author journey develop. She actually started her blog before she got an agent and got published, so reading about her perseverance and struggles really inspired me to continue working on my novel. Then, once I started my own book blog, I found the book blogging community… which is really one of the best online communities out there. 😋💕💕
I loved reading this post! Best of luck with your writing! 💕💕
That’s amazing! We both came in to this from an author standpoint but ended up falling for book blogging for the sake of it XD Yeah, I love it <3
Thank you Zoie! Good luck to you too!
I totally agree about the community aspect. It’s the best!
I had a personal blog years ago, and didn’t have many followers, but the ones i did were super nice people and genuinely interested in stuff i had to say / was going through, and i was the same with them. A few of my followers even sent me things like books or chocolates and stuff. It was awesome.
Book blogging is different, there’s not so much of my personal stuff in it. I guess i could do tags and be more personal, but i don’t really feel like.
How did your story thing go btw? 🙂
Hmm yeah it all depends on the feel of your blog. I like doing some life updates from time to time and talking about introversion but more than that… It just doesn’t mesh with the rest of the content.
But it seems like you had a great thing going! :3
First story died, second story will be revised eventually. I’m working on something else now that I have high hopes for. I think I needed the years writing the other two, in order to learn what I needed for this one, so all is well! Thanks for asking! <3