Back in May, I wrote a blog post “Being honest here,” where I rambled about how I don’t know how or where I fit in in the book blogging world, and how I don’t comment on posts as well as I should. Today, I’m going to be honest again with how I feel about book blogging in light of a giveaway I ran last Sunday and then extended until this past Wednesday because I didn’t get very many responses.
In the May post, I mentioned how I don’t take review copies, I don’t do blog hops (except for The Sunday Salon, which sort of is one), I do readathons but on my own terms, and I don’t read your blog posts as carefully as I should and as a result, don’t comment as well as I should. It is on that last point of not reading blog posts as carefully as I should that I would like to focus today. In last Sunday’s blog post, I mentioned I was having a giveaway to celebrate the end of my birthday month. I only received one entry that day. [I did get six entries when I extended the deadline until Wednesday and I’m glad for those who participated and were able to pick up a free book that they wanted.]
Why is that? I think it is a combination of factors, not just that you might not have been interested in any of the books I was giving away, but also included:
- that I had two posts that day, the main one on my looking back at June and ahead to July and the giveaway one with the giveaway only running that day. So you didn’t even know what books I was giving away unless you followed the link.
- Who wants to click through to another link? I already had several links in the post. I get it. Eyes glaze over at all the links sometimes. I work at a library and we have signs everywhere. Eyes glaze over at all the signs, I get it. Too much information, too many choices.
- The bullet point list nature of blogging, even seen right here, where the blogger puts up a bullet point list of his week. The reader skims and sees what applies to him or her, if anything, and then moves on to the next post after maybe a cursory comment.
- I didn’t promote the giveaway on social media, until the next day when I decided to extend the deadline until Wednesday, because I envisioned the giveaway just being for my blog readers. Then when I did on Instagram, I put the announcement up three times, once on Instagram Stories, and felt like a book gigolo in the process.
So what does this mean for the future? I’m doing away with the bullet point list posts. I will focus on one topic: reading, for example, with my Sunday Salon posts, and if I do other posts on TV, movies, music, or my personal life, they will just be on that topic. That way, maybe, just maybe, you as a reader also can focus on what I’m writing about for that post and not lose the thread. Hopefully I won’t lose the thread either.
Still an unfinished person... 
I think part of the problem with linking to blog posts is the algorithm thing. You just never know if your posts are even going to be seen by people. I will sometimes retweet my own links at Twitter in the hopes that more people will see a link. At Facebook, commenting on your own post will sometimes make it more likely for people to see it, but I usually don’t bother. Drawings at my blog are a bust. Back when blogs were the in thing, I would get 20 entries. Now, I’m lucky to get 3. So, I don’t usually bother. I’ve just done one drawing for a romance novel because there wasn’t an option to *not* do a giveaway if you signed up to review. Not thrilled about that. I keep telling myself I need to just stop doing ARCs because I have more than enough of my own books and I feel like I have to avoid the library if I get too many. I love the library and don’t want to avoid it! So, maybe in 2020 I’ll just accept children’s books. We’ll see. I’m not a good blogger when it comes to visiting other blogs. I get you. I like the way you save your reading for Sunday afternoons. I should probably try that. I felt like I was spending way too much time online, for a while, so I cut back on blog visits and it became a habit just dropping in on a few favorites when I feel like I have a spare moment.
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I was disappointed to miss the giveaway but I was so swamped from that one week off at camp that I am spending all day today responding to blog posts. Well, all day between work stuff. My feedly has one month’s worth of posts. Plus, I need new glasses so I can only handle so much online stuff these days. I’m sorry you didn’t have more of a response.
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It’s OK. It worked out. Got eight books given away.
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Whenever I do a giveaway I live in panic mode until I get one entry. Once I have one, then I’m good. You know what they say, It’s your blog . . . (ha!). Regardless, I like to be able to check in on you, whatever you have to say. I kind of miss the old days of movie watching and having fun on line.
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