2014 Book Blogger Love-A-Thon: Letter to Myself
The Book Blogger Love-a-Thon is an event where we can share our love for our fellow book bloggers! The event is hosted by Alexa at Alexa Loves Books and Katelyn at Kate’s Tales of Books and Bands.
This mini challenge is the Letter to Yourself challenge. I had lots of fun with this one last year! Basically you write a letter to your blogging self, whether it is to yourself in the past, or yourself in the future. Last year I wrote letters to both my past and future selves, and I’ve enjoyed looking back on those a couple of times in the past year. I think those letters are still really valid for me, and you can read them here if you’d like.
This year I think I’m going to write to my future self, mostly to challenge myself to set goals and accomplish them sometime in the future.
Dear Future Andrea,
Back in February of 2014, you were feeling pretty accomplished with your blog. You’d been blogging for over two years and you’d gotten onto a pretty regular schedule. You’d met lots of awesome bloggers online and in real life, read a whole lot of amazing books, and had a set of bookshelves that were, well, overstuffed.
But you still felt like you could accomplish more. So you decided to write down a set of goals for this blog that you’d like to accomplish at some time in the future. No real deadlines, just things to work on over time. And here are those goals:
- Keep up the blogging schedule. Posts every other day is totally doable, and even more is cool, too. But don’t get too overworked.
- Try to read faster, and read more books per month. In February 2014, you were reading 4-6 books a month and it would be great to get to more like 8 per month.
- Use the library more. Try to buy only the books that you MUST HAVE and check out the other books from the library. You can always go buy a book later if you really want to own it.
- Move to WordPress. Yes, you keep going back and forth about this, but I think you should do it. Maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow, but someday…And for the rest of your blogging life.
- Try to make some more publishing contacts. As of February 2014, you really only have one publishing contact and although she sends you lots of great books, it would be nice to get a few other contacts from other publishers, too.
- Find a commenting schedule that really works. Commenting is the way you most feel a part of this community and in 2013 you really slacked in that department. You keep trying to get caught up but it seems like a never-ending battle. Figure out a new schedule, wipe the slate clean, and then stick with that schedule!
- Get creative with your posts. Yes, keep up the review schedule, and still do a couple of memes if you want. But try to come up with some new posts. Who cares if they’ve been done before by someone else? As long as you’re not plagiarizing, write that discussion post about book boyfriends or New Adult books.
- Figure out what makes this blog unique. Sure, you’re a spoilerphobe and you’ve got the Blind Reads posts to prove it, but make sure you make that a regular feature, so that your readers will see it as something that makes you unique. And figure out what else is interesting or different about your blog, what makes you stand out from the pack. Of course, you’re not trying to be better than other blogs, you’re just trying to show your audience and publishers what makes this blog unique, and to establish your voice.
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talesofbooksandbands.com
February 16, 2014 at 9:46 pmYou already know how I feel about this commenting schedule ;) I also vote yes to more New Adult books!! They are some of my favorites to read and I would love to talk NA with you :) Also, YOU are what makes this blog unique Andrea <3
butorfleogeblog
February 16, 2014 at 10:32 pmThese are really great tips. Thanks for enlightening me also. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed seeing as I am new to blogging as at Jan 2014. So I'm still working out all the kinks.
Diana
February 16, 2014 at 10:44 pmLove your goals, I think they can apply to a lot of us.
Shannon@BooksDevoured
February 16, 2014 at 10:45 pmGreat goals! Please don't stress yourself out too much though! I used to post almost everyday and it was SO HARD! I got burned out and ending up taking off the blog for over a year. Of course I had just had a baby so that was part of it too, but still burn out happens! I will have to check out more on your Blind Reads thing. I hate spoilers too and often won't read even a synopsis of a book! Can't wait to see what you do with that.
Stephanie
February 16, 2014 at 10:52 pmGreat letter! Really good advice! I like your idea to go to the library more. I wish I lived in a larger city where I had a big library. My library system (for the entire county) doesn't carry most of the books I want to read.
Mel@Thedailyprophecy
February 17, 2014 at 9:39 amThat is some really strong and good advice! :)
Mel@thedailyprophecy
Alexa S.
February 17, 2014 at 10:21 pmI love that you're continuing to make your blog even more YOU! It's always important to let your true self shine through, as that's usually what convinces readers to stick around ;) Good luck with all of your amazing blogging goals!