Wednesday's topic: Community, part 2
The world of book blogging has grown enormously and sometimes it can be hard to find a place. Share your tips for finding and keeping community in book blogging despite the hectic demands made on your time and the overwhelming number of blogs out there. If you’re struggling with finding a community, share your concerns and explain what you’re looking for–this is the week to connect!
For a new blogger, community is what you make of it. There are no obligations or hard-and-fast rules in the blogging community beyond one rule:
DON'T STEAL OTHER BLOGGERS' CONTENT
And one caveat:
DON'T BE A JERK (It's probably better to treat others as you would like to be treated).
Otherwise, find something you like and write about it. If another blogger has an awesome meme or topic, give them credit in your post for the idea and then add your own opinions. Find the place where you can comfortably exist without feeling like you are obligated to do every challenge, contest, and meme that comes along. If you like having six challenges and five memes a week, go for it; if you don't, it's no big deal (trust me). Start small - big trees come from little seeds. Use tools like Twitter and Tumblr and Goodreads to help you find other bloggers and book-lovers and to spread the word about your blog (I'm on Ravelry, too, for the yarn addiction).
For me, I went too big, too fast. The attempt to keep up with memes and challenges almost burnt me out the other year. I accepted a few too many review copies this year (thankfully, not a great deal but it makes me a little self-conscious for not getting them read and reviewed promptly). I had to admit that I couldn't write two things at once - I coudn't draft my book and write book reviews at the same time, I was hardly even able to read other books. Twitter is actually what kept me going, connected to the community while I went on an unexpected radio silence I'm still catching up to. I'm not shy about the fact that I post book reviews, movie reviews, pictures of my knitting projects, pictures of my cats, and just about whatever on my blog (althogh the majority of posts are about books in some way). That's just me.
And it's not Friday, but I think a gratuitous cat picture is necessary!
Oh what cute cats! I love kitties and love visiting my parents' house, where my own has lived for several years since the apartment I lived in didn't allow pets. I love looking at pictures of others' cats so I can live vicariously.
ReplyDeleteI'm on Ravelry, too, and am pleased to meet another knitter! Have you found much of a reading community on there? It'd be fun to have a "Bloggers who Knit" group or something!