[This is the second in an ongoing irregular series about book blogging. The first post was my 5 General Tips for New Book Bloggers. This installment is a humorous look at the emotions that accompany book blogging. Expect a more serious look in a later installment.]
- Stage #1: Desire
“I’ve been reading review and book blogs for a while now. It doesn’t seem so hard. I bet I could do it, and do it very well. After all, I love to read and I love to analyze what I read. And too, I hear you get a great sense of community from it. Yea, I think I really can do this!”
- Stage #2: Confusion
“How, exactly, does this whole blogging thing work? Should I self-host or use a free hosting service? What kind of books do I want to read? How do I make myself stand out from the crowd? Why does my blogging service keep messing up the stuff I type in Microsoft Word? How do I use CSS? How do I keep track of my stats? How do I design this thing out to make it visually appealing? Why does everybody else’s blog look so pretty and mine is a mish-mashed mess? How do I get people to notice me?”
- Stage #3: Fear
“My first post is out on the net. How are people going to react? Are they going to react at all? If no one comments, does that mean I am a bad book blogger? It must mean that. Surely it does. What should I do if someone reacts negatively to what I say? What if the author finds out, doesn’t like what I have to say, and starts bad-mouthing me all over the internet? What then? Oh, this isn’t going to work, maybe I should just give up the whole thing.”
- Stage #4: Elation
“Someone noticed me! I got a comment. My stats are steadily climbing. When I check it every fifteen minutes, I have new hits! People must love me. Wait, is that an author comment I see? It is, it is! Wow, that is so awesome; I can’t wait to write another review! I bet I can start up a correspondence with the author. Yep, sure can. And people like my unique presentation and semi-creative posts. Book blogging is such an awesome hobby!”
- Stage #5: Exhaustion
“Well, I’ve been at this for a while now, and I don’t seem to get the thrill I used to from seeing my stats climb or people reading my posts. It isn’t that I am not grateful, I just don’t get quite as excited as I used to. And the sense of responsibility that comes with increased readership is beginning to tire me out. I still love what I do, but coming up with new stuff is tiring, and there are so many other writers out there who write so much better than I do. Maybe I ought to give this thing up and focus on family?”
- Secret Stage #6: Contentment
“I can’t give up the writing, it is so much a part of me, and people seem to like what I have to say. I’ll keep at it, remembering always that I write what I write because I want to. It is a catharsis, a hobby, a job, a pleasure all rolled into one, and continuing is something I just have to do, much like the authors I review just have to write. I am happy.”
Related posts:
I’ve been book blogging for 2 years now and I still don’t know the answer to: Why does my blogging service keep messing up the stuff I type in Microsoft Word?
Seriously, man, you read my mind, didn’t you? I’m firmly in Stage 4 right now! Stage 5 can wait for a while……..
I think I’m currently somewhere between staes 3 and 4. I’ve posted more than one review, but still haven’t been around long and don’t get many comments. Definitely no author comments yet!
I think I’d like to bypass stage 5 and move right from 4 to 6. The realist in me, though, knows that’s not likely to happen. Still, I can dream!
Heh.
I’ve been at this a while now… and I still bounce through each of those stages at various times through the week.
Me too … me too.
I think those stages apply to any blogger! And I’m floating around in Stage #4 at the moment, hoping to avoid Stage #5.
I think there is a great deal of seriousness contained right here. In a very concise manner you’ve pegged the evolution of blogging very well.
John, perhaps I’m anticipating you, but you left out a whole mess o’ numbers:
7: OMG Boing Boing picked me up…so what exactly does slash-dotted mean?
8. OMG. How frickin long is it going to take my blogging software company to come up with some system that keeps me from wasting time on themes, widgets and plugins that aren’t compatible?
9. Someone hacked my site? Why the heck would they do that? They’re what? Well, at least it means I’m drawing enough traffic to get them interested. It’s going to cost how much to clean up? OMG.
10. Lying awake late at night: those last three books so-and-so sent me really sucked…if I don’t review them, they might stop sending me those free books I love so much…if I do review them, I have to be honest…if I recommend something that sucks my readers will call me out…but if I tell the truth…I might not get any of those free books I love so much…
RT @johnottinger: NP: The Five Stages of Book Blogging .
Splendid!
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I am squarely in step 3, oh boy. I wonder what my chances are to even MAKING it to the step 5 of doubt and disenchantment, never mind surviving it!