Happy birthday, Broke And Bookish. For this special week, they are hosting a very special Top Ten Tuesday that will require a little thinking outside the box (you see the oh-so-smart pun here?) Here are the top ten reasons why I love being a book blogger.
1-I obviously read more. It's always more fun when you have an audience. If you run a book-oriented blog like I do, you try to maintain a certain number of book reviews a month. That leads you to read more and find strategies to read more effectively. If I maintain my rhythm, I will read about seventy books this year, which is about twenty books more than last year.
2-I gain perspective on what I do. I used to knock down books like beers on a good night at the bar. Now that I have to write about it, I'm getting more out of my readings. Or at least, I think I do. I used to barely understand some books, so now that I write few paragraphs about them, I must get something more from them. As small as it is. A tiny edge.
3-I meet great people. Blogging is a community based activity. No matter how nice you blog is, if you stay in your corner, you won't get as much traffic as if you're mingling with the others. I have met great bloggers whom I trade suggestions with and I even tapped into a community of writers that do the same genre than I do, so I can help promote their stuff.
4-The buzz. That's one of the great intangibles of book blogging. Literature is such a complete maze of different writers from different countries, writing different genres and being from different eras, it's hard to keep track of what's going on. If you use the blogosphere properly, you'll be keeping track of literary actualities and you'll be able to keep up with what's hot.
5-The ARCs. Yeah, they ARE fun. I'm not going to lie and pretend I'm a holier-than-thou butthole who does this for the sake of literature alone. They are fun, glamorous and very good for your blog. Reviewing a book who's about to come out means a lot of traffic for the next week and some street cred for you. If your review is about right, more people will base their choices on your opinion and you will gain influence.
6-It keeps me writing. That was the whole plan in the beginning. Start up a blog and keep writing everyday. Turn it into a nasty habit, like smoking. Two years later, I think it is safe to call Dead End Follies a great success on a personal level. I can count on my hands, the days in a year where I don't write.
7-The business aspect. It's a never-ending struggle, but it's been twenty-one months now and it's STARTING to get profitable. The brand is starting to get some recognition and I'm starting to get a few bucks from Google. It's petty convenience story money, but it's extremely rewarding to receive only a dime for something you put so much effort in.
8-It's a democratic industry. eBooks, bloggers and Amazon are changing the face of literature. If you're starting up a blog and you put decent effort into it, you're going to be a part of the game. You're going to dive in the publishing industry and start getting a better understand of how it works. Running a successful book blog has now a little weight with publishers.
9-It keeps the fractal experience of literature going strong. Whenever you feel like you've read everything from a certain writer you like, hit the blogosphere and research him. You will find fifteen writers he hung out with, twelve writers he hated and fifty-seven writers who are influenced by him. Then BOOM, you have eighty-four more writers to read. A few years of solid reading.
10-It's just a very educational thing. Book blogs aren't only about book reviews. You learn a ton of things about writers and about where they come from. Like, for example I didn't know what A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway was about and I had no intention to read it until I read some background on it. I ended up reviewing the damn thing this month.
3-I meet great people. Blogging is a community based activity. No matter how nice you blog is, if you stay in your corner, you won't get as much traffic as if you're mingling with the others. I have met great bloggers whom I trade suggestions with and I even tapped into a community of writers that do the same genre than I do, so I can help promote their stuff.
4-The buzz. That's one of the great intangibles of book blogging. Literature is such a complete maze of different writers from different countries, writing different genres and being from different eras, it's hard to keep track of what's going on. If you use the blogosphere properly, you'll be keeping track of literary actualities and you'll be able to keep up with what's hot.
5-The ARCs. Yeah, they ARE fun. I'm not going to lie and pretend I'm a holier-than-thou butthole who does this for the sake of literature alone. They are fun, glamorous and very good for your blog. Reviewing a book who's about to come out means a lot of traffic for the next week and some street cred for you. If your review is about right, more people will base their choices on your opinion and you will gain influence.
6-It keeps me writing. That was the whole plan in the beginning. Start up a blog and keep writing everyday. Turn it into a nasty habit, like smoking. Two years later, I think it is safe to call Dead End Follies a great success on a personal level. I can count on my hands, the days in a year where I don't write.
7-The business aspect. It's a never-ending struggle, but it's been twenty-one months now and it's STARTING to get profitable. The brand is starting to get some recognition and I'm starting to get a few bucks from Google. It's petty convenience story money, but it's extremely rewarding to receive only a dime for something you put so much effort in.
8-It's a democratic industry. eBooks, bloggers and Amazon are changing the face of literature. If you're starting up a blog and you put decent effort into it, you're going to be a part of the game. You're going to dive in the publishing industry and start getting a better understand of how it works. Running a successful book blog has now a little weight with publishers.
9-It keeps the fractal experience of literature going strong. Whenever you feel like you've read everything from a certain writer you like, hit the blogosphere and research him. You will find fifteen writers he hung out with, twelve writers he hated and fifty-seven writers who are influenced by him. Then BOOM, you have eighty-four more writers to read. A few years of solid reading.
10-It's just a very educational thing. Book blogs aren't only about book reviews. You learn a ton of things about writers and about where they come from. Like, for example I didn't know what A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway was about and I had no intention to read it until I read some background on it. I ended up reviewing the damn thing this month.