The Secret Life of a Book Blogger Tag

Hello readers!

It has been exactly one year from today that I started this blog, so I figured what would be a better way to celebrate than to do a tag about book blogging?

I found this tag from The Bibliophile Girl and although she didn't tag me specifically, a lot of the questions seemed appropriate after the trial and error I've learned so far.

So, our first question is: How long have I been a blogger?

Although I already mentioned that I started this blog a year ago, I figured I'd bring up the one time I thought I could be a beauty blogger. This was a few years ago, I think the Beauty community on Youtube was at it's peak, I thought I could give it a try. That experience taught me a little bit about content and that you wont get much of anywhere without a presence on social media. Although Peaks to Pages is not meant to gain anything, other than to share my love of reading, a lot of that information transferred to here as well. 

Despite you doing this for you, nobody will read it if you don't advertise.

At what point do you think you'll stop?

For the short-term, I don't see myself stopping. I'm doing this for me, to organize my love for reading and putting my thoughts on books out there for others to agree or disagree with. I'm sure at some point in my life I may end up too busy to keep posting but I'm having too much fun now to allow that to stop me.

What is the best part?

I'm sure this is true with most other blogs, but I feel like within the book social media community, there is an emphasis on inclusion. It doesn't matter what gender, body type, financial situation or part of the world you live in; if you love reading there is a place for you here. You could spend all your money on books and be subscribed to every book box service out there or you could be picking up used books for $1 at a thrift store or used book store. It doesn't matter, you're welcome here.

What is the worst part?

For me, it's the engagement piece. I love having conversations or seeing photos of peoples favorite books or what they're currently reading, but if you don't have the time or means to market yourself properly those conversations and your involvement may only be a fraction of what it could be.

I also hate seeing the pressure of follower count and algorithms that squash the efforts of all of these people who try so hard to reach their followers. It makes me hesitant to increase my presence on Instagram or Twitter.

How long does it take you to find/create pictures to use?

Last summer I did a photo challenge to motivate myself to take a bunch of pictures for Instagram and it would take me around an hour to get 6-10 raw pictures. I would have to do it on my weekend, which thankfully I get 3 day weekends in the summer. I would need to make sure my house was spotless since I was experimenting with natural lighting and would take photos on the floor. The lighting in my house is all over the place, especially since we have a projector TV and in general I like my house cave-like in the summer to combat the dry heat of Nevada summer. Editing wouldn't take that long, though transferring from my old camera to my phone was a chore. 

One of my personal resolutions for 2019 is to try getting back into taking pictures again. I've been shopping for a better camera and I've decided to pick up some backdrops, I've made my own light source so I wont need to pick up a new one unless I decide it's not enough.

Who's your book crush?

A book I have a crush on? ACOMAF

A character from a book I have a crush on? Oliver Wood, when he came on screen for my first time seeing Sorcerer's Stone I fan girled so hard. 

What author would you like to have on your blog?

I would absolutely adore having Francesca Lia Block do a piece on writing. I know you guys are probably not surprised by who I chose. She did a pep-talk email for NaNoWriMo last year and I devoured it. After re-reading so many of her stories, I would love to have her speak about what her writing process is like specifically for the Weetzie Bat era. 
Susan Dennard would also be amazing. I'm new to her writing but she's been posting writing advice on Twitter and it's been spot on. Getting to interview her and pick her brain about writing would also be epic.

What do you wear when you write your blog?

Normally I am writing blog posts in my downtime at work, so I'm wearing my business casual attire at my desk. If I'm writing it at home, which happens as well it's usually after work or in the afternoon on my weekends. Very rarely am I in my PJ's.

How long does it take you to prepare a post?

If I'm doing a book review, I will set up the review when I start the book. Usually my entire series posts are written in the format they are because I had already started the series prior to reading that book and I'd like to put all of my thoughts into one place.

If it's a tag, not very long. Though I'm writing this one in January.

Underrated authors can take a month or two, depending on how long it takes me to get through their books.

Top 5 posts I usually finish the first week of the month.

I think Read-a-thons or any of the 'miscellaneous" topics, like similar book covers, take the least amount of time. Usually with read-a-thons I have an idea of what I'd like to read and I apply it to the prompts. The miscellaneous topics are generally created because I'm super busy in my day to day life and I genuinely found the topic interesting enough. 

How do you feel about the book blogger community/culture?

I touched on this earlier in this post, but I really appreciate the community. Anybody could start a book blog or instagram account that has access to the technology to do so. Hopefully you love reading too, otherwise your reviews aren't going to be that good. I wish Instagram didn't throttle the reach content creators have, especially since it's a platform so many people rely on for marketing or personal use. Typically I find a person on Youtube that reviews books from Instagram, or a cool new book box I learn about from someone sharing another persons stories. 

What do you think one should do to have a successful blog?

Dedicate time to marketing what you have. Even just posting to your 26 followers on Twitter helps drive people to your page. Understanding social media platforms helps as well.

My next bit of advice would be to have interesting content. I would rather have a post be missed than to put out mediocre content, despite what last November-December looked like on this blog. Don't let the lack of creativity get you down. Explore other poeple's content to find stuff you're interested in, just be sure to credit them.