Tag Thursday – The Secret Life of a Book Blogger Tag

The lovely Charlotte tagged me in this one and I meant to to post it back in January but it got crazy busy in work and I didn’t quite get it done so instead I’m sharing it today! You can find Charlotte’s answers here!

The Secret Life Of A Book Blogger Tag

How long have you been a blogger?

I remember clearly my very first post, it was 1st January 2017 and I was sitting at home feeling sorry for myself having been too ill to enjoy Hogmanay the night before. I set up SWB without intending for it to become a book blog specifically but before long it became clear to me that was the direction it was going in!

Check out my first ever book review on SWB

What is the best part?

There are some many wonderful things about book blogging. For me as wonderful as discovering new authors and books is the best thing has to be the wonderful fellow bloggers I’ve gotten to know because of this. Special mentions to Charlotte, Amy and Louise.

What is the worst part?

I think the worst part about blogging for me was the pressure I put on myself at times. However it has taught me a thing or too, see the last question for some of them!

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

I am really not a photographer. I would love to be more creative and develop gorgeous flatlays to share with you all but that’s not me… I do have a graphics package that I use to create my featured images though, I’ve some templates saved so although it takes me a while at the beginning of the year to set things up it’s generally pretty quick throughout the year, a few minutes or so…

Who’s your book crush?

I don’t think I have one… Do I have one? I’ve probably mentioned someone in a review probably, let me know if you can remember someone I’ve forgotten!

What author would you like to have on your blog?

All of them! I was lucky enough to get the wonderful Carol Wyer to write a guest post for me a couple of years ago. I’d love to have Carol back, also I adore James Oswald so I’d love to have him on the blog. From the YA world people like Maggie Harcourt and Karen McManus and from my newly discovered love of MG Abi Elphinstone would be a dream!

What do you wear when you write your blog?

Whatever I happen to be wearing when I sit down to write… PJs, leggings and an oversize jumper, the dress I happened to wear to work that morning… I wasn’t aware there was something I should be wearing in particular. If you know the rules please let me know!

How long does it take you to prepare a post?

It could be anything from 10 minutes to absolutely ages! It depends what the post is and how much I have to think about what I’m writing! A lot of my posts are image heavy and it’s often sorting those that takes the time. I like all my covers to be the same size so most of the time I need to resize them… if I happen to be talking about a book I’ve mentioned before then it doesn’t take quite so long as there are images I can just take straight from the media library. I also have drafts of most of my regular posts saved as templates so I can just copy it to get started.

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

Generally I have very positive thoughts about the book blogger community. I’ve made some wonderful friends, and discovered some great authors. I still miss the SundayYA twitter chat, it was the first time I feel like I properly embraced book twitter, so if you know of any others please tell me!

I know there’s drama from time to time but to be honest most of that passes me by and I only see the aftermath on occasions…

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

I’m not sure how I would define a successful blog? Do you mean having thousands of followers? Getting hundreds of comments on all your posts or every publisher sending you books on a weekly basis? For me the most important thing about of blogging for me is that you do it for yourself. If you’re happy with your content, your posting schedule, what you put out there that’s all that matters. Don’t chase stats, don’t sit there and wonder why x gets sent ARCs and you don’t even if you have more followers. Blogging for anyone other than yourself will ruin your relationship with blogging, you’ll end up resenting the time you spend on it and hating it.

Have you done this tag? Let me know if you do because I’d love to see your answers.