This post contains affiliate links! That means I earn a percentage of qualifying sales.
“Why You Should Start a Book Blog in 2022” is an updated version of the post in 2021, originally published on April 2, 2021. Updates to this blog post were complete on January 1, 2022!
This post is part of my Book Blog for Beginners Series! Check out the other posts here:
- Why You Should Start a Book Blog
- Free Resources for Book Bloggers
- Can You Get Paid for Book Reviews?
- How to Get Your Book Blog Noticed by the Algorithms (SEO, Data Analytics)
- How to Get Your Blog Noticed on Social Media
Why You Should Start a Book Blog
I’ve heard a lot of people say that they want to start a book blog. It sounds like fun, sure! But they aren’t sure if it would be worth it. Sometimes it can be really scary to write book reviews about a book they really didn’t like! Or they might be concerned about the amount of work and time that goes into a blog. They don’t want to do that for a blog that might not make them money. And let’s be honest, book blogs don’t typically make money.
I’d like to share my perspective as someone who has been blogging since 2016. I loved reading, but I didn’t want my book blog to take over my life. I’m an author, so I need every extra second for writing! I wasn’t sure how much it would cost me monthly or whether it would ever pay for itself.
When I was a kid I could go to school and talk to my friends about books. As an adult, I don’t have that same community of readers around me! Especially since the pandemic hit, I’ve been grateful to have an outlet for my book reviews.
I never have to worry that I will annoy anyone by talking about books nonstop. The people reading the reviews on my blog are typically wondering if they might want to read that book too. So, I get to share my thoughts on an outlet where people really do want to hear about it. That makes having a book blog fun for me.
It’s Easy to Start a Blog
The good news about starting a blog is that it isn’t hard! You can get one up and running in less than an hour.
For me, this blog is mostly a hobby, but it also pays for itself. I do that partly through affiliate links, but mostly through paid content. While I don’t charge for book reviews, I do accept payment for book promotions when it’s offered to me! Most of the content you see is just what I enjoy reading or books that I decided to try out. When I do feature a book on my site, it means my blog pays for itself and that is awesome.
If you don’t want to pay for a blog domain and hosting, you can just use the free versions of WordPress. Or any other free blogging site. These URLs might be longer, but it’s still possible to get noticed on a free blog. I know of a few popular bloggers that don’t own their domain name and don’t seem to have any issues.
For the first five years that I ran my blog, I just used free layouts and my old WordPress site: elizastopps.wordpress.com. Later, I upgraded to my own domain name and started using Divi builder for my layout, but that was only because I wanted to focus more on my self-published books and have the blogging as a side feature.
You Decide Your Content
Don’t worry about putting a post out there about books that you don’t like. If you don’t want to write about books you DNF, then don’t! You get to decide your content.
Some people aren’t worried about stepping on toes by sharing their opinion on books and that’s perfectly okay too. You just have to know what you are comfortable with and what type of audience you are hoping to foster.
I am supportive of Indie authors, but sometimes there are quality issues. When I read a book that is littered with typos or issues, I will send them an email letting them know. I won’t publicly slather my website with negative content about them, but I also won’t write a glowing review saying how much I adored the book if I had to slog through major issues.
I realized pretty quickly that while I like sharing books that I enjoyed, I am not here to try to read every book out there and write a dozen reviews a month. That’s just not the content I prefer to write.
I do, however, love to interview other authors. My blog platform has allowed me to talk with authors, both traditionally published and indie, all over the world. I love reading and listening to interviews from other authors as well, so it’s fun to do author interviews myself!
The best thing about being a book blogger is that you can decide what type of content you want to do. You don’t actually have to do a book review ever, if you don’t want to. You can share book lists, do book launch blasts, promote books by sharing cover reveals and blurbs, and whatever other posts you want to. Don’t feel pressured to do what everyone else is doing, just be you!
You Can Get Free Books
One of the great things about running a book blog is that my TBR is typically full of books that I plan to read and I don’t pay a dime for most of them. That’s because authors need people to write about their books! There are so many books out there, that it is near impossible to find out which ones are good and which ones are not. Book blogs help consumers wade through the rivers of content to find the ones that are the best. The books that are most worth their time. Authors know this and will send you free eBooks because of it.
I don’t ask for free paperbacks, but I know a lot of bloggers that do this too.
As an indie author myself, I wouldn’t be able to afford to send free paperbacks because of the shipping costs related but I love to send free eBooks for review blogs and have no problem doing that for free. Blogs that participate in book launch blasts also typically get the book for free, and I sometimes get the books for free from authors that I interview as a thank you as well, even if I don’t make promises to read them.
It Gives You Motivation to Keep Reading
There is so much content out there and we have a lot of other stuff going on (probably.) You can’t keep up with every new movie, TV show, or book that is released. So, writing about books helps me to stay motivated to pick up the next one when it would be easier to just watch a show.
Now, I do watch a lot of TV, but I really value books as entertainment as a way to learn, so any excuse I can have to keep reading, I’ll take it. It’s a lot easier to skip out on a new episode of a show when I can say, at least it creates blog content!
No One Expects Daily Content
It takes time to read books, so most people that are reading book blogs understand that you aren’t going to post every single day. You can decide your schedule, whether once a week or once a month, depending on how many books you read. It’s a good idea to stick to whatever posting schedule works for you, but running a book blog is a much more relaxed niche than others might be.
I totally agree with all these points! I love running my book blog, and it has created tons of other opportunities for working with authors as well, so it doesn’t have to just be books. I’ll never get rid of my book blog, ever!