[LET’S CHAT] Are Bookworms Becoming Materialistic?

Will this be controversial? Hopefully not.

I feel like this is a weird discussion topic, but I did want to talk about it. Because, clearly, I like to talk about things I observe because I am weird. I can’t help myself. I find it funny how we as bookworms jokingly talk about how we don’t judge a book by its cover, when we totally do, and that got me thinking about how bookworms might be a bit materialistic in other areas, especially with the rise of bookstagram, and I thought it’d nice to talk about it!

Usually, I’d put stuff like Funko Pops, t-shirts, pillowcases, candles, jewelry, laptop skins and stickers, etc. under merchandise. I’ll tell you right now that I’m not a huge fan of merch. I find most of it completely useless and a waste of money, and the only type of merch I’ll purchase are t-shirts because they’re clothes and I’ll eventually use them by, you know, WEARING them. 

I feel like fandom merchandise is definitely fun, but can be unnecessary, much like a lot of things that people enjoy. I feel like merchandise has definitely grown over the years with the rise of bookstagram – I’d literally never heard of Funko Pops or all these different candle companies or even pillowcases with quotes on them before I joined the community, and all of a sudden, I was completely bombarded with it. It always slightly annoyed me because I literally couldn’t care less about what candle companies the person was repping for – I came here for BOOKS – and those people who always feel the need to flood your feed for a million rep searches for a million different companies.

(Also, Funko Pops are completely useless and I don’t get the hype, sorry!)

I definitely don’t think it’s a bad thing to buy a whole bunch of books a month. I mean, I wish I could do that! More power to you if you always have the ability to buy 20+ hardcovers a month because I only get to do that twice a year, and that’s only because it’s my birthday and Christmas in the same month.

But, I do see some people who are hardcore collectors, and by hardcore, I mean the people who have multiple editions of the same book because they need to collect all the collector’s editions, all the signed books because if one book is left unsigned by an author THEY CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT IT, and all the foreign editions that they can’t even read but buy just because the cover is nice. It’s not a bad thing to be a collector – people can do whatever they want with their money – but I’ve seen people act like they’ll die if they don’t get the five-year old ARC of a book they already own a final copy of that will complete their collection via ARCs for Trade on Twitter, and it’s really not that big of a deal, in the end. 

I’ve also seen the whole rise of pre-order swag, where if somebody pre-orders a book before a certain date or shows proof that they did, they get some sort of swag, that, to me, looks totally useless, but it seems to really be working if publishing companies use the same tactics over and over again. 

Again, all of these things aren’t necessarily bad, but they’re also unnecessary – especially considering people who don’t have enough money or access to all the newest, hottest releases, whether it’s because of where they live or because of their library not having the ability to carry every single book under the sun (like my own small library).

This really has zero to do with the fact that we like to look at pretty covers – that’s never a bad thing, and is really up to a matter of opinion on whether you really care about a book’s cover or not – but more on the whole obsession with keeping our books in pristine condition.

I know I’m one of those people who wants to buy my series in hardcover because it looks pretty, and I hate it when there’s a tear or rip on the spine or I accidentally close a book wrong and fold a page in, but I hate this weird sort of culture that bookworms have perpetuated where we jokingly say that people who dog-ear pages or mark up their books are “monsters.” Because, in the end, though we love books, it IS just a book, and we shouldn’t treat people who don’t keep their books in top condition as weird just because they don’t or demonize people who dog-ear pages.

Really, the only thing that truly matters is that we’re all reading, no matter what we do to our books or what we read!

And those are all my weird observations!

Hopefully, the take-away from people reading this isn’t that I think people are terrible for doing any of these things, because nobody is – bookworms can do whatever they want with their time and money if they want to – but I did want to take a critical look at us because it’s always an interesting angle to look at things!

Do you think bookworms are becoming more materialistic? What are your opinions on any of these topics? Tell me all your thoughts!

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[LET’S CHAT] Who Are Reviews Really For?

As book bloggers, we’re usually expected to write reviews.

I’ve talked a lot about reviews in the past few months – whether they should be subjective or objective or if we should even be writing them – and I feel like there’s always been a constant chat in the book blogosphere about how unpopular book reviews are and how some of us just really don’t like writing  them. Which begs the question, “Who are we writing reviews for if we feel like no one’s reading them?”

Of course, we’re the ones who write reviews, so they can be for…

Obviously, since we’re the ones who write reviews, sometimes, we might just be writing them for us for a multitude of reasons. I know I personally have the worst book memory in the world, so it’s nice to have my thoughts on a book recorded somewhere so I can always go back to it if I need some reminding. We, as bookworms, also really enjoy tracking what we read, whether it’s because we have certain yearly goals we want to meet or reading challenges we’re doing or you just want to know how much you’re reading per year. Reviews can definitely help us keep track of what we’ve read for the year. We can also see how our tastes have changed over the years, especially if you blog for a long period of time and see that as the years go by, you’re diving into different genres or not into the same genres as you were before.

Of course, whether you post your reviews on your blog or on Goodreads or on Amazon or any other reviewing type site, you will quickly realize that other people will read them, which means that reviews could be for…

When you post your reviews for the world to see, it means that, eventually, someone will stumble upon it somehow. There are some bookworms who want to get several other people’s opinions on a book before they decide to check it out at the library or buy it, so reading reviews is helpful for them. It can also give a sense of community with other book nerds. Whether you like or dislike the book, I’m sure you can find a kindred spirit who will feel the same way, and want to rant and rave about the book to you, and that’s what’s so much fun about being a book lover. And I know there are some people who appreciate being warned about things that can trigger them in books, so having a community behind that and reviewers who do those things is always nice for those who need them.

But, of course, regular old fangirls and fanboys aren’t the only ones who are bookworms! Reviews can also be for…

I’ve talked about this a little bit in a post last month where I talked about authors. Some people say that it’s okay for authors to see the reviews we write, but some say that our reviews aren’t for authors at all. There’s also been warnings against tagging authors in negative reviews of books, which is basic common courtesy. Personally, I’ve never had problems with posting negative or positive reviews, but I’m sure we’ve all heard of some sort of drama where an author reacts badly to a negative review and it causes lots of backlash against them, which might make some bloggers or reviewers feel uncomfortable. I’ve also wondered if authors have ever read my reviews, and I don’t mean when I tag them on Twitter, but if they ever just stumble upon my blog. If they do, EXCUSE ME WHILE I BRIEFLY PANIC.

Not to mention our reviews might get people to actually buy an author’s books or check them out at the library, and promoting an author’s books if they’re not very popular is always a good thing! We obviously love to promote the books and authors that we don’t think are getting enough attention or love.

But, of course, authors wouldn’t be around if it weren’t for a certain something. So, maybe our reviews are truly going towards…

Of course, with this whole business of receiving ARCs, our reviews definitely, in someway, go towards publishers and publicists alike. Most of the time, when a publicist decides to accept your request on Netgalley or Edelweiss or they send you a package of ARCs in the mail, they expect you to give them some sort of publicity for it – whether it’s just telling people you have it on Twitter or taking pretty pictures of it for Instagram or reviewing the book on your blog and cross-posting the review on Goodreads and Amazon. As anyone will tell you, it can definitely cause pressure, especially when you end up requesting a lot of books that you get approved for, and realize that it seems like all of them are being published at the same time and you’re not in the mood for any of them (YES, I still regret requesting all those damn summer Netgalley books. WHY DID I DO THAT?). But, in a way, our reviews are a type of payment for them for giving us a book for publicity!

Obviously, we as book bloggers write reviews for various reasons.

I think we all have different expectations for our own reviews and who we write our reviews for, so I definitely want to hear who you guys write your reviews for.

(Also, completely unrelated, but I’m getting braces today, AND I AM NOT EXCITED. Hopefully, it goes well.)

Who do you think reviews are really for? Who do you write reviews for?

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[LET’S CHAT] Goodreads And Why I Don’t Use It

Lots of people use Goodreads, but I don’t.

Which is funny, because I used to use Goodreads. Like, a lot. It was basically my life for a long while way before I even started blogging, and it was the first place I even entertained the idea of starting a book blog. But, sometime during October of last year, I realized that I really wasn’t enjoying myself, so I quit, promising that I’d come back in the form of a book blog, and lo and behold, I have, and it’s been a much better experience for me.

So, I thought it’d be interesting to make a post about why I don’t use Goodreads because maybe you guys are curious (probably not, but that hasn’t stopped me before).

The more I was on Goodreads, the more I realized that I hated looking at my newsfeed. I’d constantly mute my friends on my feed, I’d ignore it for hours on end, and I’d wish there was some sort of way to just turn it off. Nothing drives me up a wall then being bombarded with 208402 different opinions on a just recently released book that all manage to contradict each other. Sometimes, I just want to read a damn book without being influenced by anyone’s decisions, and cutting Goodreads out of my life definitely changed me for the better. I can finally go into a book blind and without influence so my opinions are my own and I can spend my time reading books that I want to.

I know there are books I gave second chances to – such as The Winner’s Curse – that I just should have left alone because Goodreads loved them SO MUCH, that I was obviously missing something. Soon, after reading the two books again and hating them ten times more than I had the first time I read them, I realized that sometimes the Goodreads community and I just don’t gel. There are only so many times I can see people trashing the books I love while reading the books Goodreads obsesses over and being disappointed before I was just done with it.

And let’s not mention people who bump their reviews 24080284 times a day just so they can get more likes. Excuse me while I try to refrain from throwing my phone against the wall as I see one of my friend’s reviews of a book I don’t care about for the tenth time that day. I WILL NOT LIKE IT, DAMN IT.

I will say, this both helps and hurts me. I actually did pretty damn well on the reading challenges the past couple of years, and ended up always exceeding my goal pretty quickly. But, the pressure can definitely drive me crazy. I loved the feeling of finishing a book and being able to add it to my “Read” shelf, but all the pressure of it was definitely way too much for me. And I know I could just ignore the reading challenge or put down one book as my goal so I can finish it off within a few days of the new year and just focus on reading, but I’d just rather not even bother with it all.

(Not to mention that if you don’t enter a number, Goodreads will badger you throughout the entire year to join in anyway. I DON’T WANT TO, GOODREADS.)

Also, this year has been terrible for me in terms of reading, so I think it’s on point that I’ve just stopped even knowing how many books I’ve read this year. IT’S FINE, I’M FINE.

Though Goodreads was a huge part of my life that I used to enjoy, the main reason I quit in October was because it was just too much work to keep up with. The first few months of school last year were super stressful and I was reading pretty fast, so it was hard for me to keep up with all the reviews I had to write and publish, especially as someone who doesn’t like reviewing that much. So, in the end, I quit because I was too busy with school and it was making reading a chore, not to mention that my sort of “popularity” was waning and spending time writing reviews only to get about three likes on them was pretty annoying and not worth it.

I tried again to get back on Goodreads because so many other bloggers talk about how cross-posting is a good way for publishers to pay attention to you to get ARCs, but after a week or so on being back on it, it stressed me out once again. Having to immediately log on to Goodreads and post my review and then take an extra few minutes linking back to my blog only to get little to no hits from it was a huge waste of time. And I wasn’t even going to bother trying to gain a following again on Goodreads because it was too much work. So, I quit – for the second time because of the same reason. And I still get ARCs, so I guess it doesn’t really matter, in the end!

Since I honestly don’t care too much about the whole process enough to put work into it, I realized, “Why waste so much time?”

And, hopefully, that gave you more insight into why I don’t use Goodreads!

It’s definitely fine that there are people out there who LOVE Goodreads – I feel like I’m in the minority – but it just doesn’t work for me, and I hope this might help some other bloggers out there who are trying to figure out if Goodreads is for them or not!

Do you use Goodreads? Why or why don’t you use it? What are your feelings about Goodreads?

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[LET’S CHAT] How Do You Find New Blogs to Follow?

A couple months ago, I suggested that the book blogging community might be more clique-y than we think it is.

Of course, I launched the Big Blogger, Little Blogger project, BUT, writing the post also made me realize that I’m terrible at finding new blogs to follow myself, especially since I follow such a low amount. So, I thought I’d go over the methods of how people might find new blogs to follow, and how I find new blogs myself!

So, there’s several ways to find blogs through Twitter! Twitter chats where people leave their links at the end of it, asking for links to blog-hop or to specifically find types of blogs, or even just scrolling through certain hashtags! I know there are lots of people who find blogs through Twitter, but I rarely do. But then again, Twitter just isn’t the place where I hang out often, so that might be why.

I have yet to participate in any Twitter chats (mainly because they look stressful as all hell) or asked for links to blog posts (which I do want to do sometime). I’ve definitely asked for help from other book bloggers via Twitter, and it’s been helpful so far, so I really want to branch out soon!

When I was Instagram, I rarely found new blogs to follow. Instagram is one of those places where I feel like it’s really hard to promote your websites or blogs if you’re not already established as a brand, but that might just be me! 

I know I did stumble across some blog links from time-to-time, but nine times out of ten, they wouldn’t really be updated consistently or seemed to be completely inactive, so it was really pretty much a lost cause for me! I know there are some people who find a lot of blogs this way, though, so power to you guys!

I do use Bloglovin’, and even though it felt pretty useless in the beginning, my account has grown recently over the months, so it is very useful! I know that a lot of blogs that are WordPress, but not necessarily on WordPress.com and Blogger blogs follow me on there, and I keep up with blogs on there, so it’s helpful!

I actually find it really hard to find new blogs on the site, despite it sort of being a place where I’m SUPPOSED to find new blogs. I think that’s mainly because Bloglovin’ tends to push the most popular book bloggers my way, whether it’s checking out the “Film, Music, and Books” category is trending (which is always filled with posts from bloggers with 800+ followers – even if their post only gets one save or one comment) or checking out the “More Blogs Like This” tab (which no matter what book blog you’re at, will always show you the bloggers with 1,000+ followers). So, I never really find new blogs to follow that way.

I will say, I always check out who follows my blog, and that can end up leading me to some lesser-know book blogs, so that’s nice!

I feel like I’ve talked a lot about Books Amino on here, but it’s basically an app where you can talk about books and such! I like to think of it as “blogging-lite” and I got started out posting on there before sort of ditching it to start blogging. I do know it’s great for promotion, though, and I’d highly recommend it!

There have been a lot of blogs that I’ve found on the app, and I know there are lots of bloggers who’ve found me on the app! Some of my closest blogging friends and I met through the app, so it’s definitely been a huge help. 

I know for sure that if a favorite blogger of mine makes a list of favorite bloggers, I’ll be there paying attention and making notes. Even if my favorite bloggers don’t really MAKE a post about it, some bloggers have blog rolls somewhere on their blog that show me who they follow or who their faves are.

It can definitely be a sort of hit or miss – just because that blogger is my favorite doesn’t mean I necessarily will love or be interested in all the blogs they love, and that’s totally fine! But I do know that I’m more likely to check out a blog if it’s recommended to me by someone I trust!

I can definitely say this is where I found most of the blogs I follow! I’m that one person who totally stalks the comment section of a post that can be years old and see how many people are still blogging to this day. I know, it’s weird.

There can definitely be pros and cons to this! As I mentioned in that post I linked to earlier, it’s really easy to see the same people to pop up in the same people’s comments sections and can get old quickly. Even I’ve noticed over the last couple of months that there are people I expect to comment on all of my posts and do so – which is great – but it’s so hard to stumble upon new commenters. There are some days where a new person comes along, and that always gets me excited because it shows that my blog is truly growing!

And those are all the ways you can find new book blogs to follow!

My main way of finding new blogs to follow is definitely the comments sections, though I know there are people who are more social media savvy than I am who find blogs that way! It really doesn’t matter how we find the blogs we follow as long as we’re part of the blogging community, right?

What’s your main way of finding new blogs to follow? Any ways I didn’t mention that you use?

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[LET’S CHAT] What Makes You Comment On A Blog Post?

Let’s continue this wonderful series of “Let’s Chat” posts that could only be titled “Mikaela Is The Only Person In the World Who Cares About This.”

I’ve done posts on what makes me follow a blog and also my opinions on blog commenting, but I realized that I’ve never really combined the posts together into an interesting discussion. I’ve never really seen a discussion in the blogosphere about this, but I thought it would be a fun post to write because I realized this is a question I ask when I scan my Reader: what am I compelled to go read and comment on?

I feel like before we can get into a deeper analysis as to why we comment on certain posts, I wanted to talk about why I’m compelled to comment on blog posts in general! I feel like there are three main reasons why I usually comment on someone’s post.

1. When I have something to say. I would usually apply commenting like this for when someone makes a list of books or recommendations, and I’ve read the books before or the blogger and I share the same books on our TBR or we share the same opinion on a character or series. I feel like these are easier and shorter comments.

2. When I relate to it in some way. I mainly use these on discussion posts I read because I apply it to my reading or blogging life in some way and talk about how I do things.

3. Because I want and/or need to. Usually, I fire these off when I’m tired or lazy, so they’re pretty short overall and not as long as I’d like them to be. This usually happens when all the posts in my Reader have stacked up over a couple of days, and I just can’t keep up with them all.

I definitely feel like how we comment is definitely geared towards which types of posts we’re commenting on. Or maybe that’s just me. I know when I look at my Reader, I scan the title of the post, and from that, I can figure out whether I’ll like and comment on the post, or if I’ll just like it out of courtesy.

1. Reviews. I think we can all agree that it’s really hard to comment on reviews unless you can relate to what’s being talked about. I know if it’s a book I’m not interested in or haven’t read yet, I’m probably just going to skip out on the review. If it’s one of my anticipated reads, I’ll probably give it a glance and like it. And if I’ve actually read the book, then I’ll probably leave a like and a comment discussing my thoughts on it! Really, it all depends on what book is being reviewed. I tend to not really comment on reviews at all, to be honest, though.

2. Memes. These are a pretty easy post to find SOME way to relate to. I think it depends on what meme you’re doing – I find Top Ten Tuesday and Top 5 Wednesday to be the easiest to comment on – but there are some that are, in all honesty, just filler. I mean, what can you actually comment on a Teaser Tuesday post unless you’ve read the book they’re teasing? Some are definitely better at drawing in comments over others, in my opinion.

3. Wrap-Ups, Weekly Recaps, TBRs, and Book Hauls. I feel like these are definitely hard to comment on. I usually skim through these types of posts, and unless I have something to relate to that doesn’t seem like filler – like “Oh, yeah, I enjoyed that book, too!” – I usually just like them and leave. In my opinion, they can be sort of boring (which probably explains why I don’t write them), but that’s definitely a me thing!

4. Discussions. These are definitely the easiest to comment on! No matter what’s being discussed or said, all people reading the post will have some sort of opinion on the topic and want to express it! You can always probably find something to relate to, whether you disagree or agree on the blogger’s opinion, and a good discussion usually asks questions and is open for your thoughts and opinions, so it’s always much more personal! I know I usually comment on most discussions that pop up in my Reader, especially if they’re really interesting and well-written!

And those are my opinions on commenting on certain posts!

I’m sure all of you guys will have different opinions on what makes you comment on a post and why you even comment on posts, so I’m definitely curious about hearing your thoughts on what makes you comment on which types of blog posts!

What makes you comment on a blog post? Do you comment on certain types of posts like I do, or do you just comment on all of them? What are your favorite and least favorite posts to comment on?

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[LET’S CHAT] Is There A Pressure To Be A Creative Book Blogger?

Most book bloggers expect and admire creativity.

It isn’t really a bad thing. Most people search for originality everywhere – whether it’s in the form of a book, a movie, a television show, music, etc. – so it’s no surprise that most book bloggers want a blog that can introduce them to something new rather than the same old-same old. But I’ve also realized that with people wanting and asking for new content comes other people who feel anxious and uncertain because they’re just not creative or original enough.

I thought it’d be nice to go over the pros and cons of being a creative and original blogger, for those who are trying to figure themselves out, and to maybe ease the pressure on those who feel like they’re sucky bloggers because they can’t churn out content three times a week!

1. You’re more likely to stand out. This is definitely true! If I asked people about their favorite bloggers and why they liked them, said person would probably name a quality of them that if I went to their blog to check it out, I’d probably understand what they’re talking about. Whether it’s their discussions, their blogging voice, their expertise in a certain topic, their reviews, etc. if you stand out in a certain part and people notice that, more people will probably be more likely to check out your blog over the one that posts the same thing over and over.

2. It will create more attraction to your blog. When most people list the reasons as to why they follow a blog, most of them say “originality.” Even I mentioned it in my own post about following blogs. I feel like if you have original content that you enjoy making, people will eventually find your blog and start enjoying it. I know that I felt that that was the type of experience that my blog had, and it took a few months, but it was worth all the hard work I put into it.

3. It’s easier to find an audience. I personally think it was much easier to find an audience when I started writing discussions that people can easily relate to and comment on over the memes, tags, and reviews I did in my first month of blogging. Yes, it was my first month of blogging, but the stats for my tags and reviews were much lower than the one discussion post I posted that month, and when I went from tags and reviews to lists in February, my stats definitely did go up, and the more I dove into original content, the more my blog grew and the more people find me, so I think an audience is easier to find when you’re posting discussions and tutorials over the same old book tours and blitzes that people can find on 280284 other blogs.

1. You might end up like everyone else. On the other hand, some people can be original, but still be like everyone else. There are some discussion topics that can get old, so a discussion about ebooks versus audiobooks versus physical books is something that might get people talking, but is also a super old and overused discussion topic so it’s not really SUPER original. Honestly, it goes both ways!

2. It’s much harder work. Trust me, blogging is fun, but constantly having to come up with ideas and actually WRITING out the posts is a lot of work. It’s definitely not as easy as it seems. And I’m also a huge perfectionist, so sometimes a post will be just fine, but I’ll still mess with it anyway, such as this post, which was actually much shorter, but I decided to write EVEN MORE, because I felt like it wasn’t good enough. SOMEONE HELP ME.

3. It’s hard to come up with ideas. I feel like the main problem with those who want to be creative is that they feel like they can’t come up with any good ideas, which I can understand! I know I’m constantly thinking and always in my head, so I easily can come up with ideas from nowhere, and that’s always how I’ve been, but I know some people just can’t, and that’s really the basis of originality and creativity, and pressuring yourself to keep up with that might be unnecessarily stressful on a certain blogger.

1. It’s easier to create content. It’s definitely true! I know that the couple of weeks I was doing memes, it really wasn’t that taxing. Of course, it might differentiate depending on the meme, but I think it’s safe to say that most of them are pretty simple and don’t take that long to write. I personally did WWW Wednesday, which was pretty easy to put together, and sometimes it’s nice to just only take a couple minutes writing a post that’s basically already made for you over something that will take longer to write and you have to think about what you want to talk about and how to format it, etc.

2. You’ll find an audience among regular bookworms. Though I’d say that most of our audience is other bloggers and we’re more likely to target our content towards them, I know I do have some e-mail followers that I assume read some of my posts, and might enjoy it when I give recommendations or when I review books or do fun tags! I know that a large majority of my Google searches are from people searching for reviews of a book, and some of mine pop up, so there’s definitely an audience for that content.

3. There’s an infinite amount of ideas out there. Obviously. If all you do is reviews, all you have to do is review books (and there are a lot of them). If you mostly do memes, most have topics set out for you, and if not, you provide the material by yourself (like WWW Wednesday or Teaser Tuesday or Stacking the Shelves, etc.), so it’s pretty hard to run out of. There are lots and lots of tags out there, and even if you do run out, you can create your own! Basically, if you don’t have the pressure to be creative, there’s tons of material that you can use without wracking your brain for ideas, which will work better for some people than others.

1. You’re pretty much like everyone else. I mentioned this in the previous post a little, but when you sign up for fifty blog tours with fifty other bloggers that are also a part of it and the only work you put into the post was copying and pasting HTML, it’s not really going to draw people to your blog. Why see your cover reveal of a certain book when ten other bloggers are doing the same cover reveal on their blog? What makes it truly stand out? There’s definitely a market for that, but I know I get bored with a blog easily when all it seems to do is have a million blog tours that speak positively about every single book they’ve read. It sounds way less genuine and seems like a move to look popular with publishers, but maybe that’s just me.

2. The content can quickly turn repetitive. I know that I always find myself really disappointed when I go to someone’s Reader and all I see is review…after review…after review. It gets really boring after a while. Obviously, too much of a thing can get tired after a while, but I’d much prefer someone posting discussions and lists over and over again rather than reviews or memes.

3. Finding an audience among bloggers is harder.  As I mentioned earlier, bloggers are looking more for quality over quantity, so posting the same old, same old every day a week might be good for stats, it might be hard to build a true following among followers, since most seek diversity in the posts they read (or I assume they do). I think this one really depends on what you want your audience to be and what goals you have for blogging!

Do you feel like there’s a certain pressure that comes with being a creative blogger? What are your thoughts on the whole subject?

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[LET’S CHAT] What Makes Me Unfollow Your Book Blog

Sometimes, we unfollow blogs, and that’s okay. 

If you’ve been around for a while, you’ll know that I actually wrote a Let’s Chat months back about what makes me follow your book blog. For some reason, it ended up being wildly popular, and was the first post to get 100+ views within one day. So, why not make a sort of second part to the post about what makes me unfollow your book blog (which I’ve certainly done. A lot). Obviously, this isn’t a “to-do” list for how anyone’s blog should be, so don’t take any of my points to heart! I’ve learned that 99.99% of the time, even though you really think someone is talking about your blog, they’re not.

I said in my previous post that I really like consistent content on someone else’s blog. Of course, it doesn’t have to be every single day, it could be once or twice every week, or maybe three times a week. The blogger doesn’t even have to have some sort of blogging schedule for me to keep up with their blog. But, if out of the blue, someone who usually posts three times a week only posts two reviews for a couple of months with zero explanation behind it, then I’ll probably unfollow them.

I don’t mind if the blogger mentions somewhere, whether on their blog or social media, that posting will be sparse because they’re busy or on vacation or something else, but if the posting just stops and there’s no reason behind it, I’m likely going to just leave.

This can mean a lot of things for me. It could mean that when I start scrolling past your posts in my Reader without barely giving them a second look, I’ll unfollow you. If I start mindlessly liking your posts without really commenting or feeling like I’m even prompted to comment, I’ll unfollow you. Or if I just don’t really like what they’re posting anymore, I’ll unfollow. Like, if I followed someone because I love their discussions and their recommendation posts, and all of a sudden, all I see from them are book blitzes and reviews and book tours, I’ll probably leave their blog. I always suck at keeping up with the people I actually care about following, so I don’t need my Reader filled with people I don’t really pay attention to.

I feel like this one is pretty self-explanatory. If someone just ends up vanishing in thin air or they announce that they’re leaving the blogosphere, then I’ll wish them well and unfollow them because there’s no reason to keep following them. For those who vanish, if it’s been months since they’ve posted, I’ll just unfollow them. I know there are some people who don’t feel like unfollowing people who vanish unexplained because they might come back one day, but, sometimes, I just don’t feel like sticking around. Is that heartless? Maybe.

Though I will say, I don’t mind if someone goes on a hiatus and says they are! We all need to take breaks. But if someone just drops off the earth unexplained, I’m usually just left confused and let down.

I’m sure we’ve all experienced those blogs where we like the blogger’s most recent posts and they have a pretty design and they’re really nice and it seems like you share the same favorites, so OF COURSE you follow them…and then a couple of weeks of following them seem to be a nightmare because literally all of the posts after that aren’t interesting to you or the person is too negative for your taste or the content just seems to change or they go on hiatus. Basically, those people are impulse follows. I follow them because they seem really awesome and right up my alley…and then I realize they’re not.

This is probably why I follow so few blogs and why I check and double-check before I follow to make sure I WANT to follow them. I’ve had many a impulse follows where I just can’t get into any of their recent posts, so it’s just best to unfollow.

And those are all of the reasons I unfollow blogs!

Hopefully, this is a good reference to those who are looking to unfollow blogs and just don’t know where to start! Or to those who are just curious. Just remember to never feel guilty for unfollowing a blog, even though that might be your instinct. We all have our tastes, and that’s totally fine!

Do you unfollow blogs? What are the reasons you unfollow a blog?

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