How & Why You Should Start a Book Blog

They read books, they write reviews and they click photographs of it amidst fancy props. If you have been in the social media circuit for a while now, it is inevitable not to have noticed such posts. Titles that declare the must read thriller, images that scream out the mush in a love story and reviews that outright declare a book to be a sucker for boredom- Welcome to the whole new world of book blogging. It’s a world that’s loaded with book recommendations, strikingly beautiful pictures and a peek into the big world of publishing.

Who are these book bloggers? What do they do?

• Who is a Book Reviewer?

A book reviewer is a person who reads a book (Of course the complete book) and pens down his opinions and thoughts on a platform where others could access and benefit from it. No rocket science there, isn’t it? Pretty clear cut and simple. Reviewers bring out the good and the not so good factors of a book. Their constructive criticism may also serve as a means for the author of the book to better his writing. No wonder it is often said that a trusted reviewer has the power to influence one’s choice of reading. Thus, the word influencer is the additional tag a book reviewer gets associated with. 

• Who is a Book Blogger?

Book Bloggers are reviewers too in the truest of sense. But the key highlight here is that the reviews are published in the form of a web log- or popularly called as a blog. The reviews on the blog may be independent or it may be for another entity that runs a blog. Either way, writing a book review on a blog makes a person a book blogger. Now, apart from the traditional form of reviews, book bloggers also bring in author interviews, news from the publishing world and other book related posts as a value addition to their blog.

• Who are Bookstagrammers?

Bookstagrammers are the most recent entrant into the world of books and reviews. People, who share their book reading experiences on Instagram, of course with the help of images and the limited set of characters below the image, can be called as bookstagrammers. Much as I dislike math, here is a simple equation to sum it up. I find this the best way to explain it. 

Book reviews + Instagram= Bookstagram

I have clearly demarcated here that a book blogger is someone who writes on a blog and a bookstgrammer is essentially on Instagram. He may or may not own a blog. It’s all a matter of choice. The mediums are plenty to communicate. You may choose all, or just one, as per your comfort level. You may also use these:

Top hashtags for your bookstagram

What do you need to start a book blog?

I would assign two essential qualities that one must possess in order to start and run a successful book blog. Firstly, you must be passionate about reading, to the extent that you must be a voracious reader. It’s important to read and cater to your audiences’ requirements of information. Secondly, you must love to write. You must want to shout out aloud and scream out through words about that book you have just finished.

Blog post ideas to keep the blog running

My biggest challenge when I began my journey as a book blogger was “What do I write about, apart from book reviews?” Click on this link to get UNLIMITED BLOG POST IDEAS to keep your book blog running without breaking your head.

That Perfect Length

I have encountered contradictory opinions with regards to this. Where many veteran and established bloggers propound long form content of 1500+ words there are many others who perpetuate the fact that a minimum of 500 words are actually enough for search engines to crawl through the content. Besides, long form content may not really hold a reader’s attention span for long, especially for reviews where people prefer crisp to the point information. With two contrasting opinions in front of me, I took to getting my understanding on the matter from the performance of my own posts. One thing is for sure the length of one’s blog post does correlate to search engine rankings (whether it be Google, Yahoo or Bing). After a closer look at my posts, I realized that my most searched blog posts have been around 1000 words. Thus, I am of the opinion that a healthy book review could lie anywhere between 800-1000 words. And yes, they are capable of doing well on search engines as well as other platforms with respect to holding readers attention.

How to write a great book review

A good book review is indeed a sort of support to authors, readers and publishers. Where a reader can make an apt choice in picking his next read, for authors and publishers it may well boost his sales(if he is looking at visibility for his new release). Publishers and authors are always on the lookout for those who can generate great reviews, ones that bring out the true essence of a book in the most effective of ways. 

It pays to write a great review. Though a perfect one takes time to master, surely it is a skill that could be honed. I would stress a point over here that, when one is undertaking a review, it is very important to be authentic, to bring in one’s individual style, and be true to the ethics of book reviewing. Basically, one must be able to generate an unbiased review in one’s own voice. I would not be speaking here much about creative writing styles, but would rather focus on the do’s and don’ts of a great book review. Click here to read more :

Great Reviews- The Do’s and the Don’ts

How often must one post? 

Your blog is up and running and you are happy with the way it is going. Ever wondered how often you need to post? In fact is this really something you need to put a thought to. The answer is a big yes. There needs to be a posting schedule in place with consistency in blogging frequency. The answer to this actually lies in the kind of blog you have. As we are focussing on a book blog here, I have shared my thoughts on this here: 

Join the Dots- Frequency Schedules

Killer looks matter

Looks matter and lets get that clear from the beginning. A blog that looks good and well pro if I may say, appeals to a whole lot of readers. A neat and tidy theme, a clutter feel structure and neatly formatted posts sure do adds to the aesthetics of a blog and appeals to readers. Before I proceed any further let me make a confession here. I am no technical expert here but after reading blogs across niches, my personal experience has given me some basic insights on what needs to be done with respect to the look of a book blog.

CLUTTER FEEL WAY TO DESIGN YOUR BLOG

Can your book blog earn money?

Book bloggers essentially make money through sponsored posts, affiliate marketing, and ad revenues. However I must mention this that to generate a long term income out of it requires a lot of patience and persistence. Your page views must be really high and you should be able to deliver constant quality content that’s relevant for readers across platforms. In short, you can make money with book blogging, however it takes lots and lots of effort. A couple of sites also pay for doing book reviews. Here are:

Five sites that pay for reading and reviewing

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