Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl
Thank you to Susan @ Bloggin’ ‘bout Books for submitting this topic!
Here are five ways my blogging style has changed and five ways my reviewing styles has changed over the years.
For blogging:
1) I write shorter posts now, generally 100-500 words a piece instead of 800+ words.
2) I rarely if ever write advice posts anymore. (I used to publish longer posts about stuff like meditation, fitness, or writing and share what I’d learned about them).
3) I’ve reduced the number of posts per week I publish from 4 to 3…and 2 of those posts are Blog Hops so I don’t have to come up with a topic for them unless it’s a freebie post.
4) Bloghopping isn’t something I do as much these days…although I am trying to get back into the habit of it!
5) It’s less common for me to share stories about my personal life now. Mostly, I talk about books and other media.
For reviewing:
1) Almost everything I review these days are books from indie authors or small publishers. Big name authors don’t count on every single new review to reach new readers the way the little guys (and gals and nonbinary pals) do, so most of the time I’d rather focus on the folks who really need that exposure.
2) I’m more selective about what I review. 3-star reviews are generally the lowest ones I have ever published (with only a handful of exceptions to that rule over the years), and even then I only review the books I thought had good bones but maybe didn’t quite stick the ending, or should have worked more on character development, or something similar. A 3-star review from me means I liked that story!
3) I avoid social media book recommendations unless they come from a friend who knows my tastes well because it’s so uncommon for the hottest books on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, etc. to be my cup of tea. If one of them did appeal to me, I would, of course, still read it, and no offence intended to people whose tastes do match up with what often goes viral on those sites.
4) I’m much less nervous about sharing relevant plot details in my reviews these days. Years ago someone told me that they found one of my reviews hard to understand because they couldn’t tell why I was dissatisfied with a conflict between two characters. While I still avoid any major spoilers, I think it’s okay to say something like “I wish Megan’s anger with her mother had been explored more deeply to help explain why the flashbacks of things I thought were fairly trivial disagreements between them were such a sticking point with this character.” (This example is made up and not a reference to any specific book).
5) I now include content warnings in my reviews, although I’m still not always sure what topics I should and shouldn’t warn readers are in a book other than the usual things like violence, blood, death, and abuse. For example, I know someone who has a phobia of flowers, but that’s not something I’d typically think to include in a content warning.
Now let’s see how you all responded to this prompt!
I’m much better creating shorter posts (in general) than I was but I could still improve! (Being aware of where to improve is half the battle.) Prepping posts is something I am trying to do and so far, it’s working pretty well which I’m thankful for. 🙂
Glad to hear it, Rissi!
Yeahlowers isn’t something I would easily consider to put in content warnings unless phobia of flowers was a thing in the book itself. On the other hand if flowers are a big portion of a book I think that would stand out on the cover, back cover and in reviews.
My thoughts exactly.
I’ve cut back my posts over the years too, I was just too stressful and that’s really not the goal lol. I’ve been trying to get better about listing trigger warnings in reviews too, but I’m pretty sure I occasionally miss things.
Good for you! I think it’s just about impossible to list every trigger. 🙂
I love how we are finding ways to finesse our blogs. It definitely comes with experience. I really hope to blog hop more too!
Absolutely!
I totally forgot to mention the content warning thing but I have started doing that over the past few years too and I’m glad that I did! I also feel like I’ve stopped blog hopping as much although I always want to do more—I just wish there was more time (and I had more energy at the end of every day)! I also am more selective in the reviews that I share on my blog as I want to focus more on the books I love rather than the ones I don’t. Great post!
Thank you, Dini. I’m glad you get it.
It takes some time to find what works! Blogging is personal and always a work in progress!
Absolutely. 🙂
I try to include the reasons behind my issues when I’m reviewing a book that wasn’t quite what I had hoped for. Earlier this year, I read a book I should have loved on paper. But the way it turned out was just too messy and not as thought out as I had hoped it would be. It’s not always easy to write critiques without giving away a plot point.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/the-ls-have-it-ten-titles-starting-with-l/
Yes, so very true.
I think my posts are in general a lot shorter too than they used to be. And I’m also bloghopping less.
I’m amazed by how many of us this applies to!
Some of these changes have happened to my blog too. I have a lot less time for blogging, which means shorter posts and fewer posts per week.