This Week’s Topic:
I TRIED IT AND LIKED IT!
I introduced Five Star Fridays in January. I love my Sunday post, and because I always do that weekly wrap-up, I never felt it was necessary to then have a monthly wrap up. I also thought it would be obnoxious to list all the books I read in month too. I did like the idea of having somewhere to highlight the best of the month, and thus, Five Star Friday was born. Mostly, I just share my highest rated books, but I have started adding in the best thing that happened to me as well. I love doing fangirl posts and having another place to highlight my favorites of the month.
BACKLIST BOOKS
I always lamented how I had so many ignored books and how I really needed to read more backlist books, but then I still ignored both my shelf and backlist books. For the sake of accountability, I combined my Can't Wait Wednesday with Books from the Backlog, and that helped a lot. I still wanted to ease off of review books a bit more, and have started really cutting back on my requests and only putting a max of three ARCs per week on my TBR. This has helped me in many ways. I was getting burned out on reviewing and have discovered that three is my max. I can easily handle writing three reviews each weekend without feeling like I am running out of words.
Many bloggers have some version of shorter reviews that they features. Let's be honest, I don't write the longest reviews to start with, but with al my backlist reading, I wanted a place to share some quick thoughts on some books that really stood out. It was also a great filler towards the end of the year, when I had few review books for the current month. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to express my thoughts in a small space, and I liked having the opportunity to share more non-review books.
Now it's your turn!
Did you try anything new with your blog this year?
Let us know in the comments!
Let us know in the comments!
I did have some new ideas for my blog but then the year went kind of crazy and instead, I fell behind with my normal blogging. I hope to try some new things next year:)
ReplyDeleteNever too late to try something new, right? I hope you get to try a few of your ideas, and I can't wait to see them.
Delete"I was getting burned out on reviewing and have discovered that three is my max. I can easily handle writing three reviews each weekend without feeling like I am running out of words."
ReplyDeleteAll while I usually spend three days on a single review 😶.
I'm glad all these worked so well for you! I like structure as well, at least when it comes to my blog (ha! who am I fooling, I need it IRL as well). Sometimes I have new blogging ideas, but I don't have the time and energy to implement them. It's hard enough to keep up with reviews, TMST and Tooting Your Trumpet (the latter took a dive lately...but I'll try to be more consistent next year!).
It's a hobby. You do what you can. Sometimes real life gets in the way, and that's ok. My reviews are shorter than yours, and they are all reaction, no real analysis, because that's my style. It's probably easier to write reviews like that. I believe structure is my friend and I love it.
DeleteI don't think that I did anything different this year. Unless you want to count disappearing for a bit :) I do like focusing on backlist books but didn't get to read as many as I had hoped to this year.
ReplyDeleteI think it's hard to try something new, when you have a lot going on at home. Making the effort to read your backlist is major, if you ask me. It's so easy to be distracted by new books, but the payoff has been big for me.
DeleteI think it's great you tried some new things on the blog and really loved them. I have a mix of features on my blog that I'm definitely figuring out what works and what needs to go or be changed.
ReplyDelete-Lauren
www.shootingstarsmag.net
Good luck! Can't wait to see what you come up with.
DeleteI enjoyed all these things you did this year!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Deanna!
DeleteI cut down on the number of posts I write and focused on promoting posts on social media. I also stopped writing reviews because they’d take days to write, and pretty much no one would look at them. I guess my biggest change this year is Pinterest. I spend a lot of time making pins. I think I’ve gotten a lot better at it.
ReplyDeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
I think the thoughts you share about your weekly books on Sundays is great. I think I starting promoting less, because social media was messing with my head too much. It was making me miserable, but I admire all of you out there working it.
DeleteI wanted to start a 5 star Friday myself, but since I don't always finish books that I am not enjoying, I rarely have books that aren't 4 or 5 stars. But I still want to try to do something like that, like maybe 5 stars from the past? I also liked your books from the backlog. I might try to incorporate that somehow myself since I have a whole 5 shelf bookcase just of books I haven't read yet. :-). I was doing the Sunday wrap ups, but it got too time consuming, so just do the monthly ones now. Glad all these are working for you so well!
ReplyDeleteCarol does Books from the Backlog on Thursdays, but I combined it with my CWW post. It works with my one old, one new thing. I find a legit monthly overwhelming. I like the weekly check-ins. It took me a bit to find a format that worked for me. I had been doing It's Monday, What are you Reading?, which I combined with the Sunday Post. I also used to do short reviews for each book I read, and that was exhausting. I found a format that works for me and doesn't take me forever to complete. I just slip the stuff into my template and am done in under 30 mins.
DeleteI really enjoyed your new features! I also tried incorporating quick/short reviews this year. It was nice not having to force myself to write longer reviews, and they just hit the highlights. I've also been doing more promotional posts (blog tours, excerpts, cover reveals) and that's been really fun and something I want to continue doing.
ReplyDeleteWhen you look at trade reviews, they are on the shorter side. That was how I modeled mine, though I do more opinion and less recap. I consider my reviews as edited emotional responses. I do like being part of a tour, but I always do a review.
DeleteI'm glad you've found a balance with ARCs/backlist. I think I'd cry if I had 3 ARCs a week to read/review but I don't get through anywhere near the volume of books you do. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm really hating writing reviews but having fewer posts of shorter reviews works really well, I think.
I was reading 5 ARCs a week. I cut back to get to my backlist. Short reviews are actually pretty challenging. To be able to capture your feelings in a paragraph can be hard sometimes, but I like the short reviews a lot. They get right to the point.
DeleteProbably my biggest change this year was starting a bookstagram to run alongside the blog. It definitely challenged my creativity, but also introduced me to a whole new group of bookish buddies!
ReplyDeleteIt's a challenge running social media for your blog, and then having to be creative makes it even harder. The bookstagram world has some great members. I found I stink at taking photos, and I don't want to read physical books. It makes the bookstagramming sort of impossible, but I like to admire other's work.
DeleteWell I stopped the discussion posts LOL It seems that this year drained most of my energy and I needed to go for something easier. Yet when I reread some of my oldest posts I long to get back to it. Maybe 2021 will be kinder and I'll get back in the saddle.
ReplyDeleteIt's been a long time since I felt like I had the motivation to write a discussion post. The year end has been a good shot in the arm for me. I enjoy all the reflection, wrap ups, and best ofs that we have this time of year.
DeleteIts always so fun to see the unique features that us bloggers implement. I love what you do with yours, its so creative and unique to your style.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I hope for more inspiration in 2021
DeleteThis is awesome! I love that you tried new stuff and it worked well! I agree with you about 5 star Fridays, I think they are a great, positive way to highlight your faves! I also am so impressed that you can control yourself with review books, because it is clear that I cannot bwhahah.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I did ANYTHING new this year, sadly. I think the year kind of got away from me? I had plans, but then... you know how it goes!
The review book thing is a battle. I really want all the books, but since I have access to 4 online libraries, I have learned to chill a bit more about new releases. Hey, it's 2020, at least you were still blogging. I can't say that for everyone.
DeleteI really enjoyed all of your new features this year. I had ideas but I think the craziness of COVID, virtual schooling and working from home just created too much chaos for me. Instead of doing more, I found myself cutting way back and struggling to get even the basics done. I did work a little more on my bookstagram account than in the past but even that was inconsistent. Really hoping to get back on track in 2021.
ReplyDeleteI really tip my hat to all the parents who had to work and get make sure their kids were being educated. It has to be a lot to juggle.
DeleteYay for loving the new stuff you tried! Next year I plan to devour more backlist books. I already made a shelf on Goodreads listing all of my favorite authors and the books of theirs I haven't read yet, I was kinda shocked at how many there were on that list lol.
ReplyDeleteJen @ Star-Crossed Book Blog
It started with backlist, but when I found some I loved, I did a hard push to read their backlist. So happy I did it.
DeleteI’ve loved the new features you’ve done this year and it’s always fun to try something new. I really like Five Star Friday as it’s great to see you highlighting your favourite books of the month. Trying something new with my blog would have meant blogging more. My new thing has mostly been keeping the pressure off and blogging when the mood takes me.
ReplyDeleteIt's a hobby, so I think you are doing it right. It should be fun and enjoyable and something you look forward to doing.
Delete