Liz over at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy has some great posts up about the "should's" of blogging and the shift from a private reader to a public reader. Her posts got me thinking about how blogging for many of us is something we do on top of school, work, and many other responsibilities. I am a full time teen librarian, I'm in grad school for my Master's in Library Science and I have a husband and an adorable dog (she's my fur baby). I'll also be starting work on YALSA's Fabulous Films Committee this year. On top of all that, I blog.
So with all that said, I'm interested in knowing how you balance all you do with the books you read and when you blog. Do you schedule posts in advance? Do you write up posts and save them for a day when you don't have any book reviews to post? How do you decide what to read and when? And how to keep it fun?
*Note-I'm not feeling as though my blog is not fun, I still love it! I'm just interested in hearing from other bloggers on how they balance everything, especially when blogging is a very time consuming hobby and not a paid job.
I love to read, but sometimes it can feel overwhelming with everything else I have going on. I don't ever want reading and my blog to feel like work, so I do make sure that I read something that's just for me, without any intention of blogging about it. Sometimes I'll end up reviewing it because I really want to share the book, and other times I don't.
I'm lucky that I work in a library, so reading and talking about books is encouraged in my job. As much as we love to read, our reading is done after work or on breaks. I do wish that librarians got time to actually read during work though-that would be great!
I'm actually terrible about scheduling posts-I really only do that on the weekends. Other days I'm writing up a blog post the night before I want it to appear (like right now!) When I started blogging, I didn't have a book to review every day, but now my reading is ahead of my blog, so I have some rainy day reviews saved up.
*Note-I'm not feeling as though my blog is not fun, I still love it! I'm just interested in hearing from other bloggers on how they balance everything, especially when blogging is a very time consuming hobby and not a paid job.
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ReplyDeleteSorry their was a typo in my first comment that's why I deleted it :)
ReplyDeleteI totally feel you. I love my blog too, it brings me so much joy, but their are times where it is a bit overwhelming. With school and work sometimes it's hard to constantly read, but at the end of the day we're still going to do what we love most :) Good question though I'm sure a lot of bloggers will relate!
I was thinking about this exact thing last night as I was prepping my blog for the next few weeks! Sometimes, it is difficult for me to find the time to read with an hour commute and going part time for my MLIS and the need to start focusing on my paper for the scholarship attached to school.
ReplyDeleteMy New Years resolution (among many) was to update my blog at least once a week, so I picked Sundays. I find updating Sunday is the perfect start to my week. I've also discovered the beauty of Blogger's Scheduled posting, so I set some stuff ahead of time during the week so I can forget about it until next weekend.
I am just starting out, so it isn't quite that crazy...yet.
Oh, and I focus on Graphic Novels, which for me, are quick and always fun reads and I devour them like my mom devours romantic novels.
~Little Librarian
http://littleteenlibrarian.blogspot.com
To be totally honest, I struggle like you do! It is why I have co-bloggers.
ReplyDeleteErinWrites has Wed. to post whatever reviews she wants. She reads like 4-5 books a week, so I know I can always count on her!
Guinevere posts on Fridays. She also reads lots and we read a lot of the same stuff. I know if I get an ARC that I won't get to for a while I can pass it on to her and get an honest review.
I really try to post a review every Monday, but my other life doesn't always allow that.
If we don't get anything posted on Tuesday and Thursday I don't stress.
My philosophy is blogging is a place for me to share what I'm reading, my fun experiences with great authors, and just have fun/no stress doing it!
I love your blog. Don't stress about it!
I am new to blogging-I just started my blog last month and right now I have a lot of free time on my hands. However I only read 10 books last month which is low for me and I wrote only two book reviews. I think that once I start working again I will probably have to write more on the weekends ahead of time.
ReplyDeleteI used to work in a library where we were allowed to read on desk as long as it didn't interfere with our ability to help patrons (slow days at the reference desk) but I didn't read very often at work because I typically get involved in books. Instead I read book reviews in Publishers Weekly, etc. The funny thing is that people who wanted to work at the library thought that all we did was read books all day which they thought would be fun. If they only knew!
Your blog is fantastic. I hope you continue to enjoy blogging and have the time to do it. Good luck with your studies too! How long do you have till you finish your MLS?
Eleni-I think a lot of bloggers struggle with the balance, but the ones that stick with it are the ones that really love it. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteLittleTeenLibrarian-I'm trying to post more on weekends too-get all my posts for the week ready and then schedule them for that week. I'll read graphic novels too when I need a quick read and want something different. With your long communte, do you ever listen to audiobooks? I love them!
Aubrey-A blogging partnership is a great idea! I've seen several blogs that do that that I really like.
Christina-It's funny how people who don't work in the library think all we do is read! Our library has gone back and forth on if we can do work at the desk-and we can never read! But I do read reviews and read through my google reader of "library must reads" and "author" feeds-I feel that helps me keep up on what books are coming out, YA news, and I can recommend books and make orders based on that. I'll be done with my MLS classes in December and then I have Capstone (a week of writing three papers to graduate) the semester after that.
huh. thats a pretty good topic. i actually tend to schedule my posts WAY ahead like...a few weeks ahead because there's times when i finish a bunch of reviews but i also have my weekly memes and stuff which ends up pushing some of my reviews until a week later. so sometimes, some of the reviews u see on my blog is actually written and scheduled a few weeks ago xD
ReplyDeletebut recently tho, thats not the case. scheduling for one weeks is already hectic enough :(
Wow Stephanie-I would love to schedule my posts that far in advance! When I first started, I didn't really have enough to post in advance, but now that I do, I'm trying to schedule everything for the week. Of course, there are things that come up that I'll post without scheduling, but having a plan/schedule can help greatly!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to second a few things that have already been said. I work as a teen librarian too and I definitely end up reading blogs and clearing out my reader while I'm on the reference desk. I try not to blog, but it happens sometimes. And yes, we're not allowed to read at the desk either - so irritating.
ReplyDeleteLuckily I don't have too many things pulling me different directions once I'm not at work. I may soon, cause I have a wedding to plan, but otherwise... I'm pretty free. I'm just lucky like that at the moment :).
But I am one who makes myself review the book as soon as I've read it. Otherwise I'll forget what I wanted to say or something. I won't let myself start a new book until I've reviewed the last one. That just works for me.
And ps... about the Melody Carlson thing from mine - I'm glad you thought the same about her books! And I know the Jenny B Jones book - are they considered Christian fic?
Thanks Emily! Have fun planning your wedding. I still managed to blog while planning mine-you can do it!:)
ReplyDeleteI try to blog at least once a week. If I have a burning issue on my mind that has to do with publishing or writing, then I write about that. If not, then I post about a book I recently read. Either way, I keep my blog up to date.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I am passing a blog award to you. Enjoy.
http://sharifwrites.blogspot.com/2010/02/won-award.html
I post when I have something to post about, which is usually every day, and it's usually in the evening. Otherwise, I don't post. Once it starts feeling like a chore, it's stopped being fun.
ReplyDeleteY'know, it's funny that you post this now because I've just been thinking about this very same thing. I am one who likes to schedule posts in advance. Right now I have several weeks of Nonfiction Monday posts ready to go. But lately I've been feeling pressured (only by myself!) to post something every day or nearly every day and I think I'm going to take a step back this month and just relax about it.
ReplyDeleteIt's been awhile since I've read something just for me and not with the thought of "Ooh, I can post a review on my blog!" or "Oh, a publisher sent me this so I should review it". As a consequence, my adult reading has gone way down the tubes, which is a sad thing.
January was a busy bloggy month, so I'm going to try to make February more about recreational reading and less about MUST-BLOG-NOW...
(And I even have way less going on in my life than some people do - I do have a full-time job, but I'm not in school and I'm not married and don't have kids...)
Sometimes I worry about spending all my writing energy on the blog and not writing my books, to tell you the truth. That plus a full-time job. But my goal is to post every weekend, and it's worked out pretty well for this past year, my first as a children's book blogger. Sometimes I'm not in the mood, but once I start writing a post, my love of children's lit just sucks me in!
ReplyDeleteHonestly, that’s why I’m in the process of trying to come back from an insanely long break. 40 hour work week and 2 kids meant that my reading and blogging time was beyond compromised. I missed it like crazy and Sunday night when I sat down to write I ended up with 3 Monday night posts all ready to go because it felt so good to get it out! And I’ve been itching to write more since (if the babies will let me). Hopefully tonight …
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I do regularly on my blog is participate in the Sunday Salon. I've gotten more comments and responses from those posts than any other and I am a sucker for anything that brings in more comments!
ReplyDeleteAs far as scheduling posts, I am a recent convert to it. I used to feel like writing posts in advance was like cheating. As a long-time blogger, it is hard to shake the idea of a blog as a journal where I post what I feel THAT DAY. I am more likely to schedule posts on my book blog than on my personal blog, but I feel pretty good when I have a week's worth of posts ready to go.
When it comes to balance, I don't worry about it as much as used to. Before RSS readers became common, people had to visit each individual blog to check for updates. I worried that I was wasting readers' time if I didn't have something new every day. Now that readers can use something like Google Reader which will notify them when I post something new, I don't feel so bad. I can post at my leisure and people will get to it when they can.
Like you I have a full time job and family and other obligations that require me to be thoughtful about how/when I blog. I tend to do the bulk of my work over the weekend, I try to write several posts and schedule them to be posted over the course of the week. Then if something happens spontaneously that I want to write a quick post on I have the time and ability to do so.
ReplyDeleteI've also come to learn and accept that I don't have to have a blog post up every single day. I strive to achieve that goal as much as possible but fact of the matter is there is only so much time to do everything so if something has to fall by the wayside it's usually a post or two.