I just spent some wonderful time away on vacation. It was fantastic and very rejuvenating. I had a great time with my family and loved getting to visit my brother and his wife and kids. I mostly stayed off the Internet. It was enlightening. I learned that I am totally okay if I don't check Facebook or my email every day. I didn't miss anything critical (though I'm glad I checked it when I did because I'd have missed out on a really awesome giveaway win!) and I lived through my web break.
What I decided is that I need to take a step back from this blog. It has become kind of a monster lately and I've felt increasingly pressured to post every single day (or more). Is anyone else pressuring me? NO. I'd like to make it absolutely clear that I was imposing this pressure on myself; feeling like I had to do this blog the way some others run their blogs. Was it working for me? Clearly not, or I wouldn't have been feeling the burnout.
Just so I'm clear: there was not one single person (other than ME) who stepped in and told me how to run my blog or put pressure on me to do it a certain way.
I realized that it's okay if I don't post every day. The world will still turn and people will still show up to read the posts that I make. I realized that I'm not likely to ever be a target for the blogosphere drama, because I really have nothing drama-worthy ever going on. I realized that if I took more care with making sure that I cite my sources (which I've done all along, but will definitely be MORE careful), I won't be the target of a lawsuit for copyright infringement. I realized that this is my blog and I don't have to listen to anyone else on how they'd run it (which means I'm not going to pay any attention to the posts about things that bug everyone else - if it bugs me, it won't show up on my blog, but this is my place and I'll decide what goes on here).
These are things that have worried me and made me feel like the book blogging world wasn't a very friendly place to be anymore. I wanted to get out completely, but a very good friend (I'm looking at you, Molli!) wondered if maybe I could take a little break or post less frequently. She's a smart girl, that Molli.
I've been overwhelmed with the support that I've received from my amazing blogger friends. I was starting to think that maybe there wasn't any support out there anymore and it was just descending into a meanie free-for-all. I don't mind admitting that I was proven wrong and how! Book bloggers are some of the most amazing people out there.
I took a good, long look at why I do this and came up with some things that I decided were worth sticking around for.
- Association with some of the most awesome people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting
- Becoming friends with authors I've greatly admired from afar for so long
- Being introduced to new books that I may not have known about otherwise
- Being able to have a platform for talking about books - my true passion in life
- The satisfaction of recommending a book & having someone love it as much as I did
- Having my genre horizons broadened
- Being able to gush about fictional characters without looking like a complete nutter
- Connections that I've made in the publishing industry - people I can turn to for advice in my own writing
- Not gonna lie...I love getting advance copies of books (but for the record, if I never got another advance or free book, I would still talk about books & still want to share them with people)
I'm just going to do less frequent posts, fewer memes, and not accept any unsolicited review copies right now. I'm a little behind on review books anyway, so to keep taking them would be unwise of me. I'll still do at least three posts per week, continue with Special for Sundays, and do the odd meme now and then. Those are things I feel good about continuing. I'll still visit other blogs and try to comment more.
I am confident that making these changes will help me overcome the burnout that I've been feeling and keep me going strong with my blog.
Thank you all so much for being supportive of me when I nearly packed it in and for encouraging me to do what I felt was best for me. That means a lot and I hope that I can someday return the favor!
