How to be a Book Blogger
- Lin Ryals
- Sep 6, 2016
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 5, 2019
I have been asked this many times... how do you become a book blogger? Well, it's really very easy. I am hoping this post will help take out some of the mystery and help you get some free books to feed your addiction to books.
1) First thing you need to do is start a blog. You can do this for free at many places like Blogger, WordPress, Wix...etc. You'll want to set it up the way you want it. Make sure you have a page authors can go to so they can read your review policy. What types of books do you review? Don't just put anything because you will literally get anything - even text books. I'm not saying it's bad if you like to read textbooks, but I was in college full time when I started, so I felt I was reading enough text books. You'll also want to make sure there is a way for authors to contact you.
2) Gain a social media following. This sounds like a minor detail, but authors prefer sending one of their limited numbers of review copies to someone who will be able to market to more than the three people who happen to stumble on their blog that month. You need a following. Make sure you have accounts set up on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Pinterest, Instagram or whatever else you want to use. Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads are the big ones for book bloggers though.
3) Start posting. Even if you don't have any free copies of books from authors or publishers yet, start posting reviews to books you've read for fun. Check out other book review sites - most bloggers review a little differently, but you can see what you like or don't like. Make it consistent. For example, I post every Tuesday and Friday. Occasionally, I do something different if I'm participating in an event for someone -- like a trailer reveal or a blog tour or something -- but I normally post on the same days every week. I normally have them written up and scheduled for a month in advance so if life gets crazy, it still happens.
4) Once you have gotten the hang of it and established a little bit of a following, apply for free books from different companies. Here are some places you can apply.
MP Newsroom (Mostly Christian non-fiction books, I prefer fiction, so I don't use this one too often.)
Put your name on the Indie Reviewer List. This means indie authors can find you.
Put your name on another list called The Book Blogger List.
5) One of the best ways to build a following is to join a Book Giveaway Blog Hop. Just google "Book Giveaway Blog Hop" and you'll get quite few results.
Hopefully, this will help get you started. I love being a book reviewer. I get to connect with lots of authors and many of them are willing to guest post or do interviews for your blog. Definitely worth it! Have fun with it! If it ever feels like a job then back off, go grab that book you've been looking at in your local book store, read it and review it. You can do that for a while if you need a break. That way your blog still gets posts, but it won't feel like work. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below. :D
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