I adore the blogging community. I really do. But I do think that there can be more.
We do talk about things, but I feel like certain bookish or non-bookish topics need to be covered more.
1) We're all flawed
Admit it. You're not the same person in real life than who you are when you are blogging. I know I'm now. I'm not afraid to admit it. In real life, I'm crazy and sometimes funny and weird and maybe smart. Online, I'm sassy and smirky and quick to a joke. I'm not that in real life. I want to show that we're all flawed. To new bloggers or bloggers without a lot of readers, it might seem like the 'bigger' blogs are these perfect people. When they're human like the rest of us.
2) ARCs are attainable by everyone
ARCs are attainable by everyone. I found this out not so recently. But it seems odd to some. Especially new bloggers. They want the big views and big numbers to get the ARCs, to get the attention. Sure, that does make it better for people to see you, but don't forget that ARCs are marketing tools to get the hype up.
Jillian really sums this up on her post about why she stopped caring about ARCs. I love ARCs like the next blogger but still. The people behind the books are important too.
3) Mental health, sexuality, gender orientation, etc
This is actually a great little graphic for your sexuality/gender needs. Helped me figure out a lot of LGBT+ stuff.
I feel like there are so many books about this. But bloggers don't really share their stories. Maybe their mom had PTSD. Maybe their sister is gay. I dunno. I want to hear stories like this to make me feel not alone. I'm the weird one, remember? Especially with people who like books and blogging and, maybe even, anime. I want to relate.
4) We're all in the same boat
We all want the books. We all want to review. We all fangirl/fanboy/fanwarrior/fan-whatever. We're all bloggers. So why do we act like someone's better? We're all totally awesome people who are totally awesome at what we do. So don't hurt someone who you think is better than you. Learn from there. There is no shame in asking.
And if you need help, I'm always here.
These are such important things and I definitely think we need to talk about these sort of things more often! I think diversity in books has increased so much lately and that's sparking more chatter about subjects that were previously avoided and I'm loving it!
ReplyDeleteThis is such an incredible post Wren, and I completely agree with everything you've said here. Diversity in literature is so, so important because it helps us be more acceptive of people in real life. I feel like YA has been getting better at including diverse characters in their books, which makes me really happy to see. And I agree about the whole "we're all in the same boat" concept. We're all doing this because we love books and we love to read, so we should focus on trying to reach out and communicate with other bloggers instead of continually comparing ourselves to others. Thanks for sharing this and, as always, fabulous post! ♥
ReplyDelete~ Zoe @ Stories on Stage