Julia Confesses...
1. Reviewing ARCs makes me anxious – Review books are awesome. Free books and early releases? So much fun in theory, but when I start to see lots of requests or books start to pile up, it starts to make me anxious about reading them all and getting a review for them. I’ve dealt with it by scaling back on the requests and not feeling guilty if I have to turn some down. It’s awesome and fun to be able to review things early, but with great power comes great responsibility ;)2. Our Bookish Deals posts are the hardest thing ever to do – Searching for bargains is fun, but sometimes it’s hard to find good books to highlight. Then once I have four I like, having to gather all the required information takes so long! That’s why they are every other week (or this summer once a month so far). But I do it for you guys! So hopefully you can save a few pennies while reading awesome books.
3. I always want to comment more on my posts... but end up not. I do go back and read comments to my post, and I've gotten better at commenting, but I still think I could do better at this. I love talking to you guys and getting you all involved with whats going on in my reviews. I want to do this more... and better :)
4. I have always wanted to do a vlog but have no idea how it would be interesting at all. Seriously I think it would be so cool to do videos, but books don't lend themselves to a youtube style format in my opinion. Here is a cool movie clip... but nope just kidding its a book. So you get to see my face. I really want to try this one day, but I confess, I haven't because it seems really hard to make entertaining.
Jamie Confesses...
5. There are some days where I seriously despise writing reviews. I just want my brain to spit out all the things I think about the book and then for the review to write itself. I also feel really inadequate when writing them and also I seriously sit there and wonder if anyone reads them anymore.
6. My Netgalley ratio is EMBARRASSING! No seriously, I bet mine is worse than you. I told a friend what it was the other day and they LAUGHED SO HARD and said WOWWW. I forget about the things on my Kindle to be honest. And a lot of my bad ratio is due to me not being able to restrain myself when I first got on Netgalley. PUNISHED FOR OLD MISTAKES. Now I'm better at limiting myself on Netgalley but I'm still trying to fix my ratio because of what I did before.
7. I cut down the list of book blogs I read regularly & I feel guilty: I still will stop by other blogs that maybe aren't IN my Feedly reader via social media and such but I had to significantly cut my list down because I honestly got too overwhelmed with trying to keep up and found myself not WANTING to read that many book blogs. I need balance in my reader. I have so many other interests and the book blogging section was just OVERFLOWING. I feel mega guilt but I have to chose what makes me happiest not do something because of guilt.
8. Sometimes I feel like blogging dictates what I read: Blogging has been really good for me because it opened me up to things I would have NEVER picked up before. But now I feel like I've started reading heavily the same things because I get them for review and just try to fit in OTHER kinds of reads when I can. I don't like that and I'm working to change it. I'm happy with what I'm reading but I want to have balance.
9. More often than I'd like to admit, I write my posts the night before and forget to REALLY proofread (like I do a quick once over for glaring things) and then will find mistakes and quickly try to fix them hoping nobody saw (but I know people did): Seriously. I need to stop being so lazy and just proofread it real good. But I am so TIRED when I'm doing a post at night.
10. I feel overwhelmed by the amount of books I've bought and what I get for review since I started blogging 4 years ago: Seriously, I find myself really anxious over it. I want them but I'm like this is just NOT GOOD to have so many books I'm not going to be able to get to. SHELF ANXIETY. It's real.
8. Sometimes I feel like blogging dictates what I read: Blogging has been really good for me because it opened me up to things I would have NEVER picked up before. But now I feel like I've started reading heavily the same things because I get them for review and just try to fit in OTHER kinds of reads when I can. I don't like that and I'm working to change it. I'm happy with what I'm reading but I want to have balance.
9. More often than I'd like to admit, I write my posts the night before and forget to REALLY proofread (like I do a quick once over for glaring things) and then will find mistakes and quickly try to fix them hoping nobody saw (but I know people did): Seriously. I need to stop being so lazy and just proofread it real good. But I am so TIRED when I'm doing a post at night.
10. I feel overwhelmed by the amount of books I've bought and what I get for review since I started blogging 4 years ago: Seriously, I find myself really anxious over it. I want them but I'm like this is just NOT GOOD to have so many books I'm not going to be able to get to. SHELF ANXIETY. It's real.
So many of these ring true to me as well. I've always wanted to vlog, and actually made a few youtube videos during nanowrimo last year. But they are all so embarrassing!
ReplyDeleteI feel a lot of anxiety and guilt about ARCs too, even though I turn down 90% or more of the requests I get. Some things are universal, eh?
ReplyDeleteI totally understand what you're saying about blogging dictating what you read and racing through blog posts. There doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to get it all done. The funny thing is that I haven't taken new books for review for two years now and the requests still keep coming.
ReplyDeleteShelf anxiety! That is a great way to put it. I have that too, definitely. And yet I can't stop accumulating more books...
ReplyDeleteAlso, Netgalley ratio comparison time -- my lowest was 40%, but I've dragged it back up to 50% now.
As an author, I have to say that I have never assumed that sending a free ARC means a commitment on the part of the reviewer to read and review. I wouldn't want to be part of a system that turns one of the greatest joys in life--reading--into drudgery and pressure. I've seen several articles on this subject recently. Here is a summary of several: http://dearauthor.com/features/letters-of-opinion/c-arc-stand-contract/
ReplyDeleteI was just about to link that too! I thought it was funny that this was posted the same day I wrote about feeling guilty about ARCs. It's a great article and comments are wonderful.
DeleteI think this is my favorite Top Ten Tuesday ever. It makes me feel better :)
ReplyDeleteI can relate to so many of those! The anxiety over reviewing, the horrible NetGalley ration (seriously, you don't want to know mine. I'm working on it), the shelf anxiety, how much time it takes to do certain posts (my News & Notes feature sometimes eats up half a day.) I think all of us have anxieties and issues around blogging - and more than a few of us are still trying to overcome a NetGalley addiction. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI need to cut down on the number of blogs I follow too, but feel too guilty. I mean, I followed them in the first place for a reason so how would I decide who to cut and who to keep? But now I'm feeling guilty because my Bloglovin feed is overflowing and I can't keep up. It's a lose-lose situation!
ReplyDeleteTerri @ Alexia's Books and Such...
I understand about the ARC reviews. I recently went crazy on netgally and now I feel bad if I don't lime the book. I jst hate bad reviews in general though. I also suffer from book anxiety due to the massive amount of books that are currently unread. But I need more books so the vicious cycle continues.
ReplyDeleteI'm embarassed to admit it but I rarely thoroughly proofread my posts. I do so more for discussions since I want those to be high quality, but I know that fewer people read reviews, so it's just hard to put so much time into posts that aren't read as much :-/
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you put #7 on your list! I thought I was the only one who had done this and can't stop feeling guilty about it. Glad I'm not alone in my suffering :)
ReplyDeleteVlogging is SCARY. But if you are interested in doing it, I would say just go for it :) I did too, haha. All the other things aren't for me. I don't feel anxious about review books, I don't despise writing reviews and I follow a loooot of blogs without feeling overwhelmed. Thanks for sharing :D
ReplyDeleteMel@thedailyprophecy
Yeah I have some ideas. I guess it's just taking that risk :)
DeleteI love your NetGalley confession! I just got an email from them telling me to "update my profile so publishers will be more likely to approve me" because I had not provided feedback on a single book I got! I had been reviewing some on my blog, but just never got around to filling out the feedback section on NetGalley. Oops.
ReplyDeleteblogging is fun by it can easily overwhelm. I try to maintain a guilt free blogging (and reading) policy. It's just for fun anyway. kelley—the road goes ever ever on
ReplyDelete#8 was a biggie for me, so I decided to totally get away from what I had been doing and a couple of weeks ago I deleted my TBR list, my goodreads account and I've totally revamped my reading/review system :) Love what I'm doing now!
ReplyDeleteShelf anxiety is SO real, except it is usually the weighty collection of nonfiction books on my shelf staring sternly at me and wondering when I will get around to that 600-page dissection of the Thirty Years' War.
ReplyDeleteLoved the blogging confession concept -- it was so fun to write about! Thanks for sharing your confession & the wonderful post idea :-)
My Netgalley ratio is TERRIBLE, it's probably worse than yours! I have so many books I randomly requested when I first joined and I really regret requesting them all.
ReplyDeleteI also sometimes feel anxious when I get more review copies as I already have so many to read!
Kyra @ Blog of a Bookaholic
My TTT Post!
+JMJ+
ReplyDeleteMay I make an eleventh confession now? I've been visiting a lot of the blogs on the linky, but when one of the confessions is that they're bad at responding to comments, I leave without commenting! LOL!
Lol even the people who said they were trying and responded to the comments on that post? *bats eyes* as someone who put that on mine I am trying harder bc it is important to me
Delete+JMJ+
DeleteBut wouldn't my leaving a comment just make it harder for you guys and stress you out some more? ;-)
It also depends on the blogger's voice. I join these memes to try to make new friends, so if he or she sounds really cool, I make an effort despite the risk of being ignored! LOL!
Haha! You touch on something though that I debated a long time before I wrote that one is that I wanted to be honest but I didn't want it to come off like its a burden when I get a comment. I love conversation and seriously value every comment I get but sometimes life really does get in the way when I don't want it to. I don't want anyone to ever think I just want their comment and don't value what they say. It's a hard thing to balance for me and I genuinely want to hear what my readers think and want them to know their comment is valued but sometimes, just because of life and balancing this and a zillion things, it DOES getting overwhelming to do all the things!
Delete+JMJ+
DeleteWell, thank you for taking the time to respond to all of mine! I don't want to add even more to your burden (LOL!), so no pressure to reply to this last one, okay? ;-) Seeing how many bloggers are confessing this, when it has never been a problem for me, makes me think that I should stop wishing for more new readers/commenters. Perhaps I have the ideal number that I can handle and am in a happier place than I know! =)
Jamie I hear you! I finally had to go through my NG account, and let the publishers know (if it had been so long) that I was not planning to review the book. That helped, and now I try to be more careful!
ReplyDeleteI got stressed about review and tour books too, so I rarely take them any more and just read what I want. Life is easier for me that way! :)
ReplyDelete