On Blogger Recognition and #BookBloggingPaidMe | Discussion

This one is a doozy, folks

I want to preface this by saying: I love book blogging. I love being a blogger. I really, truly do. I started doing this for fun, and I never imagined I would ever be paid for it. It’s something I do for myself, and for the small following of people who are kind enough to read my words.

That being said, in my time in the book community (roughly 4-5 years) I’ve noticed a big disparity in the amount of recognition that bloggers get vs. other creators in the community, especially booktube.

Appreciating Book Bloggers

I was really hesitant to broach this topic, because my goal is in no way to try and pit different media creators against each other. I love watching booktube — in fact, I was watching it before I even really knew that book blogging was a thing. I still spend a lot of my free time catching up with my favorite content creators.

That being said, I know a lot more about book blogging now than I did then. I know and see firsthand just how much of the groundwork that bloggers do in letting the community know about upcoming releases, debut authors, book deals etc. etc. Between blog tours and cover releases, book bloggers do a lot of free press for a lot of authors in this community.

And I think I speak for a lot of us when I say we’re under-appreciated.

People are so much more likely to retweet and boost a new YouTube video than a blog post. And in some ways, I get it — it’s a lot easier to sit and watch a video than it may be to read a 500-word post. Even I feel guilty sometimes for promoting my own work — I feel like the self-promo is annoying, and that most of the people following me don’t care.

But the fact of the matter is that bloggers work just as hard as booktubers. Writing, creating graphics, editing, revising, advertising our work… it’s a lot. I love it, but I also love to feel like the work I do is important.

Money in Book Blogging

Or rather… the lack thereof.

This post was in part inspired by Cielo @ Bellerose Reads’ creation of the hashtag #BookBloggingPaidMe on Twitter, an off-shoot of recent book twitter discussions of #PublishingPaidMe. Using the hashtag, loads of bloggers on Twitter got real about how much they make crafting their corners of the Internet. I definitely encourage you to check it out and read personal testimonials from many, many members of this community.

It was already pretty obvious that bloggers don’t get paid much, but this discussion made it even more apparent that the vast majority of us get paid nothing. I know I’ve never been offered any monetary compensation. While, unfortunately, bookstagrammers and booktubers are often offered at least something from publishers (although even for bookstagrammers, this is rare until you amass a large following, and even then, it’s only the occasional sponsorship). This plight is even worse for international creators.

I’ve been offered e-ARCs and physical ARCs to read and promote, some of which I’ve accepted, some of which I’ve declined (some of which were offered in unprofessional settings, despite my Contact page that clearly outlines how to reach me for a review request — but that’s a whole other discussion topic), and that’s as far as it goes.

Even bloggers that I consider to be “big” aren’t being paid for their work. I won’t lie, as someone who has been at this on-and-off for years, it’s disheartening to see. Even for booktubers, the majority of what they make just comes from YouTube monetization.

The point of this post is not to demand that bloggers be paid hundreds of dollars per post, or to constantly get sponsored by companies. The point of this post is to simply be transparent, highlight the differences between these mediums and ask ourselves whether they should change. And to take a hard look at the amount of appreciation and recognition that is given to the everyday people that work for publishers for absolutely free. That’s what we do, essentially: free advertising.

What can you do?

It’s simple: show book bloggers the same support and hype that you do to other bookish creators.

I often see and read discussions and topics on WordPress that are just as nuanced and insightful as those on booktube — sometimes even more so, considering a lot of marginalized creators flock to blogs because they are more accessible than creating videos, which can oftentimes get expensive.

Give your blogger friends the same energy you give to your booktube ones. Read their posts. Boost their tweets. Demonstrate that you believe their voices matter, because they do. In my years on here, I’ve seen way too many bloggers leave because they feel unappreciated by this community. Let’s change that.

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I’m really hoping that this post made some semblance of sense. It’s mostly just a whole collection of feelings that I’ve been experiencing this weekend. I think a lot of discussion still needs to be had about it.

What do you think about this issue? Do you think that book bloggers should be compensated more for their work? If you’re a blogger, and comfortable sharing, have you made any money from the work that you do? Do you feel that bloggers aren’t given the same sort of support that other creators are given? Tell me in the comments! 🙂

Stay bookish,

Jordyn

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