OK, so I’ve been posting book reviews on here for a while now, and some people do read them, like them and even post comments. But I don’t have many views per review, not many at all, and not more as time goes on, and I’m getting the feeling that people aren’t really interested.
So, I ask myself, is it worth typing these reviews up on this blog any more, or should I just keep my paper journal?
Can you help me decide?
How do you read this blog?
Do you all read it on Google Reader or another RSS feed, not clicking through to this site (so not being captured in my statistics)? So do I have more readers than I think? I know I have 85 followers on WordPress and emails, and again, I don’t know if you just read it on your feed or an email that gets sent to you, whether that comes through to my stats. So, is that what you do?
Is it too confusing?
It’s been pointed out that the blog url and title don’t reflect the idea of book reviews. This is a repository for musings on being a full-time self-employed person (obviously, past the first year, these have diminished, but there will be more when I publish my book on the subject), stuff on my research project, and book reviews. It’s made pretty clear on my About Me page, but should I change the title (I can’t change the URL). Will this put people off? Do you read this blog (if you do) in spite of or because of the range of subjects?
Are my reviews just not good enough?
I appreciate that my reviews aren’t very long and detailed. I don’t think that’s going to change – I don’t have time to write massive long reviews. I hope I give a flavour of what the book is about, maybe introduce you to some new ideas for reading, etc.
Please do respond!
It would be so helpful to know what people think. I’m not going to waste my time putting out stuff that no one cares about – or yours having to skim over something in your facebook or twitter feed or RSS reader. So please, be honest. If there’s something I can mend quickly and easily that doesn’t involve a) starting another new blog b) spending significantly more time on this one, I’m all ears. If you think it’s boring and you just don’t care, that’s fine! If I get no comments, I’ll know why! Oh – and I do know that blogs grow, audiences grow, etc., etc. I also know that while the audience and hits on my other blog have grown and grown, this one has pretty well stayed the same since I started it.
Thank you for reading!
Liz
Adventures in reading, running and working from home 
Feb 10, 2013 @ 17:08:21
I usually skim through the book reviews and read in detail anything that catches my eye, but as I can do this within Google Reader I probably don’t come up on your statistics. I subscribed to your blog as I was interested in your comments on self-employed life and editing/proofreading (I am also a freelance editor/proofreader) so any of the other things such as the book reviews are a bit more peripheral for me.
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Feb 10, 2013 @ 17:11:18
Thanks for your comment, Karin – it’s good to know some people do read it on Google reader. Just to say there will be more on the self-employed stuff when I get the book edited (ha!) and also you might find the blog at http://www.libroediting.com interesting for that stuff too if you don’t already subscribe.
I will also be reviewing some more reference materials I have bought for the job if I continue with the book blog … do you think those would be interesting?
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Feb 10, 2013 @ 17:13:58
I always read them Liz, and try to respond too. I usually read via wordpress. Of course your reviews are good enough : ) I wouldn’t worry about stats – if you like doing them – and people are reading them then that’s good isn’t it? Stats only tell you so much.
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Feb 10, 2013 @ 17:19:02
Thank you, Ali – and I know you read and press the Like button. I know my reviews aren’t as detailed and popular as yours … and it feels like there’s little point to them sometimes! And I don’t know that people ARE reading them – 4 people per post?
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Feb 10, 2013 @ 17:28:08
But that’s just one day. And anyway even if it were total views ever – if you like writing them and there are people reading them – then carry on I say 🙂
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Feb 10, 2013 @ 17:34:31
I read in google reader a lot of the time as well. I use my netbook for everything when I am not at my desk. I like the reviews. I value your opinion, although it was the idea of you sharing your overall experience with self-employment that first caught my eye. If the reviews are something you like to do and don’t feel more like a responsibility that enjoyment…carry on!
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Feb 10, 2013 @ 17:44:01
Thank you for taking the time to comment and I appreciate the info on how you read the blog (and why you originally came to it). There should be more self-employment stuff on here soon when I get the book more sorted out!
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Feb 10, 2013 @ 18:06:45
I don’t have this in my google reader (but word press told me I’d be joining 1,765 others if I did follow this blog!) because you share the posts on Facebook. I must admit that book reviews in general don’t interest me (so I don’t follow Ali’s either). It’s nothing to do with the quality of your reviews: it’s more that I’m quite independent /idiosyncratic in what I read and don’t tend to seek out other people’s opinions beforehand.
When I’m reading other blogs in google reader, I tend only to click over if I wish to make a comment or if the entry is cropped on reader and I’m interested enough to read more.
Be that as it may, I agree with Ali that the important thing is to do what makes you happy. If blogging your reviews is part of your book organisation/records, then it doesn’t matter how many people read them. And, who knows? Perhaps one day someone will search for a book title and be glad to find your review to inform their own reading.
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Feb 10, 2013 @ 18:11:13
Thanks for your comment, Linda – I appreciate what you say. Yes, I do get the odd search for a book, including, importantly, I think, ones by authors I know personally and would love to help get more readers, so I think that makes it worthwhile …
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Feb 10, 2013 @ 18:10:06
Liz, I follow in googlereader as well. I never really thought about whether that would mean I didn’t show up as a follower or not. I enjoy your reviews – I don’t think reviews need to be long to be good. I get a flavour of the book from them and I like seeing what other people are reading 🙂
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Feb 10, 2013 @ 18:11:40
Thanks, Heather – that’s good to know! I appreciate you popping over to comment, too!
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Feb 10, 2013 @ 18:10:23
Ps I thought this post was going to be about the other discussion about the experience of being edited! It’s hard to get responses there that are fully honest because the British instinct is to be polite in such situations. I hoped S would give an account of how horrified he had been at certain points in the process but he did end up praising me more than I expected.
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Feb 10, 2013 @ 18:13:04
Ah – that one will be on the other blog and will be called On Being Edited. I suspect I will publish it on Wednesday. Yes, indeed – I wanted the feelings there so will prune what I use a little!
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Feb 10, 2013 @ 18:12:12
I subscribe to your blog through WordPress, so all of your posts get emailed to me. I usually just read the email, so wouldn’t come up in your stats unless I clicked through to like your post or comment. I like to read your book review posts, I have put a few books in my “to read” list thanks to your reviews 🙂
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Feb 10, 2013 @ 18:14:08
Thanks so much for your comment and I’m glad I have found you more things to read. I’ve been trying to comment on people’s blogs more myself but find it hard to do that click through thing myself!
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Feb 10, 2013 @ 18:54:29
I get notifications by email and then ignore them (great), but I tend to read your reviews as a direct result of your putting them on Facebook and I then click on the link that way. I’m not nearly as adventurous in my reading as I should be, and tend to read only your reviews of books that interest me, rather than all of them. Sorry. I tend to agree with others who say, ‘go ahead and blog about the books – don’t worry about how many people read them’. If your livelihood depended on how many views you got, that would be different, of course. Enjoy!
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Feb 10, 2013 @ 19:22:23
Thanks for your comment, Pauline. I can see now that more people than I thought do read them – when I thought it was only a handful it didn’t seem hugely worthwhile to be honest!
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Feb 10, 2013 @ 19:20:22
I just stumbled onto your blog via WordPress. I consider myself and avid reader so your reviews will be helpful when looking for a new book to read. .
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Feb 10, 2013 @ 19:21:50
Thank you for your comment and glad you stumbled upon me. Do pop a comment on if you find any reviews particularly useful – it makes me feel my efforts are worthwhile!
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Feb 10, 2013 @ 21:08:58
I too subscribe to the emails so may not come through on the stats, only when I want to comment. i think I would love it if there is just one review at a time as I’d be sure to read it more thoroughly then. I read pretty much very day so always looking for suggestions. I agree with heavenali too so if you enjoy it, please do keep on. I review each book I read too but I it’s a bit of a reminder to myself as to what I’ve read. Especially when I then recommend it to others and have forgotten what it was!
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Feb 11, 2013 @ 09:27:20
Thanks for your reply, Rickie, and for confirming that you read the emails, too. I’m not sure if I would want to do one post per book – would people not get fed up of the constant alerts to new posts? Also some of the reviews are really short. But I’ll give that some thought.
I will always keep a paper journal, and I’m still in the process of indexing that on Excel …
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Feb 11, 2013 @ 06:05:32
I subscribe to the emails and usually look at all the blog posts that I receive, at least briefly. I must confess I don’t read the book reviews very thoroughly because I feel like I never have time to read any more for pleasure. But I’m glad you can!
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Feb 11, 2013 @ 09:27:57
Thanks for your comment, Tammy. I realised I wasn’t getting enough reading time and have made a concerted effort to build it into my day now, as it was stressing me out!
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Feb 11, 2013 @ 19:10:35
I’m sure you know that I read your posts as they come through as inward emails. Perhaps you were getting less comments than you expected over January anyway because you were doing re-reads and perhaps readers, like me, had skimmed the reviews because the books were older books that we read ages ago.
I’ve never pressed the ‘like’ button because I thought that was something to do with Facebook; and I’m not there and didn’t want to accidentally get trapped there. Feel free to call me a dinosaur if you like.
To pick up on one of the earlier comments here I don’t think it would be better to make separate emails for each review or one’s inbox would become cluttered. i like the way you do it now. Many of the books you review are not necessarily my style of reading even though my range of genre was widened considerably since I’ve been taking part in Bookcrossing’s 666 Challenge. That has been a great experience for me and I’m doing it again this year and valuing the change of genre although crime will always by my favourite.
What has happened to Iris Murdoch?
Do please make time for your own reading – isn’t that what we are all about? Please keep on keeping on though.
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Feb 12, 2013 @ 09:44:20
Thanks for your comments, Jan. Yes, I know you’re a faithful reader – thank you! I hadn’t thought about the re-reads eliciting fewer comments – actually I usually get none, so I got more feedback than usual on the project as a whole! The Like button is, I think, for WordPress users. But if you click through the link on your email and/or comment then you register in my stats and I can see it’s been read, if you see what I mean.
As for the Iris Murdoch project, I’m in the rather slow stage of putting together all the responses to the questionnaires into a big spreadsheet and pondering it – so not much to report at present but bubbling along underground!
And yes, I’m enjoying making more time for my own reading!
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Feb 13, 2013 @ 16:57:03
Personally i bookmarked you with all my other favourite blogs and open about 40 tabs all together and explore your blog that way,
One thing that did confuse me to start off with is your reuse of photos, I sometimes go by photos as opposed to blog titles and so I was left for a while thinking you hadn’t posted when you had.
That’s not a major problem now I know to be more watchful. Other than that, great blog and I shall pop by again soon.
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Feb 13, 2013 @ 17:07:04
Thanks for your comment. I use the same picture of my TBR each month when I’m reading books from it (so they change subtly month by month) but that’s an interesting point. I theme the pictures on my other blog to indicate the different series of posts I do there (troublesome pairs, small business interviews, etc.) so thought that would work for this one too. Thanks for your interest in my blog and your comments!
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Feb 16, 2013 @ 10:56:24
I subscribe via email as I also have a WordPress blog, which makes it very easy to click the ‘Follow’ button at the top. At the moment I’m afraid I don’t have much time to read each post, as I get so many emails and am very busy with work, volunteering and trying to find a wedding venue! So sorry that I don’t comment very much, it’s a time thing really.
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Feb 16, 2013 @ 11:52:46
Thanks for your comment, Emily; it’s been lovely to find out how many people enjoy reading my posts on email and blog aggregators. Best of luck for finding a lovely wedding venue, and hooray for volunteering!
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Feb 16, 2013 @ 17:17:41
Thanks Liz 🙂
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