I can’t believe it has been one full year of doing this book blog! 😮 Where did the time go? It seems like I only just started this blog the other day.
One year may not seem like a huge deal, but you don’t understand my track record with blogs, ok? See… I am horrible- HORRIBLE– at keeping up with blogs or diaries or journals. I’ve had blogs for just about every hobby I have. There’s been the My Little Pony blog, 7seas Fishing blog, Second Life blog, many Animal Crossing journals, art journals and blogs, pop culture picture blog, a ton of personal every day life blogs and journals. Some of them lasted about 1 post. While some have gone on for a couple of weeks. Nothing really lasting more then a few months. My most active blog was probably my horror movie blog. It had maybe 10 posts? There has also been a lot of blogs I created and then never even did anything with them. I don’t even remember what kind of topic they were going to be. I’d get about as far as making a name or picking a template and then quit.
So, as you can see… I am not so good at being dedicated to the blogs I create. I have never been a very motivated person, for… pretty much anything. Except reading. I love reading and it’s never been a problem. Even though I have extra motivation to get through a book, I am still so shocked that I was able to carry that motivation over in to a blog!
I think part of my problem with keeping blogs or journals, is that, I just don’t feel like I’m a very good writer. I have always struggled with grammar and spelling, and vocabulary has never been a strong suit for me. Just putting my thoughts in to words has always been very difficult. I never know what to say or how to explain something. I often feel like I’m just stumbling around tripping over everything in the dark. It feel like whatever I write pretty much sucks, that it’s sloppy, or that it doesn’t seem professional enough or something. I look at other people’s writing and it just makes me feel embarrassed with what I put out. It just feels so inadequate. That gets in my head and makes me hesitant to put anything out there.
With this blog, I don’t care about all of that. So my reviews aren’t as professional as other book bloggers. I don’t care. I’m not out to get a ton of followers or likes or comments. I just wanted a simply place to keep all of my book reviews at. A place that was my own and reflects the things I like. Occasional non-review book topics here or there.
There is another reason why I started this blog and have kept it going strong. One year ago, I decided to take another big step forward in reading. For a few years now, I had been randomly winning Goodreads Giveaways advanced reader copies. I really enjoyed getting a book before it comes out, being able to read it, and then being able to give early reviews to the book. I love being able to spread the word about a good book before / when it came out. Those early reviews are pretty important. I know I have looked to them to give me an idea about a book I was thinking of pre-ordering on more then one occasion. I wanted to take this to the next level. I wanted to specifically offer my services to authors, publishers, and sites like Netgalley. I wanted to help give feedback and early reviews.
Before I began this blog, I researched how to go about getting ARCs in exchange for reviews. I didn’t really know where to start. Google is your friend. Just about everywhere I looked had one thing in common though. They all said you needed your own blog / site where all your reviews are on display so authors / publishers / ect. can easily see what you do and decide if you would be a good fit with what books they have. Not to mention to see how serious and dedicated you were to getting things read and reviewed.
So Creature From the Book Lagoon was born. 😀 I am rather proud of the blog name. It took me all day to come up with something epic and totally me that wasn’t super cliche. For a few weeks I worked hard on getting just the right look to my blog. Colors, logos, photos. After that was set up, I got to work on getting some posts on the blog. After a couple of months worth of blog reviews, I started applying for ARCs from places like Netgalley, Splatterpunk Beta, BookSirens, and joining street teams of authors I already like. On my blog I set up a contact form and a review list so authors can reach out to me if they wanted me to read and review their book. I’ve had lots of luck getting excepted to review things on review sites like Netgalley, and I’ve had a hand full of authors contact me either through my blog or other sites asking me to read their books. All of this is like a dream come true. 😀
I’ve helped spread the word about authors that are already established, which is amazing, but what I’ve really loved so far is helping out the independent authors. I love and appreciate all authors, and I read from big press to small press, but indie authors have always held a very special place in my heart. ❤ Helping, encouraging, and supporting them is something I am very passionate about.
From June 25, 2018 to now, I can’t believe all the work that has been accomplished! 😮 I’m very proud of what I’ve done so far and I can’t wait to see where this blog goes in the next year.
Creature From The Book Lagoon 