I’ve been burying my head in the sand, going with the flow and hoping something will change. Are you wondering what has happened to those blogs you love? We are dying a slow painful death.
Seven years ago, I decided I wanted to share my love of reading with everyone and the best way was to shout it out on social media. This blog page was just an extension, Facebook was the mainstream.
I fought and posted, did giveaways and watched my numbers climb. It was wonderful to see how many people cared what I thought about a book and my first milestone was reaching 10,000 likes and I was so close. But it’s not about the likes anymore, no now were scratching and fighting to be seen.
Three years back the bottom fell out and everything began to swirl right down the toilet. You’ve heard it before but let me reiterate; book bloggers make no money. We used to and some of the bigger bloggers might garner income from advertisers but little blogs do what they do because they love BOOKS!
The death of the small blog started with Amazon cutting out affiliate percentage. Yes we all hated the bait click but the small monies we made from using our own links funded giveaways. Free books, gift cards, Kindles…those were all purchased with the tiny amount we accumulated from buying a book from one of our links.
Next we began getting our knuckles slapped Catholic Nun style by social media for using our links and asking for followers via giveaways. On top of this those followers I coveted started disappearing. I lost over 1500 in a year. So I followed the trend and started a group because we were told it’s the way to continue doing what we love and sharing books with you. Now we can’t use certain words or emotions and the hours we put in to posts is useless because unless we pay for advertising nothing shows in your feed.
How do you pay for something when you don’t make money? Why should we spend hours a day creating images and typing witty prose when it never finds your eyes?
We were told to use Instagram, it was the place to be yet it too is owned by Facebook and unless you have 1000 followers you can’t add links plus figuring out what hashtags to use gives me a headache.
Almost three years back I decided to take a leap and slip on my Author hat. I published my first book as Author Billie Dale and discovered how hard it is to get on a bloggers radar. At the time, being discovered by a blog with 50K was the bomb but impossible. Now I’m preparing to release my 10th book and I’m still clawing at the wall of discovery only now the wall is higher and harder.
As a blogger I’ve limited my signing up for tours opting to buy the books I want because I feel bad taking an advanced read when I can’t give it the publicity it needs. I’m broken hearted over the slowing pulse of my Witchy Richey page. I used to wake up every morning and spend hours searching for new reads to share with you. Calendars and tours, images and links it was glorious especially when you liked and commented. Now I sit and think “why waste my time”.
I’m still reading tons of books because I love it. I still want to share great reads with you. There’s nothing better than talking about a story I devoured with my tribe. Thanks to regulations I’ve become that kid in the corner eating paste no one wants to associate with.
So here’s a look behind the curtain. WE ARE DEFEATED. As an author, as a blogger, as a reader…we’re hanging from the noose gasping for breath. If you’re wondering what’s happened to those bloggers you love so much go, search them out, like some posts but don’t use the mad face or the thumbs down because then it might be labeled as controversial and will be removed. AHHHHH! *bangs head on keyboard*
What is the point of this post? Well I’m pissed off. I can’t share links on my personal page, I can’t like too many post or share too many comments. Don’t share a racy image or bam you’re shut down and put in jail. Thinking of publishing a book? Well that’s a whole new set of heartbreak and glory wrapped in an impossible package. But damn it , I LOVE IT and all of you!
Try a new author, take a leap. Show some love to your favorite authors and bloggers, we’re here for you. I’m not going anywhere because I refuse to give up but to share in my love you might have to do a little work to find me.
Witchy Richey's Booktastic Reviews Book Blog 