Guest Post: Reflections on How Blogging Changed My Life

So I was recently visiting the wonderful book blog called Parajunkee's View-- basically the epitome of book-blogging epicness-- and saw that she had recently published her 10,000th blog post. Now, I think we can all agree, that is quite a milestone! To commemorate this achievement, Rachel, AKA Parajunkee, spent some time reminiscing on how blogging had changed her life. Well, I thought this was an awesome idea, because I know that for me personally, blogging has become a major part of my own life and what I do now. I think it is a great idea to reflect on our achievements as book bloggers, so I hope that what I have to say here inspires you to look at what you have accomplished as well. Because you know what? Whether you have 50 followers or 5,000 followers-- if you are a book blogger who loves to read, review, and share your passion for books with other people-- you have something to be proud of!!

OK, so I'm going to tell you a little of my story as the blogger behind LC's Adventures in Libraryland. I started my blog back on March 23 of this year. Up until then, I barely knew what blogging was and I didn't even have a Twitter account. My first book review was for Fallen by Lauren Kate (Which looking back, I now think I gave a fairly generous review of haha). After about one week of blogging, a wonderful blogger named Deborah from Deborah's Books, told me she loved my blog and was giving me an award! I couldn't even believe it-- I thought, hey, somebody is actually reading and LIKING what I'm writing and how I'm presenting my blog! SWEET!! I took this as a good sign and continued trying to learn as much as I could about how to create and maintain a successful blog.

 I started joining in all the weekly book blog memes, like Teaser Tuesdays, Waiting on Wednesdays, and of course Follow Me Fridays by Parajunkee. Slowly but surely, my following started to grow, and by May 13th I was hosting my first ever giveaway to celebrate the 200 follower mark. I also did a major redesign to make my blog more readable (see old design was darker!). But you know what has been most rewarding? Reading some absolutely amazing YA books, and meeting some incredibly talented and supportive bloggers who have helped me to develop a hobby into something that I am really passionate about!

Today I am nearing the 1,000 follower mark, which I am really excited about. I am also now able to confidently contact authors and publishers to request ARCs for early reviews (see nerdy picture of me below lol), I'm co-hosting online events to promote new books and authors, and I often get emails from new bloggers asking for advice on how they can get their own book blogs to grow. Honestly, that is one of my favorite things about blogging, besides gaining new followers and receiving ARCs in the mail-- I absolutely love to help and support other bloggers, because that is how I became successful with my own blog-- by looking to those who came before me for tips and advice.

 I would say that blogging has definitely changed my life. It has become not only a hobby and pastime, but something I am genuinely passionate about-- I love doing it, and I spend most of my free time reading, reviewing, and interacting with the blogosphere. I am now thinking of taking classes in web design so that I can expand my blog to include design for other blogs as well. I think that sites like Parajunkee's View that give honest advice on blogging are so cool, and I am very grateful for all the help I have gotten from them!

I hope that new book bloggers can be inspired just by knowing that you don't have to be a blogging genius or a high-tech web designer or a professional writer to have a successful book blog-- just be committed to providing the best site you can for you and your followers, and always be open to learning new things. Basically, just do what you love and be proud of it! That is the best advice I can give to any new blogger.

Thank you, Pixie, for kindly inviting me to guest post on your blog! And as always-- "Happy Reading" to all!! :)

~Lea