The book blogging world, like the real world, seems to have certain ebbs and flows. Seasons, if you will. And after… shit, I don’t even remember, 4+ years? However long it’s been, I’ve noticed certain trends as the bookish “seasons” come and go. And so now, I shall share my observations with you all!

This, of course, mirrors the first season of the calendar year: The time when everyone vows to get their blog in shape! Instead of heading to the gym or swearing off chocolate or whatever, you swear up and down that you’re going to start the new year right. Lots of unique ideas! Tons of new graphics! Maybe you’ll even get around to that total revamp you’d planned on once upon a time!

Only… you probably won’t. Look, this season is as short lived as a real world resolution. You might start, sure! You have a list of ideas, maybe a new organizational system. But just as Lois at your local gym will, you’re probably going to fall off the proverbial treadmill by February. Sorry.

This is a big season! Think, if you will, about how winter seems to drag on for awhile. After Christmas, it feels like school will go on forever, or that the snow will never melt, whatever your particular affliction is doesn’t matter. The result is the same: You find yourself in a routine, eventually. The excitement of the new year wears off, and you kind of just… do your thing. Fall into a pattern that should last for a few months, at least. But the year is still fresh enough that you are looking forward to new releases and haven’t sworn it off as total garbage fire yet.

You’re hopeful, hopeful enough to read and blog, anyway.

Everyone in the bookish community knows what happens as the school year winds down and the air (in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway) turns warm: Book Conferences. Whether you’re attending one, or just seething with jealousy while watching your social media like a hawk, you know it’s happening. And even though people are talking about books all over the place, no one actually wants to blog about them.

Maybe people are kind of “booked out”. Maybe it’s because they’ve been good little bloggers, dutifully posting away for months. Whatever the reason, everyone basically has an unspoken agreement that it’s perfectly legit to abandon your blog at any point during the book conference season. And no one really minds if you extend that absence, in some form, for the rest of the summer.

As summer (look, disclaimer right now, I am talking Northern Hemisphere this post, you Southern folks can feel free to yell at my in the comments) winds down and schools restart, publishing decides to rev their engines, too. The slow bookish months of the summer are gone, and all your faves are releasing 8,273 books every single Tuesday.

Maybe you’re heading back to reviewing reluctantly, but you’re heading back. Probably because, oops, you requested 93 books and all but two come out the first week of October. Maybe you’re psyched to review all the shiny new books you bought. Either way, your damn blog is on fire.

Publishing, after draining your bank account for two solid months, gets a little tired. They’ve been promoting left and right, you have been promoting/reviewing/snarking left and right, and frankly, everyone is just done. So when November hits, no one publishes any more books. No one reviews them. No one wants to talk about them. Seems too early to start talking about the next year’s releases, and you know you aren’t done reading this year, so you can’t even recap.

Much like the windows of my crappy old car when the first freeze appears, you’re flat out stuck. The ideas aren’t flowing, there’s not much to review, and the mall is playing Christmas carols even though it’s barely November. You’ve lost the will to blog. You know that the seasons will be restarting again, so meh, screw it for now. You collapse on your bed and watch Netflix. (May I recommend The 100?)

‘Tis the Season for list making, y’all! Remember all those books you read this year? Super, you’re going to be talking about them for at least a month. Doesn’t matter if you’ve read 5 or 500, they’ll be all you talk about. Which was the best? Which flat out sucked and almost made you swear off reading forever? Who’s your new favorite author? Which new bloggers did you meet? Attend bookish events? Great, these will all be posted about on every blog you’ve ever read.

It’ll be fun though, to see others share your love for your new favorite series, and of course even more fun, share contempt for that one damn book that made you rage. And then you’ll look forward. And make resolutions. So we can start this whole cycle again.

What do you think about my “seasons”? Do they apply to you? Have any different ones? Do share!

Posted November 14, 2017 by Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight in Discussion, Discussion Challenge / 37 Comments

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37 responses to “The Seasons of Book Blogging

  1. I’ve been feeling discouraged lately cuz it seems like I’m hardly getting visitors, comments, etc. even though I’m blog hopping a lot and all that, and I’ve wondered if maybe it’s just cuz it’s the end of the year and so people are blogging and bloghopping less? I know Dec is like that because everyone’s all crazy with Christmas, but is it starting in Nov now?? But I’ve definitely noticed people seem to be so much more active and posting so much in January, maybe February, cuz of all the resolutions, fresh new year, all that, and then yeah, it totally dies off lol. But for me personally (and you’re prob about to hate me, haha), I have a blogging schedule and I schedule posts ahead so I stay pretty much the same throughout the year, excluding emergencies or something! Oh, but I do love all my various end of the year posts 😛

    • UGH yes, you are not alone! I asked one of my friends the other day “does your blog feel extra dead?” I haven’t posted much this week because I am sick, and so in turn haven;t commented much, so that could explain me, but not everyone else!

      HA I don’t hate you, I AM insanely jealous of you though 😀 Because if I worked like you, I could actually BE sick and not have to worry about my poor, dead blog 😉 I think (and hope!) that things will pick up as soon as the year-end stuff starts! (And if it helps, I currently have your Longest Book Tag post open in another tab- I just physically can’t right now, I need sleep hahha.)

  2. OMG 4 & 5, so true. I am drowning in new releases right now, and I know I will not catch up until the “dark season”, December, when there are almost no releases. I sort of which they would spread them out more. I mean, it would give us readers more time to read the books when they are still shiny and new, and they wouldn’t have as much competition at release time either. I don’t know, but those are my current seasons, so I am feeling the pain.

  3. I TOTALLY AGREE. THIS IS SO ACCURATE. I think the like ebb and flow makes sense too?! Like we all can’t go on full speed all year round! ?? Although like…I wish. Also what is it with like all the books releasing at once?! I swear the American start-of-summer month and also October are just born to kill my wallet. Nice.

    And I’m currently in that season that’s thinking about wrap ups and how a hiatus would be nice.?

  4. Ha this is great!! So true especially season 1. I mean I am all excited. There are more visitors and blogs being active it is a great time. Also the last season with lists. All the lists!! Love making them so I am cool with that. Great post!!

  5. As always, you’ve nailed it. LOL I’m sitting here reading and nodding my head like, “yep, yep, yep.” All the new releases… totally can’t help myself… and the end of year wrap-ups. I agonize putting them together like it’s life and death decisions but I love it. And I totally love seeing everyone else’s wrap-ups.

  6. Hah! I love this so much. I’m probably a little of some of these things, but nothing too crazy. Though September and October are insane when it comes to new book releases. I’m STILL not through all the ones I got from ALA. Granted, I’m not doing a conference next year so that means way less review books – so you know, shouldn’t be as bad. LOL

    -Lauren

  7. You’re so right haha. I love wrap-ups at the end of the year and resolutions at the beginning of the year. This summer was iffy with blogging for me but it’s mostly because I moved and was getting used to my new schedule.

  8. Joann B Downie

    This was a terrific post, I have quit blogging mainly because I couldn’t keep up with everything, but I really enjoyed this post.

  9. This is so accurate it hurts! I think I get revitalized in the summer time because not much is happening in publishing and I’m planning for the fall releases. This year, the fall releases absolutely intimidated me and it actually pulled me away from blogging. I’ve got major “planning” feels for 2018 now though!

  10. This is awesome. The old grind I think is my default state of being lately lol. Conference lull and new release revitalization made me laugh- so true. I think these ebbs and flows are spot on! Who knew publishing could affect our lives so much?? And yikes it’s cold weather collapse RIGHT NOW- as evinced by the Christmas songs in the mall. Can we have Thanksgiving first??

  11. Kel

    Hahaha, these are great!! I might actually get around to revamping the blog design because I kind of have fun with that, but otherwise… I think I’ve just learned not to get too ambitious or make a list of what I think I’m supposed to do. I’ve tried hard to be more free-form and blog when I feel like it. You know, more like a hobby… *lightbulb* Great post, Shannon!

  12. Oh this is such a GREAT post – I so agree with all of the seasons you mentioned here. the “new resolutions” always come around, even if it’s not in January, sometime during the year, they always come and resist for, like, a month. I’ll make new graphics, I’ll post more, I’ll post differently, I’ll be more active on social media, and so on… just MAKING these new resolutions are quite exhausting, hahahaha. There are definitely highs and lows in the blogging community – I haven’t quite figured out what the exact periods of time are, but they’re here ahah. somedays, people are too active and motivated and some other months, well… it just feels… a bit slow, overall. It’s SO weird ahah.
    GREAT post! 😀

  13. I was going full force and bathing in the new blog glow. Once I celebrated the first year, I hit a wall HARD! I am just getting over the slump I’ve been having during the past few months. Now, I’m back in the swing of things, and I’m already preparing posts for next year!

  14. Love this post and as I was reading I was like ‘OMG this is scary accurate’. I totally couldn’t figure out why I was slowing down with blogging and reading this month and you’ve nailed it. You’ve totally nailed it. I’ll just brace myself for December and recap month. I love looking back at the past year and figure out what books have brilliant and what’s sucked. I also love making the new resolutions and finding new challenges and then promptly giving up on them three weeks in.

  15. Great post! I’m totally sharing 😀 I think there’s one more thing – the readathons. They sort of also peak during October-November and maybe up to Christmas? I remember that distinctly, cause last year I started to blog at about this time and I jumped right into the whole readathon train 😀 same thing appeared to happen this year. I don’t think there are quite as many readathons at any other time of the year, or at least that people participate so avidly 😀

  16. Haha.. OMG, this is hilarious. You made my day. I can’t stop laughing. I’m still in my first year of blogging so I haven’t felt this cycle yet but maybe next year I will. Haha.. ?

    Awesome post, Shannon. I love that you always has awesome ideas for blog posts. I’ve enjoyed the ones I read so far. ❤️???

  17. This is SO. ACCURATE. Although I have to say I do like the end of the year because I feel like it’s so easy to come up with blog post ideas because it’s all about the wrap ups, round ups, looking ahead to next year’s releases, etc. so I honestly usually get a ton of blogging done in December, and the momentum lasts until about February…and then the cycle of being burnt out/always playing catch up starts again 🙂 Such a creative post!

  18. Oh my goodness this is so accurate?? I’ve never thought of this but while reading this post I kept nodding along haha. The resolutions one made me laugh because yep, I’m going to be very motivated and excited but pretty soon I’ll have forgotten about it. I wonder if I’ll last until February though, wouldn’t surprise me if it was only a few days ?

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