To be honest, I’ve been seeing it coming for a while now… I thought I was able to control it and finish my ARC pile on time, but it seems like last week the bomb finally imploded. Because… *insert Jaws theme here* I think I’m now officially in a blogging and maybe even a reading slump. 😣
Let’s talk about ARCs first. Advanced Review Copies; the dream of every bookworm and aspiring bookblogger right? It’s a true honor to be able to receive one of those and I was always stoked whenever I was offered one. But… Things have slowly grown out of control ever since I signed up for Netgalley last year. While it on one hand has been one of the most positive experiences during my time as a blogger and has helped me introduce my blog to social media and reach a bigger audience, it also has a darker side. 100% my fault, but I’ve learned the hard way (like many others I’m suspecting) that it’s VERY hard to resist all those pretty titles and request buttons and things can spin out of control quickly. Don’t get me wrong, I would never change or give up my Netgalley experience, but I do feel I need to change my own habits urgently. Why? Let’s just say I have earned the shiny 100 NG reviews badge already and it has been only a year since I signed up… And more concretely, out of the 120 books I’ve read so far a whopping 75% were ARCs. As much as I’ve enjoyed reading most of them and quite a few made it to my favorites list, it also means I had to neglect my other books and those poor titles have been piling up and gathering dust ever since. Again, don’t get me wrong, I love my ARCs, but lately I’m having the feeling it has become a fulltime job keeping up with them and it has taken the fun out of reading. Conclusion: I’m suffering from an ARC overload.
Now I wonder: what to do about it? Put those ARCs on hold and just read my own titles in my own pace? What about the upcoming deadlines? Should I compromise? Answer: I really don’t know right now. But I do know I need to do SOMETHING before it’s too late.
And that’s where the second part comes in: the blogging slump. This is mostly related to the previously mentioned ARC overload and the fact that I feel blogging has become more of a job instead of a fun hobby. It has taken me a lot of willpower and the help of the magical existence of scheduling posts and weekly memes to keep up the new posts on my blog… Because if I have to be honest I have been having mixed feelings about blogging for a while now. Trust me, it isn’t the blogging community; love you all! ❤ But somehow I’m not having as much fun with it all as before. Too much ARC pressure? Should I slow down with social media? Stop posting every day? Make some drastic changes? Take a break? I’m not sure. But again I’m feeling the need to do SOMETHING, because I realised during the weekend (in which I barely had time to read let alone blog) that I have been neglecting my personal life to keep up with my blog.
So I’m reaching out to all of you with the questions: has this ever happened to you before? And what did you do to improve things and make blogging work for you? I’m getting pretty desperate here! 😅
