Life is always better when surrounded by books, which is why I always had two goals as a teen: (1) read every book in existence, and (2) become an author.

Obviously, these weren’t things that could be done overnight, so I started a blog to fill in the nooks of time in between. This was a really great idea except for the problem that: I actually had no idea what a blog even was. I’m pretty extra sure my first post was partially the Jabberwocky poem and nervous typos. But who needs to stride into the blogosphere when you can flop in awkwardly in all caps and gifs?! (Shh don’t answer that.)

My little blog had a slow ambling start, with shared posts with my little sister and plenty of (horrible) writing snippets and (tiny) book reviews. But eventually, I tumbled into the book community and started reviewing for publishers and making blogging friends. My knowledge of both writing and publishing expanded rapidly and I went from reading 90 or so books a year – to 200.

I can cheerfully blame so much on blogging! Because of blogging:

1. I met critique partners for my writing!
2. It was a sounding board for some of my earlier work (and believe me, encouragement is vital when you are a little hatchling writer).
3. It encouraged me to devour so so many more books, meaning my writing improved drastically from so many good influences. The best teacher for a writer is other books.
4. I started thinking more critically about other books à which turns to working more critically on my own.
5. It was a sneaky way to lurk around my future audiences and see what they love, what they hate, what they’re looking for, and how many memes they’ll put up with before mutinying.
6. Publishing involves a lot of waiting (for edits, while being on submission, for announcements etc.) and blogging was a great distraction from that fingernail-gnawing suspense.
7. It kickstarted a platform to launch my own book from! The release of A Thousand Perfect Notes is so close and, seven years of blogging behind me, I’ve worked up an audience of over 70,000-followers across my blog and social medias.

Now I’m entering the realm of balancing being an author vs being a book blogger. It’s exciting and a little nerve-wracking figuring out how to balance it! Some days I’m writing posts and taking bookish photos. Other days I’m neck-deep in the throes of edits, while turning stories inside out to make them the best they can be.

I have a delightfully loyal audience, my pockets stuffed with inspiration, and a TBR pile that I will genuinely never see the end of.

I couldn’t be happier with this combination. If you’re a fledgling writer and considering entering the realms of book blogging: go for it.