Top Ten Tuesday: Blogging Resolutions

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week is all about resolutions, since it is the start of a New Year.  In my life, I'm not much of a resolution person but for blogging, it's a good fit because I started my blog at a new year.  Last year, my resolution was to use more social media and I definitely using by myTwitter and Instagram accounts much more.  And it's fitting now that I've completed five years of blogging that I make a full list of resolutions for the new year!

1. More CanLit - one of my goals with this blog was to read more CanLit and year by year I have been reading more.  Which is a good thing.  But this year, I really want to go for it.  I'm hoping that it will be a large focus of my blog.

2. More Diverse Books - this year was a big one in the book world with the We Need Diverse Books discussion.  And I've always been "ok" with diversity in my reading, but this year, in an important year and when I resolved to read a certain number of diverse books, I read less than I usually do!  So rather than just picking up books as I feel, I'm going to commit to keeping diversity at the front of my mind when I pick books.

3. More Non-Fiction - when I started the blog, I was reading a lot of non-fiction but this year, I didn't read much.  I think I can do better this year and learn more.

4. Author Interviews - I'd like to have more features on my blog, rather than just reviews.  And over the past couple of years, and especially this year on Twitter, I've made great connections with authors.  I'd like to highlight the amazing people they are by having author interviews on my blog.

5. Classics Club - I joined the Classics Club a couple of years ago to increase the number of great classics I have read, and I'm doing okay so far but I know I can do better.  I need to make sure I read more this year.

6. Statistics - This year I'm going to pay more attention to statistics to understand what is working on my blog and what isn't.  In the past, I've always blogged what I felt like and I will continue to, but I think it's important to pay attention to what is important to my readers.

7. Netgalley ratio and restraint - who doesn't love Netgalley?  I've discovered some great books and authors through them.  But just when I think I'm getting my ratio to a good place, I ruin it by requesting a bunch of books.  And that makes it difficult to review books in a timely manner.  I need to work on that this year.

8. Write blog posts right away - sometimes I read a book and if I know it won't be posted on my blog right away, I wait to write my review.  And all of a sudden I find myself scrambling to write a post right before it needs to be posted (kind of like what I'm doing right now.)  I need to write my posts right away and let them sit on my computer, rather than in my head.

9. Challenges - every year I sign up for a bunch of challenges and every year I fail at them.  So I'm staying away from challenges.  The only two I'm entering this year are the Canadian Book Challenge and Diversity on the Shelf, which correspond with resolution 1 and 2.

10. TV/Movie Blogging - this book has always been about one thing, books.  But I also watch a lot of television and movies.  So I'm going to start blogging about what I watch, most likely in an end of month review.  

Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 31, 2014 at 9:39 AM

    Ugh, I have the same problem with NetGalley. I request way too many books and then take way too long to read them. So I'm not letting myself request anymore until I've reviewed the ones I already have. It's so tempting though! - Maggie @ macarons & paperbacks

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJanuary 8, 2015 at 11:37 AM

    Yes, please keep on top of CanLit for me. When we first moved to Scotland i still listened to the CBC regularly and read the Globe, but as time moves on, and the CBC makes more cuts, I'm tuning into more British media. The down side is, I'm not reading as much CanLit. You are now one of my major sources for CanLit news. Now if that's not pressure, I don't know what it.

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