I’ve been having this problem lately, and there’s a good side and a bad to it. The good side is that I’m happier with RealityLapse than I have ever been. I’ve finally been getting into the swing of things by making friends with fabulous bookish folks and working with amazing authors. But the downside to that is that I keep finding myself in a blogging slump with Tweens Read Too these days. The reality of the matter is, it’s simply more fun to be a YA or NA blogger than an MG blogger and right now, I feel like the MG blogger division of the blogosphere is missing out–as well as the MG authors.
Bloggers have a lot of zeal for books. I mean–c’mon. Book bloggers typically start blogging because they love books and want to share them with other bookish people (as well as not-so-bookish people). We love to read; and while I have a lot of fun with TRT on the average day reviewing my MG picks, somedays I feel like something is missing. And one of those things is a sense of community.
The thing is, meeting new people and reading new books and participating in events is part of being a book blogger. I’m sure there are things I just don’t know about. But especially after LoveAThon just happened, I’m feeling really happy to meet new so many amazing new people, but I still don’t know a lot of MG bloggers. Most of the features and events I hear about is through word of mouth or Twitter, and I just don’t know a whole lot of MG bloggers on Twitter. There’s no denying the fact though that MG bloggers simply don’t always take these kinds of things as seriously as other book bloggers do. There’s a lot of reasons why.
- Romance. YA and NA books are often times more appealing because of the romance factor. When you look at the types of people that usually up and start blogs, what you see is 14 to 20-something year olds. That is the demographic, and it matches up perfectly for YA and NA books.
- Availability. When I look for authors to feature at Tweens Read Too, often times their Goodreads profile doesn’t link to a website or have any way that I contact them without social media. I mean–am I the only one who feels awkward calling out an author I’ve never worked with on Twitter asking them to DM me? Am I wrong to feel that way? Often times, I’ll be reluctant and disappointed, but ultimately if I can’t contact an author without social media, I’ll end up not contacting them. It’s not only authors as well. YA bloggers are all for events. Maybe that’s because they’re more used to it all, but MG bloggers just aren’t that open to stuff like that. Even when I’ve tried to propose something, I find it hard to find contact information. Once again, calling out people on social media.
- Awareness. I’m not saying that the MG blogosphere will/should be like the YA one, and in some ways–I wouldn’t want it to be. Not because the YA world isn’t amazing, it is. But I feel like the MG world should find something all their own, not just be a carbon copy of YAland. All I’m saying is, I think that MG authors should take to heart what they see in YA authors. Bloggers as well. As someone who bounces between the two divisions and blogs for all ages, I’m excited for where the MG bloggers can go.
When I think of authors who know what they’re doing, I typically think of Shannon Messenger first. I don’t know why. I just do. There are many other authors I’ve worked with who really work hard to cater to bloggers, but Shannon Messenger is who comes to mind first. I think maybe it’s because she’s also a YA author that she understands these things, but I love the little contests she does and how easy she makes it to fill out forms for ARCs and events. Even so, I still think that she’s been able to kind of make the MG blogosphere all her own and connect a community through her blog, which is why I love to check her blog out so much.
Maybe it wouldn’t be better for the MG world to go the way I want it to, but at least I definitely want to get to know more MG bloggers, especially ones in their teens (or younger). If you have an MG blog, leave the link in the comments below or in the link up and I’ll be sure to check it out! You can also find me on Twitter by tweeting me at @elimadison2019 or by clicking the link on my sidebar.
Also, I’m thinking of doing a feature on Tweens Read Too. If you’re an author or blogger, I would love if you could take out the time to fill out the designated forms below and I’ll get in touch with you soon! Thanks!
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