Sometimes I feel very much like I’m on the outside looking in in the blogging world, even after three years of this. ~I know, I know… People say all the time that you shouldn’t compare what you’re doing to the next person (I’ve even said it!) and I try really hard not to.  Sometimes that’s an incredibly hard task!
If you’ve been a follower for a while, you know that a year ago, I switched jobs. Â It was a big move for me because I moved from a job I had had for 14.5 years to something that I had absolutely no experience in and everything was going to be brand new and it was scary!
One year later… I can tell you that I love a lot of it. Â Of course there are bad days, as with every job, but I know in my heart that I made the right choice for me and that makes it all worth while. Â That said, I’m much busier at this new job with very little down time. Â I have clients on both the east and west coast which means even if I’ve left the office for the day, I’m sometimes forced to open up the laptop when I get home for more than just blogging.
Which leads me to why I think I’ve been feeling a bit disconnected lately.  Work, traipsing all over the city with a 9 year old, and family things have really kept me away from not the blog so much, but social media more specifically.  Last night I tweeted about how when I’m not online all day and I suddenly pop on in the evening I feel like I missed all the good things.  I feel like people don’t respond quite as much and don’t want to chat with someone who only makes it online randomly. (I want to clarify that we still tweet things during the day, I just don’t get the time to go through my twitter feed and chit chat then.) I feel like … I’m watching all the cool kids from across the room and they all don’t want to talk to me.  I know I shouldn’t feel that way, I guess it’s just because I’m not an entrenched in everything … at least not as much as I think I’d like to be.
I struggle hugely with twitter lately, mostly because it feels like I’m shouting into a great big void where no one responds and the only time I get a tweet anymore is when someone is tweeting about one of our giveaways.  I’ve literally asked “how’s your day going and what are you reading” with no response and that’s what has made me wonder what the heck is going on!  Like has everyone following me muted me?  LOL *wipes tears* We’ve tried to foster discussions here on the blog via certain weekly posts, but that seemed like a lot of work for very little participation, so we moved away from that.  I try to retweet contests and engaging content and share sale books with everyone but is that too spammy? Additionally we started a fun monthly YA Book Trivia night because we want to interact with people and chat with you all and have a good time with it… and we’re having a blast, but the participation just isn’t there and that makes it a challenge to continue to do. I find that I’m constantly questioning the things we’re doing and I know that I shouldn’t.  I should just do my thing and not worry, but I also don’t want anyone to say “well, we don’t follow them anymore because they suck.”  I do realize I can’t make everyone in the universe happy, but I want to try and make most of you happy.
But I also worry about official things… why haven’t I gotten books from a publisher? Did I respond to that one publicist who asked me to participate in something? Did I send all my review links? Do I have time to write all these reviews? It’s all very stressful for something that is a hobby … Which just means I’m trying really, really hard to get better organized and stay on a schedule!
Ugh – sorry, I sound like I’m complaining.  I don’t mean to be, not at all.  I love reading, and I love sharing my love for reading and the books that we enjoy here on the blog, but it all contributes to that niggling question in the back of my mind that asks “what am I doing wrong…. what should I be doing differently and what could we be doing better.”
Currently, I’m looking at ways to bring more discussion back here. We’ve updated the look of the blog as you may have noticed and we’re continually trying to think of ways to make this a fun and informative place for you as readers. Â I’m trying to think of the topics maybe you guys want to know about so we can talk about them and possibly even have a conversation and I can provide you with information maybe you’ve been looking for but can’t seem to find anywhere else!
After three plus years we’ve had such fun getting to know you guys and we want to dig deeper and make that connection even more. Â We want you to know that we’re here for more than just to shout our opinions at you about the books we love … I hope that’s not how you feel about us! LOL
So tell me in the comments what kind of things you’d like to see around here. Â How does twitter make you feel these days? Â Do you love the podcasts we do with Swoonyboys? Do you want to participate in the trivia but the timing is just off? Do you want us to do discussion posts again? Â Do you miss Flashback Friday like we miss it? Â If you’re a blogger… How do you stay organized? What would get you interested in being involved in certain kinds of things we’ve tried to coordinate? (FBF, Trivia, Readalongs) Â Or maybe even just spreading the word about it?
We want to engage all of you… we want to get to know you as much as (hopefully) you want to get to know us! LET’S BE FRIENDS not just followers!  So tell us what you want to see and stop by and say hello anytime! 🙂
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