Common Mistakes in Book Blogging and How to Fix Them

Most book blogs do not fade because the writing is poor. They fade for smaller, duller reasons. A posting schedule that survives January and collapses by March. A photograph taken at midnight under a kitchen spot bulb. A disclosure tucked below the final paragraph, where nobody reads it. An archive so tangled that the blogger cannot find their own review of a favourite novel, let alone a visitor.

None of these problems is spectacular, which is exactly why they linger. Each one is fixable, and most can be sorted in an afternoon.

Posting on a schedule you cannot keep

Ambition is the usual culprit. Two reviews a week sounds manageable in a quiet month; it becomes impossible the moment work gets busy or a 600-page novel slows you down. When the schedule slips, the blog goes quiet, and quiet blogs lose the readers they had.

Choose a rhythm you could keep during a bad week. One review a fortnight is a real commitment; one a month is better than nothing, provided it actually appears. Then protect it in two ways:

• Work several posts ahead, so a missed evening never leaves the blog empty. Three finished drafts in hand is enough breathing room for most bloggers.
• Keep two or three evergreen pieces ready to publish — a round-up of books on a theme, a post about how you choose what to read next, a list of the novels you press on friends. These fill a gap without pretending to be a review.

If you miss a month, do not announce a comeback. Just publish the next review.

Disclosures that arrive too late — or not at all

If you accept review copies, use affiliate links, or take part in a blog tour, readers deserve to know before they start reading. A disclosure at the bottom of a 1,200-word review is not a disclosure; it is a footnote most people will never reach.

Put a plain sentence near the top, in the same size text as everything else. Sample wording:

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. This post also contains affiliate links, which earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Keep a standing policy page and link it once from your sidebar or footer. State clearly that a free copy buys a review, not praise — if a book does not work for you, say so, kindly and specifically.

Rules differ between countries and platforms. If you are unsure whether a post counts as advertising, or how a sponsorship should be labelled, check the current guidance from the relevant advertising regulator, or take professional advice.

Photography that lets the book down

One photograph can undo a good review. The cover is half in shadow, the background is a cluttered desk, the colour is yellow because the picture was taken under a bulb at eleven at night.

You do not need equipment. You need daylight and a decision about consistency.

• Move to a window and put the book side-on to the light rather than between the light and your phone. Direct sun creates hard shadows; a bright overcast day is kinder.
• Turn the flash off. Always.
• Choose one plain surface — a wooden table, a linen cloth, a painted wall — and use it repeatedly so your posts look related to one another.
• Shoot a spread of options while the book is out: cover straight on, a corner, an open page with a line you liked, one detail shot.
• Edit in a single pass, crop everything to the same ratio, and export at a sensible size.
• Write the file name and the alt text as though search engines and screen readers matter, because they do. "Paperback of The Remains of the Day on a wooden table" beats IMG_4471.

An archive nobody can reach

Six years of reviews are worth little if a reader cannot find them. The usual culprits: posts filed only under "Uncategorised", titles that meant something in the week they were written, broken image links after a host closed down, and pagination that runs forty pages deep.

Fixes, roughly in order of usefulness:

1. Categories by genre or type of post, tags by theme — and no more than a dozen tags you actually reuse.
2. Internal links. Every review should point to two or three related ones.
3. A simple index page: an A–Z of everything you have reviewed, with titles and links. Update it monthly.
4. Search. If your platform's search is poor, add a better option or lean on the index instead.
5. Check for broken links twice a year. Old affiliate schemes and free image hosts are the usual offenders.
6. Host images yourself where you can, so a third party's closure does not strip your archive bare.

A reader who lands on one review from 2019 and stays for three more is worth the tidying.

Reviews that never give a verdict

Plenty of reviews describe a book beautifully and then stop short of an opinion. Who is it for? Would you read the author again? Was it worth 500 pages?

Keep plot to about a quarter of the post, then answer those questions in a short paragraph near the end, before any rating. One sentence — "Slow to start, superb from the second half; best for readers who like quiet, character-led fiction" — tells a reader more than three paragraphs of summary.

A maintenance hour that keeps the blog healthy

None of this has to happen at once. Set aside an hour a month and work through the same short list:

1. Finish or start one post ahead of schedule.
2. Add or check one disclosure.
3. Photograph two or three books in one sitting.
4. Add internal links to the post you published this month.
5. Fix whatever is broken.

That is enough. The blog stays findable, the photographs improve by increments, and the schedule holds because it was never built on enthusiasm alone. Book blogging lasts longest when it is small, regular and honest — and when the archive is easy to wander through.

Photo: Engin_Akyurt / Pixabay