It seems to me, there are a lot of myth’s about Book Bloggers. I’ve heard things from “You must get a ton of free books” to “How much do you get paid?” I wanted to take a minute to address some things, that I think need to be addressed.

How Much Do You Get Paid?

Nothing. In fact most of us pay for our domain names & hosting out of our own pocket. That is about 100+ dollars out of pocket. Some bloggers do get paid through advertising while others have Amazon or Chapters bookstores on their sites so that users can purchase books through them. The commission on those around about 10% of the book, so it’s very little.

If You Don’t Get Paid, Why Do This?

I love books and I love nothing more than promoting a book that I loved. I also love when someone else tells me about a hidden jewel that they fell in love with. A lot of books don’t receive heavy promotion. Most books that do, are usually already established authors. That leaves alot of Author’s without nothing more than word of mouth and that’s where the book bloggers come in. It’s kind of like free PR from the people who “use” the product.

You Must Get A Ton Of Books Free!

Speaking personally, no. When I first started out, I posted reviews of books I loved and purchased with my own money. I still do that. Some blogs do get a ton of free books, but for the most part a lot of us review books we have paid for with our own money. Bigger blogs with more readers/commenters/subscribers get a lot of freebies. Yes, every so often we get a few “free” books to review. That’s not what I got into Book Blogging for, I was doing this for “free” on Chapters long before I created a place to post my reviews. If I get a book from an author or a publisher, that’s great but I don’t ask for them and feel privileged when I do receive one. It takes months if not years to build up to receiving review copies of books. It doesn’t happen overnight. See this post about ARC’s & free books.

Many of us enter fellow Book Blogger’s contests to win books to review! But some Bloggers do get into this solely for free books, not cool.

ARC’s (Artist Review Copies)

Kristi at The Story Siren has a wickedly informative post all about ARC’s.

What About Contest Books?

For the most part, I never physically have a book in hand that I am offering up in a contest. Those usually come directly from the author or the publisher who offer them up for contests. Sometimes the author will send it to the book blogger, but usually once a winner is picked we email the author/publisher and they send the books to the winner directly. If I personally am hosting the contest, I purchase the book to send to you with my own money because I love that particular author and feel people should read the book.

A Lot Of Bloggers Are Snotty.

A few bloggers have said that to me and for the most part it”s untrue. Yes there are some snotty bloggers around that are snarky and unhelpful. That’s life though, there’s rude snarky people everywhere. Also, remember everything read online is up to your own interpretation, they might not have meant for it to sound harsh. I have found a network of book bloggers via Twitter that I can joke around with and talk about books. I have encountered 1 or 2 bloggers I didn’t get along with, but I moved on and found ones I could talk with. For the most part, the PR/UF book blogger “network” are a great bunch of people willing to help you when you need it. Hell, I had Kindle Vixen in here playing with my template 2 days after meeting her on Twitter. If that’s not blind trust, I don’t know what is! ha. Just remember what your parents always told you, you aren’t going to get along with everyone. Just find a group that you like and comment on their blogs or Twitter and that’s half the battle.

Who am I to give this advice? I’ve been blogging since the only blog around with My Dear Diary. I’ve moved through MDD, LJ, Xanga, Blogger and finally fell in love with Word Press. This blog isn’t even a year old yet! I was blogging/reviewing at Chapters for awhile and through my various blogs but never all in one place.

I just felt the need to touch on a few things that I found untrue, especially with soo many book blogs popping up. All I can say is everything happens differently for everyone. Your blog could be around a month and develop a huge followers list due to a contest your holding, you could write a truly amazing review and gain a ton of fans. Or you could be around for years and just have a small following. Most of us do this because of our passion for books, it’s time consuming to blog everyday. But that’s our passion. No matter what, we’ll always have our books!

Keep reading and enjoy.

A special thanks to Fiction Vixen for making me laugh with this list of myth’s