Just a Rant About Life | Discussion

January 28, 2021 Kirsty Hanson

It feels like everything I write about blogging is negative, but I guess that’s just my mental health for you 😂. I’ve always wanted to work in the creative industry, whether it be writing for different magazines, writing my own book, or working in the publishing industry. Working for a publisher is my dream job, and about five years ago, I thought that creating a book blog would be a good start in trying to get my foot in the door.

And that’s when the stress started…🙃

I’m one of the people who had a life plan. You know… the whole… get married at this age, have a baby at that age… get into a job at this age… blah blah blah. Yeah, I had to let that plan go. I’ve been working on this blog for a few years now, working my arse off to make sure that I have everything that people would want out of a book blog: reviews, tags, hauls, unboxings, discussions… And where has it gotten me? Nowhere. Sure, I love having this blog. I like the fact that I have a platform to share my love for books.

I’ve applied for publishing jobs left, right, and centre, but still nothing. I don’t even know where I’m trying to go with this post. It’s just a bunch of ramblings about how life isn’t fair, and I hate myself for even writing all this, but I guess it’s something that I needed to get off my chest.

What do I need to do to get publishers to notice me? I feel like my mental health gets in the way of everything. I’m scared to email publishers to request ARCs because of my anxiety. I work with publishers every now and then on blog tours and stuff, but it gets to the point where I’m stressing about this blog and what it’s actually doing for me. I love writing, I love reading. But, I genuinely thought that having a book blog would really get my foot in the door when it comes to getting a job in publishing. Oh, how wrong was I?

This post was originally called ‘The Pressure of Being a Book Blogger’, but as soon as I started writing this post, I realised that all of the pressure was coming from myself, because I was so stressed about never getting a job in publishing, and then being a failure. I hate the snowball effect of anxiety, I really do. To be honest, there really isn’t any outside pressure when you’re a book blogger. Sure, you want the views and the visitors, but I guess I need to get it into my head that I’m putting all the pressure on myself and I’m blogging because I ENJOY it! It’s kept me so busy during the lockdowns.

That’s the post. Rant over. I really needed to get all of that off my chest because the fact that I’m 25 and not in my dream job just gets to me so much.

Does anyone have any advice for me? Because I just feel stuck.

Sorry about the rant, but if you managed to get to the end of this, thank you for taking the time to read this. I really do appreciate it.