It's The Selkie Reads Stories' 1st Blogoversary- Celebrate With Me!
Blogoversary Sunday, May 05, 2013
Wow. I can't believe that it has been a whole year since I first started blogging about books on The Selkie Reads Stories. I didn't know what I was getting into when I created this blog and I never could have imagined that people would actually read it, let alone follow it. But here we are today. My blog isn't as popular and as amazing as the other blogs out there, and i'm not the best reviewer in the world (I like to think that i'm the laziest), but i'm really happy with what I've achieved so far.
Blogging has taught me a lot of things- some more important then the others but still things I wouldn't have realized if not for blogging, like:
- Authors aren't robots. Okay, I was sort of scared of authors and publishers before. I thought authors were grumpy people who locked themselves inside dark caves and only came out when they ran out of coffee. But I was wrong. They actually plant themselves in front of twitter. Kidding aside, blogging made me realize that there were actual faces behind the name below the title of my favorite book's cover and they're actually nice faces who ate kind and approachable and just plain magical.
- Jealousy isn't healthy and it won't do you any good. Jealousy came in various forms when I started getting into the book blogging world. Thoughts like Why does she have more followers than me? That's a huge book haul, I wish I could read those books too. Nobody's commenting on my post but thisandthat posted a really useless one and it already has 1234 responses! came racing into my head at varying intervals and I just had to tell myself to stop. I got over the jealousy after a while and I just told myself that I didn't blog to win a popularity competition. I taught myself to be happy for the bloggers who got pretty books and lots of readers because they obviously worked hard for it- and they deserve it.
- Don't bite more than you can chew. When authors started contacting me and when I first discovered Netgalley, I said yes yes yes and clicked the 'request' button for every seemingly good YA book I found without bothering to learn more about them, and I ended up not liking them at all. There were also a lot of instances where a Netgalley book I got approved for would get archived before I could even start reading it. I got so caught up in the prospect of reading a lot of books for free and ended up not having the time to read them all. I've learned my lesson now and I try to limit myself and stop myself from saying 'yes' to every offer that comes my way.
.gif "socially awkward bookworm")
I'm a socially awkward bookworm. I've never been good at socializing or talking to people in general, but blogging has led me to meeting people who share the same amount of passion and love that I have for books. Corny as it may sound, they've made my blogging journey so much more memorable.
- My first book blogger friend, Sel. She was the first one to reach out to this little newbie book blogger who was as lost as grandpa in a rock concert. We're both asians and I always try to get her to say chingchongchang. Where are you, Sel? I miss our chingchongchang days :(
- My author friends! Thanks for not freaking out when I freaked out about you following me on twitter/spammed you with my up-to-the-minute reactions while reading your book/freaked out when you talked to me on twitter/etcetcetc. Thanks for not freaking out, in general. And thanks for writing the best books in the whole entire multiverse.
- The filipino book blogger community. I can't name all of you, but from the top of my head: Kai, Precious, Louisse, Michelle, Charlie, Leslie, Erleen, Von, Kazhy, Dianne, Dea, and everyone else! Thanks for talking to me on twitter, squealing and fangirling over books with me, and for answering all of my questions. Going to a book signing event with all of you is a new dream of mine! Hopefully, someday ;)
- Jenna and Alyssa, the Davao book bloggers. I can't wait to meet you girls!
- My publisher contacts. I never would have known about some of my favorite books if you guys didn't introduce them to me. Thanks for giving this little international book blogger a chance!
- All the lovely indie authors who contacted me. Thanks for entrusting your books to me and for giving me the chance to read and review them.
- You! All of you! My lovely readers and followers! You guys make me want to turn The Selkie Reads Stories into the best blog it could possibly be. I never would've gotten this far without you guys.
And since I love you guys a lot and I owe this blog's success to all of you, here's a little follower appreciation giveaway!
You can win a box full of ARCs, finished copies, and all sorts of signed swag- whatever I can fit into a International Medium Flat Rate Box. And the best part is that this giveaway is international!
