This post is inspired by Pages Unbound’s latest blog post Trends I Think We’ll See in Book Blogging in 2025. I was writing a comment under the post then realised I was beginning to write an essay so figured I should probably make it into it’s own post.

The relevance of book blogging has been a topic of discussion of bloggers for the past few years. In the late 2010s BookTube videos became the bookish medium of choice and a lot of opportunities for ARCs and collaborations between reviewers and publishers went to YouTubers when they had previously gone to Bloggers. Over the past 4 years those opportunities given to BookTubers were snapped up very suddenly by creators on Booktok, as they were able to rack up thousands upon thousands of followers in just a few months. So after all this, who cares about book blogging anymore?

TikTok Ban and the Great Instagram Migration

I’m still not certain the US ban on TikTok will happen but if it does there will be a huge number of BookTokers switching to Instagram, if they haven’t done so already. But for me Instagram is a dead platform for readers. I don’t even know how to grow a Bookstagram account on there anymore and the community experience is pretty lackluster unless you already have a following with an active comment section.

I used to search for new book reviews by searching that book’s hashtag but Meta have killed that function completely. Now when you search it only shows you the posts that are most popular (some of the posts don’t even contain that specific hashtag!) and you can’t even look for the latest posts anymore. This used to be a way for small Bookstagrammers to grow because people would be actively searching for their book reviews. This was also a great way for the community to interact with each other.

Meta is continuing to prioritise video-based content over photos so I do think we’ll see more readers from Instagram making their way over to blogging this year. Not everyone wants to make video content and the lack of growth will turn people away from the platform. Also their recent announcement to produce AI generated accounts is just completely stupid. We go on social media to see people create content about their own lives and their creative passions. What is the point of seeing a fake person talk about their fake clothing haul or their fake fancy holiday?

Will AI Take Over Blogging?

I don’t think so because, frankly, we’re not interesting enough anymore. There’s no incentive for people to make AI blog posts because there isn’t views upon views to steal from us. AI images in book blogger’s posts are becoming a bit of an issue (also in book covers) but I tend to just avoid those blogs because I personally don’t agree with the use of AI generated images.

Publishers and ARCs

ARCs, or advance reader copies, are sought after by book reviews and in turn reviews are sought after by publishers prior to a book’s release. The more buzz there is before a book releases the higher chance it has of becoming a best-seller or just a financial success for the author and publishing house. In recent times its been so much harder for book bloggers to be accepted for these, probably because blogs typically have significantly smaller followings than TikTok or YouTube reviewers. Yes, our reach is usually smaller (expect there are some mammoth book blogs out there with 10k plus followers) but our community engagement is more intimate and substantial. An in-depth written review is more likely to persuade someone to purchase the latest fantasy release than a single 20 second TikTok clip of someone holding up a book and just listing the books tropes.

This is not to say that there aren’t BookTokers who make in-depth reviews (there are and their content is amazing) but those reviews don’t even get that much engagement either because the videos are “too long” for the average TikTok user’s attention span. In the time it takes to read one blog post or watch one longer video review, you could easily watch 10-15 short TikToks.

However, publishers don’t want a few well crafted reviews, they want a book to have mass exposure and recognition by the book buying public. Giving loads of ARC to a lot of BookTokers is better for the publisher as they want those books to be more easily recognisable. When BookTok viewers walk into a book shop their eyes will notice the book covers they recognise first over the books they haven’t seen before and will be more likely to purchase them.

The Blogging Community

The current community is wonderful and a joy to be a part of. Everyone is so supportive and truly connect with each other. It’s just a shame traditional publishers don’t value us like they used to. The Indie scene is actually way more supportive of us right now. My experience in the Indie Fantasy space over the past few years has been fantastic and you can clearly see the interactions between reviewers and indie authors has made positive impacts to the online fantasy community.

What are your thoughts?

I’m very interested to hear what everyone’s thoughts are on this topic. There’s loads of reasons why book blogging isn’t what it used to be and I’ve only expressed my thoughts on a few of them here. I look forward to reading your comments.

Happy reading! 📚