Discussion: Cost of the Online Book Community

Hey all, Dani here.

I somewhat have my voice back, but overall I’m still trying to not talk, which has been so difficult. I’m actually carrying a notepad and pen with me so I can write what I need to say. I can honestly say that these last couple have days have truly made me appreciate how much simpler life is if you can communicate verbally.

Oh, and when I woke up this morning I had an earache as well. So I have a mild summer common cold, my voice is gone, an earache in the left ear, and this all happens just a few days before vacation/my birthday. It is not fun.

Anyway, today is a bookish discussion day. Over the past few days I’ve actually seen quite a few posts on social media talking about the financial cost of being a blogger. I’d argue this can expand over to places like Bookstagram as well. But I thought it was an interesting idea, so I figured I would toss my two cents into the conversation.

The online book community is great and I’m happy to be a part of it, but I think we all know that there are some divisions within our ranks. I’ve seen this cost conversation bring up price of books, price of advertising, price of blog site, etc, and there are people on all sorts of different sides for it.

So, I’m just going to go ahead and say this now. What I say in this post is simply my own opinion on the topic. It is perfectly fine if your opinion is different or if you don’t interpret things the same way as I do or whatever. I’ve never had an issue with this, but I’m still just going to ask that we keep this discussion as polite as possible.

I think the biggest cost in being part of this online community is the time we spend with it. There’s that phrase “Time is Money” for a reason. It takes us time to plan/write our posts. It takes us time to set-up and take photos for our blog posts and/or our Instagram posts. It takes time to read other blogs and comment on them. It takes time to research books and release dates and book tags and just everything else behind the scenes. I didn’t comb through the conversations I saw on Twitter covering this cost topic, but what I happened to see did not mention this cost at all.

Then there are those who talk about the cost of buying books. They mention that books are not cheap and how the online book community–whether intentional or not–pressures others into buying all the books so they can be displayed on bookshelves or wherever. Of course those against this point make the argument that you don’t have to buy all the books; you can use your library, which pretty much eliminates the cost concern for this portion.

Okay, so here’s where I’m going to have my own personal weird opinion on the topic. I don’t actually include the cost of my book buying habit in my cost of book blogging rundown. I would still be buying this many books even if I wasn’t active in the online book community. And yes, I do realize that some months I have a pretty huge book haul, while others I manage to keep it fairly under control. I’m pretty sure I probably spend at minimum $100-200 on books each month. I realize that to a lot of people that is a LOT of money. But I try not to eat out a lot, I don’t have a social life where I go to bars and drink or anything, and I don’t spend a bunch of money on clothes (and I spend zero on makeup), so my money is pretty much spent on bills, groceries, and then books/other geek things.

Yes, I do probably need to cut back on my book buying a little. I also probably need to diversify my blog a little more. In each review post I include links on where to buy each book I review, but I don’t even mention that you could always visit your local library. I should probably do that so I’m not passively part of the culture of the online book community that seems to ignore or inadvertently shaming library users. I’m a librarian by schooling, so of course I love it when people frequent their local libraries.

Another potential big cost area for the online book community is photo/video. Phones nowadays take pretty good photos, and their video/audio isn’t awful, so again, you can participate in the book community even if you don’t have a fancy camera. This is another area where I don’t really factor in the cost to my overall budget. I’ve enjoyed taking photos for years and years; I took a digital photography class in college. So yes, I own three different digital cameras, including one I specifically bought for its video ability. But I could be just as happy with using my cell phone and/or finding usable photos online (and giving proper credit to the owner of the photo).

Of course, if you’re into Bookstagram, or you just like your blog photos to have a nice aesthetic, then you might also need to buy yourself some props and accessories and other bits and bobs to make the photos visually pleasing. I have random scrapbook designed pages, as well as having a large selection of fake flowers. I might go out and spend $5-10 on some props, and then it will be six months or so before I do it again. So long as you don’t choose items that will break down, fall apart, or go bad, investing in props is only an upfront expense instead of a recurring subscription or something.

Oh, and let’s not forget photo editing software. You can use the free stuff on your phone or on Instagram, or download GIMP for free, or you can buy some other photo editing program like Adobe Photoshop. Depending on what you choose, this actually could end up being pretty darn pricey.

So then there’s the cost of the blog site. I am still using the free plan on WordPress, and it is working just fine for me right now, but here in the next couple of years I’m thinking it will be time to upgrade. I do however pay for my blog’s domain name. I think I maybe pay like $20-25 a year, and it isn’t divided into payments or anything. It’s all done in like January. But that’s pretty much the cost of one hardcover book, and it gets me the rights to use mousaibooks.com instead of needing to use mousaibooks.wordpress.com.

Pretty much for me, the cost of being part of this online community is worth it. The most expensive element is my time. So often I’ll want to be lazy and just do nothing but binge TV or movies, and instead I sit myself down at a computer and write up posts or respond to comments or read other blog posts. Or I focus on my never-shrinking pile of books I want to read.

I’m glad I’m part of this community. I have met some wonderful people because of running this blog, and I have also been introduced to some fantastic books, which is always nice.

Thank you all so much for joining me in my little corner of the online book community. I appreciate you all. Feel free to share your thoughts on this topic (or suggest other topics for discussion) in the comments. I’ll be back soon with more bookish content.