Readers of book blogs - Do they exist (or, rather, how many of them are actually around)?

[Leon]

I've just been wondering - would someone really spend their time reading book blogs? Because why would they? If they have to buy books, surely they would already have tons of things they would like to read? I personally never run out of ideas what to read next. If I did, I would go to the library or just browse Amazon or go to a brick-and-mortar bookstore. And to be honest, in spite of being an indie author, I would much rather read a traditionally published book - classics or contemporary, fiction or non-fiction. I realise this may sound like betrayal, but this is how I feel.

So, I'm just wondering - are there really a lot of folks around who would actually read book blogs to find stuff to read? Not just the kind of blogs that publish reviews for books they're asked to review, but any kind of book blogs.

[Shomeret]

Book blogger here. Am I hugely popular? No. But can I expect some views on every review? Yes. One of my blogs gets at least a hundred views for nearly every review. This is a specialized blog for strong female protagonists in historical fiction novels for the most part. I am quite selective about the books that I review for that blog.

This may seem strange to you, but discovering books isn't the only reason why people read reviews. Many people read reviews to find out what other people thought of the books they already read. Perhaps it gives them ideas for a discussion of the book on Goodreads or a F2F book group. Maybe they are also book bloggers and they want some idea of what other bloggers have already said. Maybe they're just curious about other people's opinions.

Having said this, I believe that reviews with the largest number of views are benefiting from authors and publishers promoting my reviews on social media in order to promote the book. What this means is that the followers of these authors and publishers are looking at my reviews. Many of these followers may be other authors , but many will also be readers who are fans of the author or publisher.

[Kira]

I don't tend to read a whole lot of blogs these day (too busy writing and working on business, lol), but in years past I was a follower of a couple of book blogs. And yeah, finding new books to potentially check out was one of the reasons I followed, because let's face it. There are so many books being published, in traditional and indie publishing, that it's impossible to keep up with all the great stuff one might enjoy in their favorite genres.

But I also followed blogs because I liked something about the writer. Their personality or their insight into certain themes or tropes. And oftentimes they attracted other fellow readers that I enjoyed interacting with. Communities can spring up around blogs that are sometimes just as fun to spend time in than by reading posts.

[J.]

When I have time to spare, I will read book-related blogs, but gravitate first toward those about publishing industry news, or blogs that target a specific genre. And who's writing them, how well they know the genre matters.

[Leon]

Many thanks for the insights, everyone!