Meet the Blogger: The Secret Library Book Blog

Welcome back for another blogger interview 🙂

Today I get to share an interview with the fantastic Nicki over at The Secret Library Book Blog. I love checking out her regular posts and book reviews, and she’s a brilliant part of the book-blogging community.

Check out her interview below, and then go and follow her blog and social media accounts!

How did you first get into blogging?

I’ve been messing around with blogging for years, going back as far as 2011 when my son set up a blog to write gaming reviews. He encouraged me to do the same, except for book reviews.

I’d been writing book reviews for years on Goodreads, Amazon and Waterstones and then on my blog. My first attempt was on webbly.com but then I migrated to Book Likes as it looked fun, and there were giveaways, as well as a great bookish community.

Sadly at one point Booklikes had massive server issues, and so I moved over to WordPress, where I’ve been book blogging for almost four years.

How often do you like to post on your blog?

If I can I like to blog 4 maybe 5 times a week, but I do sometimes post every day. It also really depends on how my reading is going, because as any book blogger will tell you, if you hit a reading slump you normally also hit a blogging slump at the same time.

It’s not good if you’re trying to put content out regularly. I’ve learnt to have regular weekly posts that I can schedule so that really helps, especially if I haven’t got many book reviews.

What’s your favourite thing about blogging?

I love the social interaction with other bloggers. If it was just me shouting into the blogosphere and getting no response I’d give up. I’ve made some lovely online friends from all over the world and discovered some fantastic books and Netflix series’!

Do you enjoy using social media to promote your blog?

I do! I’m on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but it’s Twitter I love the most. It’s fast and friendly and the bookish community is great fun. I love all the GIFs and the silliness on there!

What’s your top tip for someone who wants to start their own blog?

Use WordPress, as it’s much easier to find other bloggers to follow and interact with. Go for a free plan as you don’t know if you’ll keep at it, and then there’s no pressure to continue if your circumstances change.

I would also recommend leaving comments on other blogs and following like-minded bloggers- this will encourage others to start following and interacting with your blog!

What are your top 3 favourite books of 2020 so far?

‘The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep’ by H. G. Parry. I read the paperback for the blogtour at the beginning of the year and then bought the audibook and listened to it straight away as it was so good.

‘The Switch’ by Beth O’Leary as an audiobook is just brilliant- and very funny! I listened to it via NetGalley and loved it so much that I’ve just bought the Audible copy.

‘The Choice’ by Edith Eger on audio- which I’ve just finished. It’s such a powerful memoir that I bought the kindle book when I first started listening because I knew I’d want to highlight a lot of passages. I know I’ll go back and read it again as it is full of so many words of wisdom.

What do you think of my latest blogger interview? Do you enjoy reading tips from other bloggers? What do you think of Nicki’s story?

Let me know all your thoughts in the comments below 🙂

Happy reading x