Book Blogging: How to Start a Book Blog

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One of the most common questions my followers ask me is how to start a book blog. This is usually followed by some spiel about how they’ve always wanted to get into book blogging but they’re too afraid to start. Does this sound familiar to you? If so, this is the post for you!

In this post, I will break down all the steps you need to take to start book blogging and will show you just how easy it is to start a book blog. If you’re not interested in investing any money in it, it’s perfectly possible to do this all for free.

This book blogging guide is split into two parts: part one will tell you the logistics of how to start a book blog; part two will give some advice on how to get into book blogging and start writing.

Firstly, let me tell you a bit about how I got into book blogging. I began my blog way back in 2011. And What’s Hot? was a fashion blog.

What now?

Yes, What’s Hot? really began as a fashion blog. But it became clear to me very quickly that I had absolutely no idea what I was talking about when it came to fashion, but I did know a lot about books. Thus began my book blogging journey.

It was very much a hobby back then and I was posting reviews sporadically as well as other book-related posts.

Fast forward to the present and whatshotblog.com is now an award-winning book blog with tens of thousands of monthly blog readers.

Over the past few years, I’ve turned my hobby into a business so I’d like to think I know a thing or two about how to make a successful book blog! Whether or not that transition is on the agenda for you, these tips are a great place to start.

If you want to find out even more about my book blogging journey, there’s more info on my “About” page.

Now let’s get into the nitty of starting a book blog from scratch. Please read all of part one of this book blogging guide before you start creating anything or you may come unstuck.

Book Blogging: How to Start a Book Blog

Book blogging equipment

Firstly, you don’t need any fancy equipment to get started with book blogging. The beauty of blogging is that as long as you have access to a computer, it’s completely free to set up and start writing. The bare minimum you’re going to need to start a book blog is a laptop and some books.

It would also be handy if you have a camera or a good smartphone for pictures. This isn’t essential as there are photos on the internet but you’ll have to be careful to use royalty-free images to avoid any unwanted copyright claims.

Using your own pictures will always be best, but using images of book covers from publishers can be considered “fair use” and is also common practice amongst book bloggers.

Choose a blog name

The very first stage is choosing a blog name. For some, this is super easy, for others this can take some hard thinking. This is a really important choice so don’t create your book blog if you’re not 100% happy with the name yet.

Whilst it’s not impossible to rebrand your website afterwards, it’s a real headache and may set you back a long way.

If your blog is going to be wholly dedicated to books then think of a relevant blog name related to books and reading. It might be something to do with your favourite author, book or quote, or it may incorporate your name. The possibilities are endless.

Given that hundreds of thousands of blogs now exist, you will want to make sure that your blog name is unique and there isn’t another site out there with either the exact same name or a very similar one.

It can be incredibly frustrating to see someone with a similar name to yours and this will harm the growth of both of your sites so really do try hard to pick something memorable and unique.

Ultimately, you’ll want for someone to be able to google your blog’s name and for yours to be the first that appears.

To help this, ensure you don’t pick anything that sounds even remotely similar to another famous blog, brand or website.

If you’re really stumped, try playing with this blog name generator to see if that comes up with anything that inspires you.

Choose a blogging platform

There are a number of major blogging platforms out there but the most popular amongst successful bloggers is undoubtedly WordPress. There are others such as Squarespace, Blogger or Wix, but WordPress gets my vote.

All these options will differ in terms of writing layout and themes offered. Some are better suited to e-commerce sites or portfolios but WordPress is a clear winner for written blogs.

I actually started on Blogger and used their platform for a few years. It’s very simple to use, which made it great for me as a young blogger, but as my blog developed I realised how basic it was and the subsequent switch to WordPress was a headache.

As such, I’d recommend starting things right and going straight for WordPress. It won’t take you long at all to get used to the interface and there are so many themes, plugins, widgets and more available for it since it is the most popular platform.

Choose a domain name

Now that you’ve got a name and a platform in mind, it’s time to actually sign up for a blog.

Your domain name should simply be your blog’s name or perhaps a slight abbreviation of it. It’s worth bearing in mind that once a domain name is taken, it’s gone.

If the domain name you want to register is unavailable, that means that there’s another blog out there with your desired blog name and you’ll have to have another think.

If it’s a dormant blog, it can be incredibly frustrating but unfortunately, it’s very hard to get hold of one once someone else has bought it and it can be incredibly expensive to try.

If you’re not interested in paying any money at all for your blog at first, then you can go right ahead and sign up for your website via WordPress directly.

You can sign up for a WordPress account here. You’ll then be asked to choose a domain name. The domain name is the URL of your blog and, for me, it’s whatshotblog.com.

If you’re willing to spend a little a year for a more professional site then hold your horses and keep reading.

If you follow the step above to create a free blog on WordPress your site will look something like this: mybookblog.wordpress.com. If you’re just finding your feet with book blogging and are not looking to invest any money at all into this then it’s fine to just leave this as it is.

However, to be honest, this doesn’t look particularly professional. If you’re going to have a real go at making your blog a thing and are in it for the long haul then I’d suggest buying your own domain right from the very start.

This will save you having to create lots of redirects later if you decide to go self-hosted and have to redirect traffic previously pointing at mybookblog.wordpress.com.

But what does it mean to go “self-hosted” or have your own domain?

This basically means you can get rid of the clunky “wordpress.com” and just be known as mybookblog.com.

Hopefully, you did some thorough research before into whether a site with a similar name exists but it may be that something slipped through the net and it’s only at this point of the process that you’ve realised that a similar blog exists.

If you see that mybookblog.com is taken but myblogblog.net is available, I’d think long and hard before taking the latter option. It’s basically the same title and people are going to get very confused. Try your best to come up with an original idea, as discussed above.

I’d then choose the .com or .co.uk option, according to your location. I wouldn’t go for anything funkier like .net, .blog, .london or anything else.

Buy the domain name and choose a host

If your desired domain name is available then hooray! But now how how do you buy it?

There are two costs involved with buying your own domain. The first cost is for the domain name itself i.e. mybookblog.com.

The price of this varies hugely depending on how popular or valuable the seller deems the domain name to be. I’d estimate that most are in the range of £8-25 per year.

Word of warning here, once you commit to a paid domain name, it is essential that you remember to keep paying this.

You’ll likely have to keep paying this yearly fee until you decide to give up on your blog entirely.

If you don’t, you may find that your domain name is taken away from you at which point it’s going to be very difficult to get it back!

It would also mean that you’d suddenly be left domainless, any existing links to your blog would now be useless and you’d have to start building a brand around a new domain name.

Your content would be safe but the link to each article would have to change. I’m sure you can imagine what a nightmare that would be!

I make this warning now because unfortunately I have been in this position before, and it set me back a few years of blog progress.

On top of the domain name fee, you’ll also have to find a company to host your domain name and this will require a yearly hosting fee. This is likely to be more expensive than the first fee but there are a huge range of options here.

There are a huge number of places from which you can buy a domain name and some of the most popular include Bluehost and Siteground.

Bluehost costs £2.83/mo for the first term and you get:

• 1 Website
• WordPress pre-installed
• 50 GB SSD Storage
• Free Domain – 1 year
• Free SSL Certificate
• 24/7 Customer Support

However, my personal experience is that you get what you pay for with domain hosts and if it’s very cheap, it’s too good to be true.

It may all go smoothly at first but as soon as you encounter a problem, such as broken pages or hacking, then having a good host is essential to getting your site fixed as soon as possible.

Having been with a number of different hosts over the years, I’m going to recommend my own, Lyrical Host. You can buy both the domain and the hosting services from them.

It’s not as widely known but they offer unparalleled service.

With Lyrical Host costs £9.99 per month and you get:

• 1 website
• WordPress pre-installed
• 40 GB SSD storage
• Incredibly fast support
• Carbon offsetting through tree planting
• Free stock images monthly
• Free SSL Certificate
• Speed optimisation
• 30 Day Money Back Guarantee

Click here to get 10% off your first hosting plan payment with LyricalHost with the code: WHATSHOTBLOG10.

Joseph, one of the co-owners, replies to my messages within hours no matter what the issue is and always offers to fix them for me immediately. Other hosting platforms may give you basic advice on how to fix your issue but lots won’t actually do it for you.

Lyrical Host always goes above and beyond and sometimes does things to help me improve my site which are definitely outside of their remit as hosts. They’re a truly incredibly small team and I cannot recommend them enough. Plus, the team is mostly made up of women!

What’s more, as blog hosts go, they’d still be considered “cheap”. Yearly, I pay around £111 for my domain name and hosting.

I completely appreciate that many won’t want to invest that kind of sum into their blog right at the beginning but I think the service offered is more than worth this price so if you’d like your own domain, I’d suggest going with Lyrical Host.

Click here to get 10% off your first hosting plan payment with LyricalHost with the code: WHATSHOTBLOG10.

You’ve got a WordPress account, domain and a host. Now what?

Now you want to make your blog look pretty! And you do this by installing a theme to your blog.

There are a tonne of free themes out there to get started with and the great thing about WordPress is that it’s really easy to customise your theme with additional widgets and plugins.

If you’re looking for something that looks beautiful and requires little customisation, you’re probably going to have to pay for it. And themes can really vary in price. They could be as low as £10 all the way up to thousands for a custom theme.

When I was first starting out, I liked to browse Etsy for themes that were still fairly cheap but looked so much better than anything free.

Plus, you will probably get some installation help and maybe some small customisations if you buy these.

My first paid WordPress theme was from EclairDesigns on Etsy and they’re really beautiful, simple, whimsical designs for bloggers.

Click here to browse beautiful WordPress themes on Etsy.

Set up your blog on social media

I’m sure you’re already set up on all forms of social media for your personal use. But if you’re going to have a real crack at book blogging then I’d highly recommend setting up book blog specific social media channels.

These will be a place for you to share your content as well as connect with your followers and fellow book bloggers.

It’s up to you which platforms you want to focus your energy on but the main ones include Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

You want your branding on social media to be consistent across all channels and hopefully it’ll just be your blog name. For example, my social media handles are as follows:

Facebook: https://facebook.com/whatshotblog
Twitter: https://twitter.com/whatshotblog
Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/whatshotblog
Instagram: https://instagram.com/whatshotblog

As you can see, my username on each platform is whatshotblog, which makes it really easy to identify me across them all.

RELATED: How to Start a Bookstagram

What you absolutely don’t want is to be my_bookblog on one platform, mybookblog on another and mybook_blog13 on a third.

No one is going to remember your handle for each platform and this will make you hard to find. Plus, it looks messy.

Make life as easy as possible for your followers by using consistent branding across any platforms that you embark on.

It’s worth mentioning at this point that social media can be exhausting and is a whole other beast that you may have to get to grips with. There’s a reason that brands now have dedicated social media assistants and that’s because it’s time-consuming enough to be a full-time job.

That’s why I’d suggest choosing one or two social media sites to focus your energy on as getting traction on all of them may be quite hard and time-consuming.

Each social media platform serves a slightly different purpose so it’s up to you really which ones you want to invest your time in. For example, Instagram is a very visual platform, whilst Twitter is filled with short, snappy thoughts.

I know lots of other bloggers who are very successful on book twitter but can’t get the hang of bookstagram and vice versa.

I’d suggest setting up an account on all social media sites just to make sure no one else can use your blog’s name on the platform, but play around with these for a few weeks to see which you like best.

Book Blogging Tips

Writing book blog content

Now you’ve got your website all set up, it’s time to get writing! That’s what book blogging is all about after all. People always tell me that they’re waiting for the right moment to start or that they’re nervous about it and want to wait a while.

Don’t.

If you want to start a book blog, my best advice to you is to just start. There’s never going to be a right moment or perfect opportunity.

Plus, more and more bloggers join the community each day so if you want to throw your hat into the ring then you’d be better off starting as soon as possible.

Yes, there are already thousands of bloggers, but there is still room for new bloggers to join and grow. It’s never too late. You just need to get going.

If you’re stumped about what you could write about then I’d start with some good old fashioned book reviews. This is where most book blogs start.

If you need some book review inspiration, here are 24 book review questions to ask yourself before you get going.

As you get into your book blogging groove, you may want to expand and try other types of book blog posts.

Here are some book blog post ideas to get you going:

• Books reviews
• Book-related news
• Book lists
• Book discussions
• Opinion pieces
• Reading tips
• Author Interviews

Check out this post for 36 more book blog post ideas.

READ MORE: How to Write a Negative Book Review

Finding books to review and post about

But where do you find the books that you’re going to talk about?

I think a lot of people are put off by pictures of book bloggers’ expansive reading collections and large bookshelves thinking that you need a lot of books and money to be able to be succesful. That’s definitely not the case.

For starters, I’d use the books on your own shelf. I presume if you want to start a book blog then you’re an avid reader and you already have some books of your own that you can review and take pictures of.

A good way to find your feet is to start by talking about some familiar titles in your own collection.

After that, I’d start to make good use of your local library whether physically or digitally. Most libraries have apps now which will allow you to borrow ebooks so you don’t have to go anywhere and it’s completely free!

But if you’ve exhausted those options or they aren’t available to you, then start to consider virtual reading subscriptions platforms such as Scribd and Audible.

Something like Scribd is especially useful for those on a budget as it’s £9.99 / $9.99 a month almost unlimited access to their book database with thousands of ebooks and audiobooks.

It’s perfect for voracious readers and book bloggers who need access to loads of books but don’t want to pay for loads of paperbacks.

READ MORE: Scribd Review

Once you begin to establish yourself as a book blogger, you can also start approaching publisher to ask them for a coveted ARC (advance-reader-copy) or, if you’re lucky, they may come to you!

Publishers are always sending out review copies and the contact details for book publicists are usually quite easy to find on publishers websites.

Here are a few for major publishers:
Penguin Random House UK / Penguin Random House US
Harper Collins UK / Harper Collins US

For digital ARCs, there are sites like NetGalley. Smaller bloggers may find more success on this platform first as there’s no additional cost to the publisher for sending out an ebook or pdf review copy, therefore you are more likely to be accepted.

If you’d like more detail on how to request ARCs, please leave me a comment below and I’ll think about writing something up!

Making money via book blogging

Now here’s the million dollar question. Maybe this is all you came here for. Is it possible to make money book blogging?

I could write reams and reams on this subject but I’ll try to keep it short. It is possible to make money book blogging but it’s significantly more difficult than lifestyle, food or travel blogging. For starters, there’s simply a smaller market for books and books are a cheap product.

But there are other barriers too.

Paid opportunities from publishers are few and far between, something that I speak about in this post about why book bloggers should be paid. Whilst fashion brands will run paid campaigns with influencers of all sizes every week, publishers run them quite rarely.

Sometimes when they do, they seek to collaborate with lifestyle bloggers and not book bloggers. Getting free review copies from a publisher is not hard, even if you’re a relatively small book blogger, but getting any sort of paid campaign can be quite tricky.

READ MORE: Why Influencers Shouldn’t Use the Term “Gifted”

There are a very small number of book bloggers earning a full-time income from their online work. Those with large Instagram followings tend to make a lot of money from promoting non-book related products whilst the major blog writers earn via display advertising and affiliate links.

In either scenario, you need a heck of a lot of followers and readers to make anything noteworthy. Lots also work as creative freelancers to supplement their blog and social media income.

For more on affiliate marketing, check out my comprehensive guide:

READ MORE: The Ultimate Guide to Affiliate Marketing for Book Bloggers

As you can see, it’s really not easy at all to make big money book blogging alone. It’s still possible with a lot of hard work, I just want to make sure that nobody comes away from this post thinking that blogging (especially book blogging) is easy money.

How to Start a Book Blog: Quick Summary

• Choose a blog name
• Choose a blogging platform
• Choose a domain name
• Optional: Buy your own domain name and hosting
• Choose a blog theme
• Set up social media channels for your blog

Now you have a blog!

Then:

• Start writing blog posts
• Find more books to write about
• Start earning

That should cover all you need to know about how to start a book blog and get going with book blogging. Think I’ve missed something or want to know more? Drop me a DM on Instagram or comment below!

If you found this post helpful, please support me with a small contribution on Ko-Fi. This information was provided free of charge but is invaluable to bloggers and influencers and I’d really appreciate your support!

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24 Bookstagram Props Ideas
A Guide to Affiliate Marketing for Book Bloggers
How I went from 0 to 50,000 followers on Bookstagram
How to Write a Negative Book Review
Book Review Questions To Ask Yourself
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