2019 Blogging Goals (Book Dragons India + Book Club Announcement!)

Can you believe how fast December is flying by? I feel like it started just yesterday and yet here I am talking about my plans for 2019! I had a bit of a struggle as to what to write in this post because it mainly functions as an announcement for two very exciting things that I’m officially launching in 2019. Talking about what I want to accomplish next year struck me as the logical extension of the core idea and hence the lengthy, weird title. Without further ado, let me go through my five main goals for Unputdownable Books that will give you an insight into what kind of content to expect next year. The announcements are the end and you can scroll to the bottom if you’re especially interested in that.

#1 Get to 1.5k followers

I currently have 600+ followers on WordPress and I can’t believe I got to this stage at all, especially given my inconsistent posting as well as complete lack of blog hopping and commenting. I’m very thankful to every single person, but I also acknowledge that I can do better, which is what I’m going to try in 2019. Hopefully, that will expand my audience along the way!

#2 Post consistently

I feel like I make the exact same goal every year and fail at it miserably. The main reason is that I have no clarity on what I want to post and when. I write all my posts a few hours before they go up. I want to get better at planning and scheduling content next year, which will in turn lead to consistent posting.

#3 Create more diverse content

This is a bit difficult to explain in a sub-heading, so let me tell you what I mean by ‘diverse’. If you know anything about the book publishing industry, you know that there is a severe lack of diverse voices and good representation in books. Take the fiasco that was the Publisher Weekly’s Person’s of the Year list for 2018 as an example. There are so many things wrong with it that it needs a separate blog post all on its own. However, it does serve to highlight just how bad the situation is even to this day. As an influencer, I have the (very limited yet present) power to uplift and promote marginalized voices within the book community. As a person of colour and an international reader, I’m at certain disadvantages myself and can fully understand the struggles others in the community go through. As a result, I want to create more content that sheds light on the works of people from marginalized communities.

#4 Get better at social media management

This has been one of my weaknesses in 2018. I tried my best and yet I was sporadic at best in creating content and promoting my blog on the social media platforms that I use. I think that it’s because I tried to do too much and didn’t have the time for it. I just need to figure out a better strategy and a better schedule to handle things correctly. I’m currently in the research phase to find out what are the tools available and what my approach should be. I will be sharing everything I’ll be learning along the way on the blog very soon, so keep an eye out for that if you also find this challenging!

#5 Give back to the community

It’s embarrassing that this is even on the list as this is something I want to do without making a big deal out of it because that’s my nature. However, in 2018, I have been the absolute worst at doing this. Due to time constraints, I haven’t been reading blog posts of the people I follow, I have almost completely stopped commenting on them and I do very little to promote them. I feel so guilty every time I think about this, but I’ve embraced the fact that 2018 was the year in which I failed at a lot of things and can only strive to do better going forward.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

#1 Book Dragons India

I tweeted about this a while back but haven’t really spoken about it on other platforms. Book Dragons India is a support group for bloggers that I started a few months back. Any Indian (or an NRI or a person of Indian descent) book blogger/ BookTuber/ Bookstagrammer can join the group! I love being a part of blogger support groups, especially the New Bloggers group started by Evelina @ Avalinah’s Books. However, I felt that as an Indian book blogger, the struggles I was facing were quite different and only people from within the same community can really understand what it means to be a book lover and influencer here. Another reason for starting this is because I feel that there is an atmosphere of competitiveness in the blogging community in India and I want to change this perception. Not only does this diminish opportunities for the individual, it casts the whole community in a bad light. There is so much to be gained by being supportive of others and I really want to bring that experience to the Indian book community. There is a Discord group that’s already been set up and there are a lot of exciting things coming in 2019!

If you’re interested in joining, please let me know in the comments below, or drop me a DM on any of my social media and I’ll send you an invite.

#2 Stars and Sorcery Book Club

I’d been toying around with the idea of a book club for quite a few months now but narrowed down the scope only a few short weeks back. I was most definitely inspired by Shruti @ This is Lit who runs the Banned Book Club, as well as Simant @ Flipping Through the Pages and Fanna @ Fannatality, who run the Classics & Christie Book Club. This is a huge undertaking for me and I really hope this one is received well! This will be a monthly book club starting from 2019 and the aim is to read a science fiction or fantasy book by an author of colour. This fits my goals #3 and #5 perfectly and is a project that is very close to my heart! Anyone with an interest in reading such books is welcome to join! It’s going to be hosted on Twitter and there will be a monthly discussion Twitter chat for each book read. The book pick for January and February 2019 is already decided but after that it will be voted on by the members from a pool of amazing backlist titles as well as new releases.

I’m currently in the process of setting it all up, so send me a DM on Twitter or tell me in the comments below so I can add you to the list of participants!

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What do you hope to accomplish in 2019? Are you planning to join any of the above groups? Do you have any suggestions or tips that might help me? Let me know in the comments section below.