This week’s question comes from Rukky, who asks:
Prompts: Do bloggers owe their readers anything? Do bloggers deserve anything from their readers? Do you think there’s a specific etiquette that bloggers/readers should follow when interacting? Do you as a blogger pressure yourself to provide certain things to your readers? Do you do certain things when you read a blog post?
I don’t think that we OWE each other anything beyond a basic level of respect. When I read a post, I do try to respond to something that resonates with me, and when someone responds to one of my posts, I try to acknowledge it, even if I can’t respond.
I think that a lot of what we are doing here it interactive, so commenting and responding should be the goal, even if we fall short due to time constraints.
As for what I try to provide to my readers, well…I try to be honest about what I think about a book (or a prompt). I try to post the things that I say I will. I try to post regularly, 5-6 times a week if I can. I try to be entertaining. I try to be interesting. I don’t always succeed at all of those things, but I do try!
What about you? If you are a blogger, what do you think you should be giving your readers? If you are a reader, what are you looking for from your bloggers? I’ll take your specific lessons in the comments.
The Let’s Talk Bookish meme is hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion.
fifty-two 
Well, as a blogger, the one thing I think I should be giving my readers is cash, as I have no issues with buying folks off and then convincing myself that the positive response I get in return is legitimate.
“Cash? Dude, seriously? You have no cash”
“Son of a bitch”
Truthfully, as a reader, I don’t read a lot of blogs but I do read a lot of current pieces from numerous sources I admire that send me way too many emails and all I’m looking for is something that I know someone is vested in, a something that they care about. I just want to read their honesty, and you my friend have that covered. Hell, I’m never going to read all the books you recommend (you lapped me on my books read in the last number of years just on your way to the kitchen – plus you’re a freak) but I read about them because I can feel that honesty, the care … and then you get all witty and stuff.
You said it best. All we owe each other, blogger to reader, reader to blogger, is a basic level of respect in the back and forths. The knowledge that we’re not just glad handing, or glad reading, that we’ve actually spent the time.
“What ARE you doing?!”
“Looking for cash”
“Really?”
“What?!”
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Very nice post
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Good answers. My post will be up on Sunday.
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My post sounds very similar to yours, neither “owes” the other anything though commenting on posts and responding to comments in some way feels a polite thing to do. Shame life sometimes gets in the way!
Happy blogging AND reading.
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Perfect answers! I agree 100%. Thanks!
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As a reader I do tend to think that once a blogger sets an expectation of a schedule it’s only polite to let their readership know when that schedule is changing. And that’s true even if it’s not a hard and fast X posts a week, or always post on a given day — if a pattern of regular intervals between posts has been established then it’s polite to let the readership know when that pattern is going to be modified.
I definitely understand that life happens and things come up — I in no way expect a blogger to be a slave to the schedule of posts. But on the other hand it isn’t polite to alter things without letting the readers know. Whether thats announcing ahead of time that the blog will be taking a little time off for the holidays / vacation or trying their best to at least leave a quick note if something came up and the next normal post is going to be late or just have to be skipped.
But beyond politeness I don’t think the blogger and the reader necessarily owe each other anything.
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Content-wise, I don’t think anything is owed, but I do agree about respect and interaction. Also, honesty, in our reviews. Honesty is slightly objective since it’s all in the wording and perception but at least to do our best to respectfully tell about our reading experience – good and not so good.
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Exactly. I just owe anyone that reads the blog an honest reflection of my experience. 🙂
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I don’t think we owe each other anything except respect. I think the book blogging community does that pretty well cos in my time blogging I’ve (thankfully) never had nasty comments left on my posts/pages, and neither have I seen it on anyone else’s posts that I follow. I like to think that we all understand and respect what we’re doing when it comes to blogging cos so many of us do it on our own time and for our own enjoyment; there’s no need to bring negativity to it! I love interacting with bloggers and blog hopping as much as I can (even though it can’t always happen)!
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