What do you think of posting frequency? Is it a Question of Quality over Quantity?
After a year or so of blogging about books, I realised that I had to decide on how frequently I would publish posts and I decided that a post should go out every other day. It allows me to ensure that the blog is regularly updated, but reducing the chance of me (and my readers) getting bored.
With a reasonable number of reviews in my back pocket that I could schedule, it allowed me to look at my reviews critically, and ditch those that – looking back – were seriously lacking. Some still needed work and I had the chance to schedule those posts that were “good enough” whilst working on the others. Some still are not the best reviews I’ve ever written but that’s fine.
I also concentrated on looking for other source material than book reviews. Blog Prompts, author spotlights and interviews. They are still scheduled to be published every two days like all the other posts, but it allows for a variety of posts to be published, and I hope my blog is more interesting for it. Come 2015 however, I’ll review how the performance of this frequency has beenm, and decide what to do in the new year.
I currently have posts scheduled for another few months, but it’s now becoming a little inflexible and hard to know what is where – god forbid that I want to schedule a new post somewhere in the next two weeks – I need to work out which date(s) I can use, then make sure that any posts scheduled for then are moved around accordingly. Therefore I think I will still have a number of posts written and held in the back pocket, reread and reviewed accordingly, and then keep a rolling forward schedule of posts. Writing when i’m in the mood for posts to be scheduled later also means that I can concentrate on the raison d’etre of this blog – reading books – not having to worry about needing to write a review immediately afterwards because I have set some arbitrary date. Which hopefully allows me to finish the book with no pressure, write the review, read it one or more times and do it all again! Sometimes a review can take several attempts, and in some cases, can only be started the first time several days after finishing the book itself.
So, dear reader, how about you? Quality or Quantity in post frequency?
Writing about books 
Wow, you are on the ball. Months out. . . that’s great. I believe in quality first but also quantity. I post every day, but I put a lot of energy into my posts to try and make them all good, although like you I know some are not stellar.
Thanks for the inspiration to schedule ahead!
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I’m not sure I could post daily, as I’m sure I would write drivel in order to get something out.
Scheduling ahead also allows me to group items in a theme, so I can read certain types of books over several months, but do a themed set of posts together (e.g. Christmas or Halloween)
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Months out? Whoa. I’m more a week to week poster, but then I don’t do reviews at all. However, I’m definitely quality over quantity, for myself, but understand for others, like Andi, that it works with both.
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it may well change next year, when I’ve run out of backlog and have to start relying on the books I’ve actually read recently!
It has taken pressure off me recently though, allowing me to tinker with posts and try and make them better without having to get them out there the minute I’ve written them
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I do what I want. Repeating: I do what I want. I don’t worry if I don’t post more than once a week and that post can be itsy-bitsy.
Here’s my Week in Books.
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good for you. it’s your blog, therefore your rules!
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