2023 Here I Come

 

I can't believe it's the beginning of a new year already, which has me questioning, what is time? Typically I would hit you with my goals and bookish bullet journal spreads but this year I'm going to change it up a bit. This post is going to focus on the next phase of the Weekend Reader blog. 

Dun, dun, dunnnnnnnn!

What to expect?

Throughout 2022 I really took a critical look at my content strategy. I changed the formatting and delivery to see what worked and what didn't. Let's just say there were more things that didn't work than did, but I learned a lot along the way. With that being said, I made the decision to move a lot of content to my social media platforms, specifically Instagram. This means the blog will become a place for long-form projects. 

Why and what does long-form projects mean?

Long-form projects are lengthier post (stay with me). I want this blog to be a resource corner, helpful, and mostly intentional. So moving to long-form projects will give me the space to be thoughtful and perhaps educational. Don't worry, you can still expect author interviews, and blog tours (my schedule is updated now), but the bulk of blog content will become reading projects. So expect listicles, book recommendations, book cover pairings etc. to primarily be on Instagram (make sure to follow me @weekendreader_). Yes, I've finally ripped the bandaid off and come to terms that I need to focus my energy there because that's where most of the engagement is generated. Don't worry there will be some cross-posting but I think this makes the most sense and, I will still make appearances on Twitter here and there.

What long-form projects will there be?

Here are the tentative projects. Yes, I'm saying tentative because life be lifing sometimes and I want to be transparent I will adjust if need be...

Project 1-  Read-the-backlist challenge. This project has a list of 50 authors I'm hoping to prioritize throughout the year. This project came out of the tweet below that I'm cheekily referring to as 15 Below. Do you get it ?...authors with 15 or fewer published books 😂

Update I was able to narrow down this thread to 50 authors 😅 I didn't expect so many recs and realized pretty quickly I needed to put myself on a budget ☺️. So now I'm turning it into 2 year long blog projects. I'm still working on the name (1) https://t.co/D4K4RaMZaA

— Weekend Reader- reading & snacking in 2023 (@weekendreader_) October 29, 2022

The plan is to have 4 updates/once per quarter. I have organized the authors into the following categories:

• Starter 1-2 books
• Weekend Sprint 3-4 books
• Level Up 5-9 books
• Pressure 10-15 books

Simultaneously, I will be working to FINALLY finish reading Katrina Jackson's entire catalog. I am dangerously close! Since her catalog is 30 books this category will be known as the Diamond status.  

I will continue to pull from this list as I read books. It's an ambitious project but I think it will help me find more new-to-me authors and also cleanup my Kindle. So stay tuned for the first round at the end of the month. 

The first 10 authors are...

💕Lady Marie | Lauren H. Mae | Cat Giraldo | A.H. Cunningham | 

Ruby Lang | Jodie Slaughter | Kema B | Lucy Eden | Dria Andersen 💕

💗 Katrina Jackson 💗

***Disclaimer the goal here is to give me a lot of flexibility so at a minimum I plan to read at least one book from the list. If I'm digging their writing, I will slot them into a spot once I finish a round. Also, I recognize that authors will be publishing more books, so it's their catalog as of December 2022. 

Project 2 - In My Opinion where I will break down 3 reoccurring bookish discourse to get to the bottom of why the conversation (from my perspective).  Topics/titles are subject to change but these 3 stood out to me last year.

1. Romance is Feminist
2. Authors in Reader Spaces
3. What's the beef between IR and Black Romance readers?

I don't always weigh in on topics so this project will give me an opportunity to say my piece and keep it moving. Not sure if I'm going to be canceled but hey what do I have to lose. If it doesn't work or causes too much additional discourse I will immediately trash the idea.  

Project 3 - Reading and content creation TIPs. Recently I've been getting a lot of questions about my strategies so I figure why not just share out. If there are specific tips you want me to focus on, drop a comment. 

While some of the projects are more provocative, I'm really looking forward to targeted blog content.  Also, my goal really is to be educational with a small dose of get it together. Either way, wish me luck to trying something new.

Are you doing anything different with your content in 2023? Happy Reading!