At least on a weekly basis I see articles discussing Imposter Syndrome in a professional context. But somehow I’ve never out it into context with Book Blogging.

• The Prompt
  • About Let’s Talk Bookish
• Bookish Thoughts on Imposter Syndrome
  • Am I even justified in having Imposter Syndrome?
• The Queer’s Tips to Tame Imposter Syndrome

The Prompt

This week’s prompt might be my favourite one ever not only because it’s something I’ve struggled with in my blogging journey but also because I feel like it doesn’t get talk about: Imposter Syndrome.

About Let’s Talk Bookish

Let’s Talk Bookish is a bookish meme created by Rukky @ Eternity Books where bloggers write posts discussing the topic of the week each Friday! Now it’s run by Aria @Book Nook Bits. Here are the other prompts for May 2023.

Bookish Thoughts on Imposter Syndrome

You might have noticed that my blogging hasn’t been as regularly as it has been before. Without checking to make sure when exactly it began, I would pinpoint it to somewhere in 2021. There have been a few attempts to pick it up again, but so far they haven’t been very successful.

I considered stopping altogether a few times, but obviously, that didn’t happen. And hopefully, it never will. But the feeling of trying to keep up with the “successful bloggers” – which are all the others, btw – and losing big time has played a huge part in my thinking about putting The Queer Bookish to its grave.

There are a few aspects I know I could do better in. And that “could do” better very quickly becomes “should do” better and then “have to do” better, otherwise I’m not a book blogger. Social media very quickly comes to mind, especially bookstagram. I feel very awkward participating in Bookstagram for reasons I can’t really point out. One of them is the feeling of not knowing what I’m doing, and therefore feeling ashamed.

The solution to this would be of course to simply do, how will I ever learn if I don’t practice, right? But to practice I need to research first, because that’s a thing I do. And there lies the problem: Knowing when I have researched enough to justify putting it into practice.

This is an especially huge problem when I know others will see my efforts. Using YouTube I taught myself to knit. More or less. So far I can’t do anything complicated but I can knit scarves, hats, blankets, and socks. They are good enough to be gifted to other people. And honestly, there hasn’t been any research before putting it into practice. I found a video I could follow along and I simply did. Making many mistakes, starting anew, making a mistake I could live with, and knitting on. The journey was a bit longer, but I guess you get the gist.

Am I even justified in having Imposter Syndrome?

There is a voice telling me very loudly I’m not even remotely successful enough to be allowed to feel like an Imposter.

Objectively speaking, I’m not up with the huge bloggers.

But I don’t need to be. I’m successful in the sense of blogging on my own since 2015, which is… quite a while. Am I satisfied with everything I’ve written? Of course not. But I acknowledge the effort I put into it, the openness to simply try things, the freedom to change things up when I felt like it.

I’m especially proud of me finding my niche. Before I put the label queer onto my blog I felt like trying to be one of the others. One like the others. Now I’m simply doing my thing, and it has helped me immensely to know the identity of my blog. One could think putting a label on your blog could become very restrictive very quickly.

To me, it’s the opposite. I feel very secure in what I am blogging about and I can participate in all the memes I want to participate in – while knowing exactly which twist to give the prompt to make it mine.

Also, objectively speaking. My book blogging has helped me more than once in my professional life, it gave and still gives me a lot of practice and experience – and I’m not ashamed to list it when applying for a job. Side note: That way I can also weed out all the queerphobic assholes to make sure I end up in a safe work environment.

I’m gonna stop here before my reply to Book Blogger’s Imposter Syndrome reads even more like a journal entry than it already does. But I want to give you a few tips that have helped me whenever I feel like being an Imposter in the book blogging community.

The Queer’s Tips to Tame Imposter Syndrome

• Write down everything you have accomplished with your blog so far. What are you proud of? What do you want to become better in?
• Write down solutions for those things. Do you want to blog more often? Try something new? How could you do that?
• Reach out to other bloggers and simply talk about whatever. Or react to something they have posted.
• Take a step back and allow yourself to pause. You don’t have to be a book blogger 24/7. Burn out can always happen and your (mental) health always comes first.
• Sometimes it helps to go back to the beginning and remember your reason for becoming a book blogger.
• Define success without falling back into numbers. Don’t look at the number of followers, comments, etc.
• Focusing only on one aspect at a time, make a smart goal and work on it.

How do you handle Book Blogger Imposter Syndrome?