Name Emma
Age 25
Location Bristol
Blog URL Mab is Mab
What is your blog about?
Books, reading and writing. I review books I’ve read and share little life catch-ups and bookish discussions every week.
Is this your first blog?
No, I used to write lots of different blogs on different topics (beauty, fashion, food and books) but this is the one that lasted when I left the laid back life of a student and started working!
When did you start your current blog?
Mab is Mab has been around since 2010, but only properly refined to a book blog in the last couple of years.
What made you do it?
I love writing, and I actually missed writing essays about the books I was reading when I left college (geek!) so I started up the blog.
What was your first blog post about?
My first ever blog post was about a piece of artwork I had found on DeviantArt and how much I loved it/wanted it!
What do you think is the most useful tool to you as a blogger?
My notebook! It’s great for scribbling down ideas quickly, getting my reviews ordered right, highlighting important features and review due-dates etc. In a digital world, I would be lost without paper!
Do people in your real life know about your blog? If no, why? Do you purposefully keep it a secret?
A few of my friends and family know about my blog, but they are those who have asked, or suggested that I blog anyway! I don’t introduce myself as “the person that writes Mab is Mab” to new people. I like to keep my blog very separate from my work life in particular, as I read for escapism from the kind of daily routine that work is part of, and my blog is an extension of that.
Having said that though, if anyone asks, I love talking about my blog! I just don’t bring it up.
What has been the one thing (blog post, project, etc) that you have been really proud of?
I took part in a short story feature with a colleague and fellow book blogger, where we wrote a short story every day for a week on the roll of a dice. We worked really hard and although the stories we came up with aren’t refined literary gems, I’m really proud of what we did!
Where do you see your blog in a year?
Hopefully on the blog list of all the major UK publishers! And hopefully on my own self-hosted blogging platform, too.
What do you wish you knew when starting your blog?
You get what you give. At the beginning I wasn’t doing any of the “support work” behind the scenes of the blog. I was putting my content out there and hoping people fell onto it and in love with it. I know better now!
What do you wish you know more about now?
How to move to WordPress.org without destroying everything I’ve worked to create so far on Blogger! haha! It’s a very scary move, I hope I can get it to go smoothly with the help of others who have done the same thing.
How do you keep motivated to post?
To be honest, the books and the community of friends that surround book blogging keep me motivated without much effort. A good book makes me want to shout about it, and the bloggers in the book community are always coming up with new and interesting features to be part of. I haven’t ever reached a point where I haven’t wanted to blog.
Anything else you’d like to add?
If you are thinking about starting up a new blog, give a lot of thought to your platform. I feel that by choosing Blogger when I started, I was given design freedom (which was awesome, as I am a designer when not blogging!) but I feel that I am constantly at Google’s mercy which is why I am now looking to switch to WordPress.org – it’s havoc when trying to monitor analytics on your blog when your provider is always tinkering with search details and follower devices!
