If you’ve been following me for a while you may be wondering where my book reviews went. Or, you may not have been concerned at all. That’s cool, too. Regardless, I felt like I owed my followers an explanation for why this blog has gone a little dead.
Back in August, I started grad school to get my MFA in Creative Writing, which has been a great experience thus far. However, on top of going to school I’m also a freelance writer, interning at a literary agency, currently working on a novel, running this blog, as well the Tumblr and Instagram pages that go along with it, and because I’m crazy I also started the YA Book Events NYC Twitter. Not to mention, I actually have to have time to read books in order to review them. To say it’s been a lot would be an understatement, which is why, for my sanity, I knew I had to cut back on something.
My decision to stop writing book reviews actually came from a conversation I had with someone in publishing about my future career goals. Ideally, I want to work at a publishing house, specifically as an Editorial or Marketing Assistant, and it was pointed out to me that my reviews can be a little negative sometimes, especially if I really didn’t like a book. While that’s fine and I always want to give you all my honest opinion, they pointed out that if a hiring manager/editor sees I don’t like a book they’ve published they may think I wouldn’t be a good fit because our tastes are different. I’d hate it if my blog was ever the reason why I didn’t get a job, so while I figure out how to tailor my reviews while still being honest, and also because I needed more time for myself, I decided I’d put a brake on them. For now.
In the meantime, I have still been posting occasionally, mostly for YA Book Events NYC, but I also hope to do more lists in the future, like the one I did on Black Friday. That being said, if there are any kinds of posts you’re interested in seeing from me, whether it’s about books, publishing, writing, or life in general, please let me know in the comments. I’m hoping to do a post about how to get ARCs soon since a few of you have asked me about that and I have a few other ideas in the works as well. Thankfully, my first semester is coming to an end soon so I’ll have a little more free time to blog in the upcoming weeks.
Thank you all so much for sticking with me while I try to figure out my next steps. I love discussing books with you all and I do have two ARC book reviews I will be doing soon, so keep an eye out for that. Also, if you have any book recs for me please leave those in the comments as well, because my TBR can never be too long.
Until next time, happy reading!
Zakiya N. Jamal 