"I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved; all the cities I have visited." - Jorge Luis Borges
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Every time I start reading a new book I embark on a new journey. Page after page as the magic of words begins too unveil I am transported to a different world. Slowly the characters of the story began to take shape before my eyes. I actually witness them coming alive. Their pain becomes my pain, their smiles begin to appear on my lips and somewhere along with them I fall in love too maybe with them, maybe with all that they love, maybe with the story or maybe simply with the author.
When I started this blog, I called it my alter ego. My creative writing blog being the happy version while this one was the deep, dark side. It had a lot of my outbursts (still does!) but gradually I started losing my voice till the extent that I reached a phase where I felt I had nothing more left to say to anyone on anything. Nothing was ever planned. The scale at which this blog grew is something that is beyond my wildest dreams, the love and encouragement I have got it overwhelming. From zero to top 25 literary blogs of India, it is surreal.
Over the last few years you might have noticed the blog undergoing quite a few changes. Initially I got selective about the books I review and then gradually I decreased the number of book reviews I have been posting on this blog too to end up not accepting any more books for reviews. That transition is something I want to talk about and confess a few reasons that led to this.
1. Quality
One of the first reasons has to be the quality. Now this includes books and of course the reviews written for them. More importantly, authors no longer want honest reviews, which is something I am not ready to compromise on. Though I have never exactly bashed a book on my blog just for the heck of it, praising a book when its flaws need to be called out is not something I would really want to encourage.
In between I also tried not doing free reviews. Interestingly quite a lot of authors either backed out and the ones who agreed never paid the full amount once the review was live. It left me feeling bitter about it all.
2. Trends
As we have noticed in the last few years, book reviewing and blogging as a whole concept has undergone a huge change. From book bloggers we now have bookstagrammers and book tubers. The need now is for more aesthetic review of a book rather than being purely textual as people no longer want to read lengthy blogs. Short, crisp with a picture that makes you go wow - it is all about creating content which is visually appealing in every way. In a way it is good to see the book lovers community growing, I have always believed the more the merrier.
Moreover it is important to consider what works best for book sales and keep changing your marketing strategy accordingly because as we all know, publishing is not an easy business to be in. No wonder, publishing houses no longer want to invest in bloggers, rather opting for social media influencers to do this job. Not to mention, a lot of best-selling authors have started moving onto bookstagrammers rather than book bloggers who have been officially declared defunct, if I may say so.
Moreover it is important to consider what works best for book sales and keep changing your marketing strategy accordingly because as we all know, publishing is not an easy business to be in. No wonder, publishing houses no longer want to invest in bloggers, rather opting for social media influencers to do this job. Not to mention, a lot of best-selling authors have started moving onto bookstagrammers rather than book bloggers who have been officially declared defunct, if I may say so.
Wait. Professional book reviewers are still relevant? Pretty sure their only readers are the writers of the books they review. Instagram book bloggers do a much better job. Comstructive community building stuff.— Durjoy Datta (@durjoydatta) May 26, 2019
3. Learning
After writing for my blog for close to seven years I felt I was talking to a tailor made audience and never ventured out to look for a wider set of people to discuss about books. I wanted to learn literary criticism and appreciate the art behind it.
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Am I sad? Definitely not, in life the only thing constant is change and so it is time for Lacuna to undergo some changes. It is time for my alter ego to take yet another turn, towards newer avenues and create new destinations. I talk about them for the love of it. Trends never mattered and never will.
From reviewing for authors and publishing houses I would like to make this a place where I talk about my favourites - titles, authors and other aspects of a book that I have loved throughout the years. It is time for me to choose my own reading list and pick favourites. Time to read at my pace and write about them without a worry in mind. After all, it is all about celebrating love for words!
So you will see me participating in readathons, celebrating writer's birthdays, Bookish months and a lot of things on this blog - just trying to find a new reason to talk about the same old books I have been talking about all this while.
