Dear UKYA blogging community: don’t get your knickers in a twist.

I love you very much. Lots of you are great friends – we’ve had super times talking and reading and partying together. But recently, we’ve been going through a few existential crises. A few comments from authors, or by publicists in emails, have had us flustered. We feel like we’re being treated unfairly for something that is really just a hobby, professional as we may sometimes seem. We feel like we’re being undervalued, or dismissed, for the time we spend reading, reviewing and tweeting about books. On top of that, some of us have decided that we do not want to review books anymore, because reviews are our least-read content and some of us struggle with them. And these feelings are valid.

But…

I’m here to say; IT’S ALL OKAY. Let’s not forget why we are here: because we fucking love reading. And yes, some people have been a bit silly about how they treat us, but it isn’t the majority view. WE’RE HERE TO BLOG AND AIN’T NOBODY GONNA STOP US! Those who dismiss us are only hurting themselves. We have a voice, and we can argue all day about how potent it is, but we will still have a voice. We do not need to be recognised by publishers to validate our existence. We do not need to be universally praised all the time. What we need is to love reading. Our commitment to authors is a commitment we have brokered ourselves, and it’s a contract with terms we can change at any time we want. So be courageous. Be hopeful. Be headstrong. And do what you want. The only boss you have is yourself; use your blog in the way you want to, review as, when and how you wish and read on your own schedule. Let the party continue!

AS YOU WERE, FOLKS!