Not having a favourite genre and how that influences being a book blogger

~ Ally Writes Things

Happy Friday, pals! Today I’m talking about not having a favourite genre and how that impacts being a book blogger.

Honestly, I’ve never really had a favourite genre. Mainly because I have a hard time choosing favourites in general, but also because I genuinely enjoy books from every genre. Every time I think I’ve decided my favourite genre, I think about all the other books I love from not that genre. It doesn’t really influence my life in any meaningful way, but it does impact blogging a bit.

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Having a favourite genre makes it easier to find your people

A lot of bloggers have their main genre, and that’s how they get traction. Particularly, YA is the most popular; those who read YA tend to have the most followers or the most interaction, and the most hyped books recently have, largely, been YA (or mistakenly categorized as YA which is another issue).

Having a favourite genre can make it easier to find your group of people, which can lead to more engagement. Keeping with the YA example, you find other YA bloggers and follow them because you enjoy the same books, and vice versa. You read and recommend YA books, and your followers (in theory) follow you because they enjoy that content. If you read and review popular mystery/thrillers, you’re probably more likely to have engagement from other people who also enjoy primarily mysteries/thrillers.

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Not having a favourite genre can make it harder

First, it’s just harder for non-YA bloggers to be successful in general. How many popular booktubers or bloggers do you follow are solely non-YA bloggers? But that’s another issue.

But also, it’s harder for people to understand what your “thing” is. Do you read mysteries? sci-fi? fantasy? historical fiction? erotica? adult romance? When the answer is no, people can leave feeling confused and with questions: what are you going to read/review/recommend? is it something I’ll be interested in?

I know when I’m looking to follow a blog, I consider whether I’ll enjoy reading their posts, and whether I think they’ll recommend books I’ll actually be interested in reading. Assuming other people are similar, if I don’t recommend a consistent genre, they might not bother, especially if they’re interested in a particular genre. If someone is solely interested in mysteries/thrillers, and I only recommend maybe two books from those genres per year, how likely are they to consistently interact with me?

That’s not to say it’s necessarily “easier” for YA blogs or blogs with one specific genre to do better just based on that. But it is at least one factor that they may not need to think about. Being fair, thought, it’s not really something I think about either, except when it comes up. There are a couple of tags that are genre-specific that I don’t do, or when memes have genre-specific themes for that week.

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Ultimately, I just read the books I want to read and the books I think I’ll find interesting. I know what I like, and that’s all the really matters in the end. Honestly, this isn’t something that bothers me or anything, it’s just something that I wanted to talk about and thought was interesting to think about.

But anyway, please let me know your thoughts! Do you have a favourite genre? Is that mainly what you blog about? Is that what you look for when deciding whether to follow a blog? How do you think it impacts your blogging, if at all? Let me know!

Ally xx

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Published by Ally Writes Things

I like books and talking about my opinions.

53 thoughts on “Not having a favourite genre and how that influences being a book blogger”

  1. Great post Ally!!! I’m like you in that I read all sorts of books and couldn’t limit myself to one genre. I’m sure it impacts my blog follows etc but first and foremost my blog has to feel authentic to me so I don’t let it worry me :)))

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  2. Thank you for a thought provoking discussion post – I also don’t have a favourite genre and haven’t thought about it until now. Maybe we should create our own blog super-genre so people like us can support one another! Personally though, it wouldn’t stop me following a blog if there was no central genre, I like a bit of variety. Your blog is really engaging anyway so you don’t need a genre niche, I especially enjoy your discussion posts like this one!
    📕MP📚 X

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    1. Ahhh thank you so much, you’re too kind! 💖💖

      Yes, a super-genre sounds amazing! And same, I like variety in the bloggers I follow! I personally find it more interesting to read about a bunch of different things rather than one genre all the time.

      💖💖

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  3. I can relate so much to this post. Have heard before that having as much of a specialized (yet fan-filled) niche as possible is best for blogging. Sometimes wondered if 99% of books I read were in one genre, how that might change things. But I can’t imagine reading one type of genre/demographic. :’D Having a free-form blog is just more enjoyable. 🙂

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  4. I like to read all sorts of books. But I tend to read from the same genres… YA… Thrillers… Romance… so I’m in the middle. I love reading nonfiction as well. Adult fiction is great. So are mystery books. There are so many things to read… I can’t imagine not having the choices. I follow blogs because of their personality and no just because they read one type of book. But I can understand how not having a favorite genre can be good and bad. You found who you are as a reader, and that’s most important .

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    1. LOL that’s my struggle exactly! I’m always like, well this genre is great, but wait so is this one, oh and also this one, and I also like this book from this genre.

      Same, I tend to follow bloggers who I enjoy talking to and who don’t annoy me lmao

      Thank you! 💖

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  5. Hi Ally! Like you, I don’t have a favourite genre either – what I read depends largely on my mood. I agree that this makes it harder to get followers/subscribers, but I also don’t want to have to skip reading or stop talking about certain books so I’ve just learnt to live with it. I’ve found that people who follow tend to be those who either have similar non-genre specific tastes or are here because they like my style of reviews.

    I’d love to read about non-YA books being classified as YA – I was not aware of that because… YA is hard to classify with me (especially with NA. I got so confused for a while). Are you planning to write about that?

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    1. Same, I’m such a mood reader! So glad you could relate! I totally agree with what you said about your followers being similarly non-genre specific. I feel like a lot of mine are similar.

      Oooh I hadn’t been thinking about doing a whole post, but I might! Essentially, it comes down to the fact that books written by women are more often categorized as YA than books written by men, despite being clearly written as adult books. I have a whole post on how the book community hates women though (lol) and was thinking about talking about it in that post

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  6. I do have a favorite genre, but it’s a big one: fantasy / sci-fi. (Yes, I lump them together, since sometimes they blend. Also, yes I put fantasy first. That is where my preference is for books.) On the other hand, I’ve never fussed much about having a big following. I like interacting with my followers, but it doesn’t bother me if I have posts that don’t get any comments. I blog for myself first, though I know not everyone does it that way.

    I like following bloggers who have different favorite genres than I do. It’s one great way to branch out my reading. If I followed only people who read the same genre I did, I wouldn’t be introduced to as many great novels outside my usual selection.

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    1. Fantasy/sci-fi is definitely a huge genre haha but it’s also very popular, I feel like.

      I totally agree, honestly. I ultimately started my blog because I wanted to talk about books. So whether I have a large or small following, as long as I can talk to people, I’m happy.

      Same!! I’ve discovered so many new and interesting books because the people I follow have different tastes than me

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      1. I’m always interested to get book examples when someone says fantasy / sci-fi is their favorite genre! I mean, are they talking high fantasy, or magical realism, or urban fantasy? Or do they prefer hard or soft sci-fi? There are so many options. I think that’s why I like the genre so much. There’s so much versatility.

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  7. Fantastic post Ally! I’m exactly the same as you I think I have a favourite and then it changes. In fact when I first started blogging I was really into crime fiction and followed a load of crime fiction blogs, but now I rarely read crime. I’m very much a mood reader too and will read whatever I fancy at the time.

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    1. Thank you, Nicki! ❤

      Yes!! It's so interesting to see how your reading evolves over time. I used to love dystopian novels, and I've moved away from them now. But I'm also such a mood reader, so I really just read whatever I want!

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  8. Aah what a great post! I’m a mood reader and can’t for the life of me just stick to one or two genres. If I fancy the synopsis, I’m in! Such an interesting read, thanks for sharing 😊

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  10. I’m a mood reader and what genre I read will vary greatly through the year. This summer and early fall I’ve really caught up with a lot of fantasy that I’ve been wanting to read for a long time. Currently I’m moving more towards mysteries and thrillers. Despite having periods of time where I read more of one genre I still read quite a few books from other genres at the same time. It’s just for a shorter og longer period of time I read a lot more from one genre than others.

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    1. I’ve really neglected fantasy lately, even though it used to be one of my favourite genres. I definitely find that mystery/thrillers are great for the fall, though!

      But I totally agree about being a mood reader! I really just read whatever I feel like

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  11. I’m right there with you. This year I’ve been actually going out of my way to read a little bit from EVERY genre, and I notice that my stats haven’t kept up like they did back when I read more YA. I definitely think that people are less likely to click on my reviews because what the heck is that book even? But I’m doing it for me, not for them, so whatevs. For what it’s worth, I love the bloggers I follow who post a lot of variety!

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    1. Ahhh so glad you agree and can relate! It’s so nice to read from different genres, honestly. But I feel you! Especially reading older books, where the hype has passed, I feel like people don’t really read reviews all that much.

      But doing it for yourself and enjoying it is the most important part!

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  12. I have no niche either 😀 so I just follow bloggers with different favourite genres, making my feed more like my TBR: completely mixed up genrewise! I can completely relate to your thoughts

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  14. YA is definitely my fave genre, but I’ll often follow blogs even if they’re not consistently recommending YA books. I actually prefer blogs that recommend a variety of books including ones outside my comfort zone, because I want to be challenged in my reading! Great discussion, you raised a lot of interesting points! 😃

    💛 Ngoc

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  15. It definitely seems like book communities spring up around specific genres, and I agree that it’s probably a lot easier to brand yourself if you stick to one specific genre. But like you, I tend to just read what I like and not worry so much about the genres (though I do have a few specific genres I tend to gravitate towards!). It might make blogging or finding your community a bit harder, but we’ll get there eventually!

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  18. I definitely get where you’re coming from. My favourite genre is fantasy (usually YA) and if I post about a book that’s not, less people engage with that. Also, I thought I’d mention that YA is not a genre but an age group. But I understand why you’d single out YA, since most popular books on blogs and bookstagram are YA. I think that’s kind of sad though. Because of that, less popular books don’t have the chance to become popular, simply because everyone talks about the same (YA) books.
    Great post!

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    1. Yes, thank you for mentioning that! It actually bothers me when people use YA as a genre because, as you said, it’s an age group. You can YA fantasy or YA contemporary, etc. So saying something is YA doesn’t really tell me anything about the plot of the book. But I find that YA is definitely the most popular or most talked about age group.

      But yes, everyone talks about the same predominantly YA books. Which is great for those books, but there are amazing, less popular books that should be highlighted.

      Thank you! 💕

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  19. Great post! I read pretty widely as well and have also really struggled with finding the right audience for my taste. On the plus side, it means I can follow just about anyone, but it limits how many people decide to follow me, and I can never predict how well a post is going to be received. I just want to talk about books, so even finding a few people to interact with has been wonderful, but your description of this struggle is so apt!

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    1. Thank you! 💕

      Yes, exactly! I follow so many different blogs, but they don’t always follow back (not that they need to, but the fact that I don’t read the same genre as they do is probably a factor). And same! Sometimes random reviews do well, while others don’t, and there’s no real way to predict why that happens.

      But I’m so glad you relate!

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  21. I think this is a really interesting thought as when I was researching what makes a blog successful people always talked about brand and consistency which can link to having a favourite book genre so like-minded people can follow you. I definitely think YA is popular and being a reader who mostly reads YA, I do like to follow blogs with YA books or fantasy but not to say I wouldn’t follow other blogs as I like to try new genres but knowing the books that a blogging is talking about does have an appeal.
    I definitely think views are affected when you differ from what you are known to talk about for example I am predominantly a book blogger and when I post about films, it does get less engagement which I expect so it could be a similar thing with book genres.
    But I do believe that you should post and read what you want as your blog is always for you but it interesting to see how these things could affect things like traffic.
    Great post!!

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    1. Yes! It seems like all blogging advice is “have a specific brand and stick to it”. But what if my specific brand is I read whatever I want?

      But I totally agree re: knowing the books a blogger talks about. When I was first starting my blog, I would look for books I knew and followed people who had similar tastes. It’s also great to be able to talk about the book someone is reading or reviewing.

      Yes, I totally see that too! When I post non-bookish things, my views and engagement often go down.

      Thank you, Sophie! 💕

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  22. I don’t have a favorite genre. I read far too widely across genres and age range to consider having a favorite genre. On my blog I focus mainly on backlist and lesser known books.

    This is my first year blogging and I have yet to gain a following. Hopefully with time and slowly engaging with the book community that will happen.

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    1. Ahhh so glad you could relate! I think promoting backlist and lesser known books is so important. Hyped books are great, but there are so many other great books out there we should be reading, too.

      It takes time to get a following, for sure! Engaging in the community is, I find, the most important thing. You can find your people and support each other

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  25. This was a super interesting discussion I stumbled upon after someone linked your post. While I do read a wide variety of genres, I do have a tendency to focus my reviews on YA and fantasy… hmm. I guess I figured that’s what people will be interested in. The book community can be very “niche” when it comes to what books are read and it’s hard to feel connected if you’re not reading all the hyped books for sure. Great post!

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