Memories, like the corners of my mind…I can’t finish that song. I don’t want to infuriate Babs Streisand copyright lawyer.
Eight years ago in March I started this exceptional blog and eight years later, I have acquired upwards of 3.5 readers. How do I do it? Beats me.
2021 and as it turns out, 2022 thus far have been sad in the life of BQB. However, I am confronting a lot of my mistakes and problems and ultimately, hoping for five minutes of peace and contentment before I reach the end of my life’s journey, hopefully longer yet.
Anyway, here are some thoughts as I look back at eight years of bloggery:
#1 – The coolest thing I did on this blog was #31zombieauthors. Feel free to search this site for that hashtag if you like. Each day in Halloween of 2015 I posted a different interview of an author of zombie fiction and was surprised to actually score a few decent sized names in zombie lore and/or self publishing.
#2 – I self published my first book on Amazon in 2017. I self published a second one in 2018 but took it off because it didn’t really go anywhere (it was intended as a series I never got around to continuing.
#3 – Terrible as the pandemic was, especially at its height, I managed to use the time for a lot of writing. I self published 7 short stories and a collection of those stories, bringing my overall Amazon catalog to 9 books.
#4 – I’m due to self publish Shop Buddy this year and I think I might be able to self publish one book every third of the year i.e. by May 1, Sept 1 and Jan 1 2023.
#5 – I used to get a lot more comments and readers chiming in but that stopped. It might have been because my blog was new in the early years but I used to put my work into it whereas I eventually realized I don’t have enough time for everything, so I turned my attention to self publishing and less on blogging. I did blog once a day in 2015 which helped build the blog up, even though it only has 3.5 readers.
Anyway, thank you for being my 3.5 readers. Travel down the road and back a-geeters? Your hearts are true, you’re my pals and my confidants.
SIDENOTE: My main regret for this fine blog? In the beginning, I just wanted to get into blogging so I came up with a random idea to snap a pic of some action figures on my bookshelf. My idea was that I was going to post book reviews and post the books I reviewed in the midst of action figures doing funny things on said bookshelf.
But that was too much work. For a long time I did character posts, writing columns as silly characters.
Now it is pretty just me and my movie reviews. Things evolve I suppose.
Oh, my regret. Yeah, I’d pick a name other than Bookshelf Q. Battler. I knew nothing of self publishing when I first started blogging, but once I blogged about writing, I dove down the rabbit hole, learning all about people who have successfully built their own book publishing businesses and I wanted in. So if I’d known that from the start, I’d pick a cool name like Lance Hardrock or something. I’ve noticed writers with even ridiculous nom de plumes get more respect if their fake names are at least names. Meanwhile half my Amazon reviews are like, “Fuck you! You’re an inanimate object!” I mean they obviously arent that bad but it feels like there’s a weird psychological thing where people are cool posting smack about a dude named after an inanimate object whereas people are like “I cant hurt Dirk Rippedpecs’ feelings!”
In short I wish I’d known up front that this would eventually morph into a blog about my self publishing endeavors and movie reviews. I would have picked a cooler name up front.
I suppose it’s not too late to become Lance Hardrock. I only have 3.5 readers but then again, that’s better than the 0 readers I began with.
Bookshelf Battle 
I second the name idea. And, if you want more readers and commenters, you have to read and comment on their blogs.
Okay; Mom moment is over now…
Well…I mean Bookshelf Q Battler is on all my books now. I didn’t really set out to become a self publisher but it morphed into that. But I definitely see a psychological component when it comes to picking pen names. Your name could be like Fred Winkybuttons and people writing reviews will be like, “Meh I don’t want to hurt Fred’s feelings, I’ll hold back” but with Bookshelf Q Battler they let it all hang out. I think unfortunately I’m stuck with it unless I want to pay to have Fred Winkybuttons put on the book covers instead.
You could be like Dwayne Johnson.
Fred “Bookshelf Q. Battler” Winkybuttons
The Winkybuttons formerly known as BQB.
Plenty of writers have changed their names so I’d say have at it. Heck, I think Dean Koontz had like a half a dozen pen names, maybe a dozen?, before he became DEAN KOONTZ. And the upside to that was that he republished some of his early books under his DEAN KOONTZ name thereby doubling his profits with only having to change two words. Pick a few new names and throw them out there and let the 3.5 vote and then take it from there.
Eh, thanks but I’m too lazy. I’ll stick with BQB for the forseeable future. You know I’ve learned in life if you remove the thing people criticize you about, they’ll just move on to the next thing.