Want to share your latest reads, land early review copies, or connect with fellow book lovers? If so, it might be time to learn how to start a book blog of your own.
Ready to turn the page? Here’s how to claim your bookish home on the web.
What is a book blog?
A book blog is any blog focused on reading, writing, or the publishing world, whether it features long-form essays, author interviews, reviews, recommendations, or industry insights.
Even if blogging feels overlooked in 2025, the past year has proven the value of owning your content and controlling its distribution. Whether platforms are shutting down, changing their terms of service, or updating their algorithms, having a standalone blog on an open source platform like WordPress makes your content more resilient to a changing media landscape.
Plus, blogging doesn’t prevent you from having a thriving presence on #BookTok, Bookstagram, BookTube, r/books, or other popular social media platforms; a book blog simply gives your content a home base that you own.
Planning your book blog
Before jumping into blogging, you should spend some time deciding what your blog is about and how you will set yourself apart from other book blogs on the web.
Choose your niche
A niche is a unique topic that the majority of your content is focused on. It can be broad, such as “romance novels,” or specific, like “cozy mysteries set in 1920s England.”
When choosing a niche, passion matters. You want to pick something you’ll still be excited to write about months from now. It’s also helpful to select a topic you have some experience with or insight into—it’ll make creating content easier and more authentic.
Whatever you choose to focus on in the book blogging universe, your blog should be specific, memorable, and easy to explain. If you can’t explain your blog in one sentence, you may need another edit.
Set your goals
Setting realistic goals for your blog’s first few months or first year can help you stay focused and motivated. However, be aware that it may take time to find your groove and grow your blog’s audience. Small, well-defined goals can keep you on track.
Your goals could be related to the number of posts you publish each month, your monthly website visitors, or your newsletter subscriptions. Start small and talk with others in the community to ensure you’re setting yourself up for success from the get-go.
Monetizing your blog
Book bloggers are often paid in the most precious of resources: books! In fact, established bloggers may be asked by publishers or writers within their focus area for a book review in exchange for an advance copy of their book. This is an amazing opportunity to get an early look at some of the hottest books in your industry and write one of the first reviews.
Beyond free books, there are several other popular ways to monetize your blog (or fund your reading habit).
- Donations: Many creators are adopting donation-based models to support their art. One benefit of accepting donations on your own website is not having to pay for third-party services or implement tricky embed codes. For example, WordPress.com allows you to accept donations and tips directly on your website with drag-and-drop blocks.
- Subscriptions: Another monetization option is subscriber-only content, either in the form of “locked” posts on your blog or via a subscription newsletter. If you’re interested in offering subscription-based content now or down the line, make sure your platform supports it. With WordPress.com, paid content and newsletter functionality are included in your hosting plan at no additional cost.
- Ads: If you have a large bookish community, you can host ads on your site to bring in extra income. Ad income is generally based on ad views and clicks, so the more traffic your site gets, the more ad income you’ll make.
These are just three options for monetizing a book blog, but the opportunities are endless. If your blog is built on WordPress.com, you can add additional monetization options to your site via blocks.
Your blog setup
Once you have your plan, it’s time to choose where you’ll actually build your blog. While this may sound overwhelming, there are just three main components: blogging platform, web host, and domain name.
1. Choose a blogging platform
A content management system (CMS) is the underlying software you use to create and publish content on your website, without coding everything from scratch.
Not all blogging platforms offer the same flexibility and ownership. That’s why we recommend bloggers use WordPress, the free and open source CMS that powers over 43% of all websites.
Unlike other proprietary publishing platforms that are owned and maintained by private hosting companies (like Squarespace, Wix, or Substack), WordPress allows you to maintain complete control and ownership over your site and its content. If you ever want to change your hosting provider, you can easily download and move your website and content without hassle or restriction.
Plus, even non-technical users can build beautiful, highly responsive drag-and-drop websites that can grow to meet their evolving needs.
2. Choose a web host
While WordPress is the tool you use to create and manage your blog, you also need a web host to put your website online so others can see it. All websites are located on physical servers, a type of computer that remains online and sends your website data to visitors when they click on your website’s web address.
Companies that manage these servers and connections are called web hosts or simply hosts. Hosts fall into two categories: unmanaged hosting, which is cheaper but requires the website owner to control the technical setup and maintenance, and managed hosting, where the host manages the setup and maintenance of your site’s server and security on your behalf. For peace of mind and ease of use, most non-technical users choose managed hosting.
Whatever direction you choose, make sure to review a potential host’s uptime (how often your website is online and working as expected), built-in security features, and speed. You’ll find a few more important considerations in our guide on types of web hosting as well.
For managed hosting, WordPress.com offers fast, reliable, and secure managed hosting. Our hosting scales with you, and even our free plans include essential managed features. Plus, all plans come with unlimited traffic, so you’ll never have to worry about extra fees for being successful.
We manage infrastructure, updates, backups, and security so you can focus on content, not upkeep. This means that once you sign up for a WordPress.com hosting plan, you’ll get a WordPress site that’s ready for your own design, ideas, and storytelling.
3. Buy a domain name
Once you’ve selected your hosting provider, you’ll need to purchase a unique address on the web for your blog: a domain name! You can use a domain search tool, such as our domain suggestion tool, to determine which domains are available.
However, domain pricing depends on your domain name provider, so be sure to shop around and compare options. If you decide to host your site on WordPress.com, a domain of your choice will be free for one year with any annual hosting plan.
Check if your domain includes features like domain privacy and SSL certificates. Some providers may surprise you with additional charges for these services at checkout, but all domains sold on WordPress.com come with free domain privacy and SSL certificates included.
If your first domain choice isn’t available, there are some alternatives. For example, while .com URLs are most popular, they’re not the only option; you could consider alternatives like .net, .blog, or even .page!
Designing and launching a WordPress blog
Once you’ve decided to move forward with using the internet’s most popular website builder, WordPress, let’s get you from outline to launch.
Select a WordPress theme
With WordPress themes, you don’t need to be a professional designer to have a beautiful blog.
Themes are pre-packaged designs created by WordPress designers and developers that contain pre-selected fonts, colors, and layouts for a cohesive website experience. If you want to venture outside of those pre-selected fonts, colors, and layouts, you can—a theme just gives you a starting point so you don’t need to design your site from scratch.
If you host your website on WordPress.com, you get access to free and premium themes that are responsive and fully customizable. With plenty of blog-specific themes to choose from, you’ll be able to customize your blog’s aesthetic to match your style and brand.
When choosing a theme, focus on more than just the visual: ensure that your theme offers comprehensive layouts for all your pages and is responsive for optimal viewing on mobile devices, as most website traffic now comes from mobile devices.
To view a WordPress.com theme’s responsiveness:
- Click on the theme’s Preview button.
- Use the drop-down menu in the preview window to view a mobile and tablet version of the theme.
WordPress.com offers new, custom themes to paid users each month. In addition to these themes, you can also buy themes from third-party designers and install them on our Business plan and above.
Install essential plugins
One of the coolest things about WordPress is its vast library of plugins, or add-ons that extend your site’s functionality.
Even though users on the Business plan and above can install third-party plugins, many WordPress.com features come built-in, like SEO tools, security, social sharing, and performance optimization, powered by Jetpack. That means you may not need extra plugins to get the functionality most bloggers rely on.
If you aren’t using WordPress.com’s Jetpack-boosted hosting, or maybe you’re still interested in using third-party plugins, here are some plugin categories new book bloggers may be interested in:
- Security: Protect your literary haven from hackers, malware, and other threats with security plugins like WordFence, All in One Security, and the standalone Jetpack Security.
- SEO: Tools like Yoast SEO, All in One SEO, and Rank Math help optimize your content for search engine rankings.
- Social sharing: Social sharing plugins, such as AddToAny and Blog2Social, make it easy to distribute your blog content across multiple social networks and encourage readers to follow you on various platforms.
- Optimization: If your site loads too slowly, potential readers may leave before they get a chance to read your best takes. To ensure fast website speeds, consider using plugins for image compression, such as ShortPixel, Smush Image Optimization, or Jetpack Boost.
- Book blogging tools: Plugins like WordPress Books Gallery and Osom Author Pro provide layout and feature options specifically for book bloggers.
When comparing plugins, consider reviewing the plugin’s ratings, the last update date, and the number of active installations to ensure it is comprehensive and well-supported.
Many plugins offer free versions with premium upgrades available as your blog grows. Only install the plugins you need, as too many plugins can slow down your site.
Create website pages
In addition to your blog content, you may want to consider adding a few additional sections or pages to your blog:
- Homepage: You can use your homepage to display a ton of different information about your website’s purpose. It can include your blog feed, or it could be more of a static landing page that helps new visitors understand what your site is about and the kind of content you’re hoping to publish. On WordPress, you can edit your theme’s default homepage or set a custom page as your homepage.
- Blog: By default, WordPress shows your latest blog posts on your homepage, no additional setup required. If you decide to use a static homepage instead, you’ll just need to assign another page to display your blog post feed. You can configure this by going to Settings → Reading in your dashboard and selecting your desired blog feed page in the Posts page setting. You can then navigate to the Posts area in your dashboard to start publishing blog content.
- About: Here, you can explain the focus of your blog and what kinds of content you plan to post there. This should be easily accessible from your homepage.
If you aren’t sure what other pages you need, take a look at other blogs you love for inspiration. Add new pages any time by navigating to Pages → Add Page in your WordPress dashboard.
Create excellent content
Create a few initial posts that capture the essence of your blog’s theme and goals. While you don’t need to write a Tolstoy-length post, blog posts around 1,500-2,000 words tend to perform best in Google search rankings.
Starting with your first blog post, establish a clear content structure using categories (like book reviews, author interviews, or recommendations) to help readers navigate your growing content library. Plus, for sites hosted on WordPress.com, your content can appear in relevant channels in the WordPress.com Reader to get in front of even more people.
Plan to publish consistently—whether that’s weekly, biweekly, or monthly—and consider creating an editorial calendar to keep yourself accountable.
For more tips, check out our guides on how to write a blog post and how to write a blog post outline.
Give your posts some visual flair
Even though your readers may be a bit more word-forward than your average internet user, you still need to ensure that your site is visually interesting if you want to capture readers’ attention.
Most book reviewers choose to include photos of the covers of the books they’re discussing. Using images of the cover you find online could get you into copyright trouble, so consider taking your own photographs. You can use simple photos of the cover or include simple props, but keep the focus on the book and avoid clutter. You can also create custom graphics using popular design tools like Canva.
Spread the word
Even the most brilliant book blogs need to build a reader base! Cross-post your content on social media and join bookish communities on the web to build your brand and reputation.
Book blogging is particularly community-focused, so don’t forget to read and comment on fellow bloggers’ content to create a thriving and supportive community of book lovers.
Remember that building a following takes time. Focus on consistently creating high-quality content to keep readers coming back.
For a more in-depth breakdown of setting up your blog, check out our companion post on how to start a successful blog.
In (book) review: start a book blog with WordPress.com
While starting a new blog may feel overwhelming, the book blogging community is supportive, passionate, and always ready to welcome new voices to celebrate the authors, stories, and worlds they love.
And by starting your book blog on WordPress.com, you get a second support system on your creative journey, with hosting, domains, performance, and support all in one seamless platform.
