#ArmchairBEA: Blogging Q&A

Design by Amber of Shelf Notes

I have previously written variations on this posts so I’m not going to rehash *everything*. Some of my previous posts have covered:

• Best Blogging Advice
• What I wish I’d known when I started blogging
• Biggest blogger lesson learnt
• Organisation
• Pros and Cons of Blogging

And specifically for authors/publishers looking for a reader/blogger to read their book

• Top 9 tips for your pitch.

About this blog and my journey to here

This blog is hosted by WordPress.com. It has it’s limitations, but it’s free. Things like the editor format is something to be put up with if I’m not prepared to fork out the money and time to have my own blog hosted on a .org version. I’m certainly not getting the traffic or the sponsorship to warrant a move over – yet!

I started out on a previous blog, writing about sewing and crafty stuff. I have recently shut that blog down, and moved the more extensive posts into this blog, and are scheduled into next year. Looking back at my early posts on the original site I realise that I actually needed to be using Twitter instead of writing a blog post!

I have learnt much about blogging even after starting this blog – my original reviews were not as comprehensive as the ones I’m doing now.  Not only am I trying to do more considered reviews (e.g. I have a stock set of questions when I start writing a review, to give me an idea of the things I need to writing about) but I also try to include other interesting links, such as videos, related websites, additional reviews, details about the author etc.

Networking

I do much networking on twitter (@brumnordie). I have lists for things like “Publishers”, “books” etc, which I check on a semi regular basis.  Biggest tip for twitter: interact with people/accounts. If you look like a bot, you will be treated like a bot, and traffic will drop accordingly.  There’s no harm in scheduling tweets, just make it look like there is a human behind the account.

Authors/publishers contact me through twitter, my website or, for the trusted people, direct via email.

I have business cards printed up with my website, twitter and email details and a number of these are always carried on me. You never know when you will get the chance to hand one of them out!  For instance, I recently decided at the last minute to attend a writer/book event and good thing too – had I not, the number of authors at the event would have matched the number of guests! I was able to give out my card to most of the people there to allow them to get in contact if they chose. No loss if they didnt, but at least they have my card.

Where possible I also include the publisher and/or author in at least one tweet, so that they know a review of a specific book has gone up – this allows them to read the review (I never get pre-approval for a review, but sometimes give authors first sight of it) and retweet as appropriate.

No (Wo)Man is an Island

Dont believe the adage of “if you build it they will come”. No they wont. You have to work for it.

• Write great content.
• Publish regularly (the definition of “regularly” depends on you)
• Tell people about it, without being a spam-dick.
• Comment on other people’s posts
• Reply to comments on your posts
• Take part in community events, like this one