Book Bloggers Association

One of the goals of the BBA is to bring book bloggers together and to share our knowledge with each other. Therefore, we created a new series  called “Ask the Bloggers” in which we ask questions and solicit answers from the book blogging community. It turns out that Emily’s Reading Room has been running a similar series called the Blogger Confidential for quite awhile, and doing a great job with it!

Since we don’t want to duplicate what Emily has been doing, the BBA will make this the last Ask The Bloggers post and will switch to promoting Emily’s Blogger Confidential. We’ll also be adding a link to the Blogger Confidential to our Resources page so that you can stay up to day. In the meantime, once you’ve finished reading this final set of Ask the Blogger answers, please visit Emily’s Blogger Confidential. We think you’re going to love it!

What has been your favorite book blog event? What was it about that event that you like so much?

My favorite event is one that we held on Eve’s Fan Garden. We recently ran a week long summer chat series, Camp Eve. For seven days, we had camp themed events on the blog. As Donna Hale said, we are participating in the Story Siren’s Debut Author Challenge. We have connected with quite a few 2011 Debut Authors or “Elevensies” as many of them refer to themselves.  We set aside a day to “initiate” these new “campers”. We asked them 5 questions – some silly “Bacon or cupcake?”, some serious “What did you do when you found out your book was going to be published?” We had responses from over 2 dozen debut authors. Their responses gave us an insight into their personalities and we really got to know them. Some answers were truly touching. Clete Barrett Smith said his favorite word was “Daddy”, because every time he hears it he falls a little more in love with his kids. A few were a little scary. Two authors chose “defenestration” as their favorite word. This word means ” throwing of a person or thing out of a window”. What does this say about writing as a profession, that it induces such violent thoughts? LOL

We set up the interviews to publish every half hour during the day. It was a lot of fun – it felt like every time you refreshed the page there was a new interview. The authors themselves were involved – commenting on each other’s interviews. I felt like it it was a very successful way to get to know these up and coming authors. We’re hoping to make Camp Eve an annual event. So, all you 2012 Debut Authors out there – be prepared for camp initiation! - Maryanne Reilly Hipple, Eve’s Fan Garden

My favorite event would have been during the first BIG giveaways I did when Bookies reached 500 fans. Author Darynda Jones had donated a copy of her book “First Grave on the Right” and I had my fans use their creativity to enter. They had to photograph their favorite pair of shoes in a creative setting and get people to vote on their photo. It was so intense for me, I was sitting at my computer just watching the race between the top 4 fans. I almost didn’t get any sleep that day. It was so much fun and I think my best contest to date. - Beccie Weaver, Bookies

One of my favorite ones I’ve seen was done by Bitten By Paranormal Romance (I think) they interviewed many authors on what they liked and disliked about review blogs. It was very informative. - Sharon Stogner, I Smell Sheep

One of my favorite events is the Debut Author Challenge on The Story Siren’s page. The year-long event is incredibly organized! All the debut authors are listed by release month on a spreadsheet. The rules of the challenge are clearly posted. Just an all around great event. I am not officially participating, but other people from our blog Eve’s Fan Garden are and I am really excited to be following their progress! Unofficially, I am challenging myself to see if I can meet the expectation of reading 12 debut authors in one year and tracking my progress on my own GoodReads page. Maybe next year I will be brave enough to officially enter.

From our own blog, Eve’s Fan Garden, I would have to say my favorite event was the Midsummer Night’s Chat series we held the summer EFG started. We had a week long series of chats, guest blog posts from authors, and contests and giveaways. It was a lot of work preparing and organizing every little detail prior to the event, but by far it drew the most attention to the site than anything we have done since then. The chats were out of this world! We had so many amazing authors on our panel! The guest blog posts were outstanding! I enjoyed reading each and every one of them. And the swag we were able to give away was out of this world. It was an awesome way to launch our site and get the word out about what we stand for and EFG and who we are. It was a blast! - Donna Hale, Eve’s Fan Garden

One of the goals of the BBA is to help bloggers help each other by providing helpful advice on various topics pertaining to book blogging. So, we’ve started a band new series of posts called “Ask the Bloggers” in which we ask questions that range from seeking advice to just having fun with literature, and solicit answers from the blogging community. If you’d like to participate, new questions will be posted on the BBA’s Facebook page with directions on where to send your answers. Without further ado, we would like to introduce our very first “Ask the Bloggers” question. Special thanks to our participating bloggers!

Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently when setting up your book blog?

I wouldn’t have been so shy! I looked at authors like these major celebrities instead of very accessible people who actually wanted to talk to me and to be featured on my blog. My first interview was with on of my favorite authors. I still remember being so excited when he said yes, I was dancing around the house like I’d just won tickets to a big rock concert. Almost three years later, we still talk nearly every week. - Arya Smith, Sea of Pages

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I don’t think I would have done anything differently.  I started the blog for friends who wanted to hear about what I was reading.  It grew to be a little bit more than that but I am happy with it.  It is a hobby and I love it that people come and visit! - Amber, Amberkatze’s Book Blog

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Well, I’ve never really had any problems with my page, I think Facebook pages are so much simpler than blog pages.  One thing I would have done differently was NOT trying to be sneaky about who I was as the owner.  I would go to different pages and say, “Please join my friend’s page” as opposed to just saying that I had started a page and needed some followers.  When I started there weren’t a lot of pages dedicated to books on Facebook so I thought that others from those pages wouldn’t be as helpful, but as time has gone on and more and more pages are popping up, I see the response they get simply by asking others to spread the word.  That’s the one thing I would have changed. - Beccie, Bookies on Facebook

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If I were to redo my blog, I would organize it before I started adding stuff. It gets kind of confusing and there is a lot of stuff that you can put on there. I also would have researched a little more about my options so I could get everything put on there correctly.  :D - Leagh Christensen, Romance Book Craze

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I wish the I would have done a little more research on how the features of my blog worked. While I knew how to use WordPress, I didn’t fully understand the functionality of the widgets or how they could be used. I am just beginning to use them now, and it amazes me how many times I could have put them to use in the past. The one thing that really has worked well for me is  that I put together Underwords with the sole intent of publishing content that I would want to read. Then I charged forward with the belief that other people would want to read it too. - Erin Underwood, Underwords