Tag Archives: book blogging

Things I have learned in 16 months of book blogging.

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003/365 - I'm blogging this.

I was cruising though some old blogging dramz–I admit it, I’m a bit of a voyeur when it comes to internet drama–and I started thinking about things that I’ve learned this past year-plus while writing this blog. I’d been a blogger before this, but nothing like IB; it was my own personal blog where, besides a couple of hits on WordPress’s Freshly Pressed, I got almost no attention and, in truth, preferred it that way when I was writing over there. (If you follow this blog at all, you know I don’t shy away from controversial topics and opinions. Multiply that by a factor of 1000 and narrow the content down to the most controversial topics only; that’s kind of what my personal blog was like.) I’m always looking for ways to improve this blog, and seeing some of the decisions made by other bloggers got me to thinking about decisions that I’ve made. Some of them have been good, some pretty dang good, some ill-advised, some verging on disaster.

I decided to write about them. So here they are.

Book blogging is both a lot of fun and a lot of fucking work. Satisfying work, to be sure, but a lot of work–well, if you do it properly. There’s the reading, there’s the writing, there’s the editing, there’s the social media, there’s the tweaking of blog design, there’s the coordination of contributors if you have ‘em, the reading of comments, responding to comments, the occasional troll-busting. I love it and I wouldn’t change it (well, maybe the trolls), but dang, it is not for the lazy.

You meet a lot of freaking awesome people. You guys. I cannot even begin to tell you how you have enriched my life this past year. Not just my co-bloggers, but my commenters, my Twitter friends, my Facebook peeps. I love talking to you all–even the people I get into minor scuffles with over my (rather strong) opinions. You’re my reading family now. It’s the best thing.

Like attracts like; you set the tone for your community. I sometimes marvel at the fact that we get some of the BEST comments here. I’ve seen other fora devolve into what amounts to internet poo-flinging, but we so rarely have troubles here that I was actually kind of shocked when an honest-to-stars TROLL appeared the other day. I had not had to bust out the troll banner in a year. I can only figure that it comes from us setting the tone early on. We’ve always had a no-nonsense troll and harassment policy, but we also try to respect our commenters and their opinions, and make arguments like adults without getting into poo-flinging territory. Even if we disagree, we can always hug it out at the end.

I can imagine that if we had acted terribly, all of our amazing commenters would have gone away and we’d be left with nothing but shit-smears of humanity. Or nothing at all. I’m sure I’m oversimplifying, but I do know that part of having a good atmosphere is treating others as you’d want to be treated. I hope I’ve always been good to y’all, and I hope I’ve said I’m sorry otherwise.

Speaking of “I’m sorry,” I’m glad that’s a phrase I don’t have a problem saying. I’ve made some major boo-boos. I have. I mean, I guess we all have at some point or another. I hurt a couple of people’s feelings, and I have to tell you, I hate that. I’m glad I was able to reach out and try to make amends–I’ll never understand, in fact, people who will never admit they were wrong about something. (That’s funny coming from me, as I’ll hold onto an argument far past the point of prudence, unless someone proves me wrong.) The best thing you can do when you fuck up is admit that you fucked up, not just for the other person but also for yourself: that’s a wound that will fester until you make it right.

Unless you’re a sociopath, in which case, um, I’m sorry about your affliction, I guess.

Blogging Readiness

Uh, I didn’t even see that this image had a caption until I pasted it in. IGNORE THE CAPTION AT THE BOTTOM. But not this one. This one is okay.

When you write about people on your blog, they can see you and might actually click over to read it. This should be a no-brainer, but some people, you don’t expect to visit your blog. I didn’t expect Curt Matthews from IPG to visit this post, for example. You know, the one where I kind of made it my life’s mission to destroy his math. At the time, I considered myself a Righteous Defender of Truth and didn’t mind that we locked horns; while I still stand by what I wrote as far as my math and my ideas, I also wonder if, perhaps, I could have opened a conversation there instead of totally alienating Mr. Matthews. Food for thought.

If you stress about stats, followers, numbers of comments, and whatever, you will go out of your fucking mind. Early on, I stressed about all of this stuff. Someone unfollowed me on Twitter?? Oh no!! Why?? What did I do wrong?? Am I tweeting too much in the morning? Oh em gee, my traffic dipped, I better write another post ASAP!

This? Gets very tiring. And very stressful. So I just stopped. Yeah, I still keep half an eye on my stats–more to see what is going over well, and what’s not, so I can keep the blog content up to standard–and yeah, I keep .. maybe a quarter of an eye on my Twitter count, as it sometimes alerts me to awesome stuff like this:

(Yes, I’m still pretty squee over that.)

Otherwise, I’ve decided to just keep cranking out the best content that I can, do some moderate sharing, and just talk to people without looking at the stats too hard. It seems to be working okay.

If you do good work, you will get people style-biting you. Suck it up. I’ve had more than one person (and this is a touchy subject if some of you remember that fateful Reading Rage Tuesday that’s now private–so I’ll just say, I’m NOT including that person in this list) try to copy my writing style. Not in a mean way, but in a.. “hey, I really like what you do so, I’m going to totally try to do that too because it speaks to me!” kind of way. I’ve had friends lift entire sections of my blog content and slightly re-word it into their “own” words. And it bothers me, despite being also somewhat flattering.

One time, it bothered me so damn much that I made an issue of it right here on this blog, and that was a huge mistake. I hurt the woman’s feelings and, even though I still think there were some fishy things going on, I needn’t have done that. (That was one of those public apology times.) Unless someone is straight up plagiarizing, I will never, ever make an issue of style-biting again. Mostly those people go on to find their own rhythms and styles, anyway, as they write more. It’s just way too much stress for something that, at its root, happens because someone really loves what you do–also bearing in mind that many might try to imitate, but nobody can replicate.

Save the drama for your mama. Or your llama, if she won’t eat the ham. I often post about controversial subjects here, but I try my best not to directly go after people or make it personal to me (anymore). I’ll comment on people, yeah, but I won’t spout off about how so-and-so is a waste of space or this or that author should just go die in a fire. Drama is the most tiring, you guys. I have a double-edged bitch tongue when I choose to use it, but more and more, I don’t want to go full-throttle bitch on someone. Not because they don’t deserve it bring it on themselves act badly, just because I don’t want to deal with it.

TINA EAT YOUR HAM

Having a sense of humor is all kinds of win. When I do get into the occasional scuffle, or make a mistake, or am just having a down period where I don’t feel like being involved with the world–much less writing, dear lord–being able to diffuse it with humor makes everyone happy again. Also, use kittens.

When your content starts to get stale, shake it up. I stopped doing the reading rages regularly not too long ago. They’ll still show up, but doing one every week was starting to bring me down because I was 1) running out of things to write about, 2) spending a lot of time being negative and a little bitchy because, ranting, and 3) not being very funny anymore, which is what was good about those posts in the first place. Putting those posts aside for awhile has been liberating for my creativity.

Try to be positive, for yourself and those around you. There was a time period where it seemed like all of my friends were going through the worst suck in the history of suck, for various reasons. I love all of my friends, but we were, honestly, bringing each other down, I think. I wish I had been more encouraging instead of adding to the gloom. I wish I would have spent more time trying to make them smile. That translates to blogging, too–I’d like to spend more time trying to make people laugh than being negative and bringing them down, or getting embroiled in DRAMZ.

You can write a critical review and still be okay with both author and publisher. Some people are terribly afraid of writing critical reviews, especially after all of the STGRB stuff. (If you don’t know what that is, you’re better off.) All it takes is writing reviews fairly and thoughtfully, which is why you’ll see far more snark in my non-review posts that in my review posts. I don’t consider it fair in this venue, where we review current small press lit, to snark all over an author’s book when they’re just trying to create something. That helps me maintain positive relationships even when I can’t give their book four or five stars. (Their behavior, however, I will snark the hell out of if the behavior merits a good snarking. GAH I AM USING THE WORD SNARK TOO MUCH SOMEONE STOP ME)

When people ask what you do, and you tell them you’re a blogger (and otherwise unemployed), you get looks of pity from people who have real jobs. “Oh,” they say. “Well, that’s.. that’s great!” I’m learning to deal with it. Sort of.

Blogging

You’re going to be a little aghast when you find out your memaw has read your blog. Maybe you won’t be aghast, but I sure was. My grandfather was a pastor, and my whole family on that side is Southern Baptist. Yeah. You’ve read this blog, so, I know you can connect the dots. I found this out over Thanksgiving; my mom said, rather diplomatically, “Well, some of the language is a little salty.” My mom is cool.

Week-long blog events are too damn long. Nobody has said anything to me complaining about blog events, but like I said, I keep half an eye on my stats. They start flagging after a few days. I promise I’m going to space out timing better for future events.

People aren’t as into book reviews as non-review posts. I mean, people read the reviews, but not as much as the non-review posts. It baffled me in the beginning, but I’m cool with that now (say sorry, publisher friends–please do know that it’s not just my blog that experiences this phenomenon). I don’t like cranking out review after review; I like to let books marinate a bit before I write about them, plus, when we do post a review, it stands out more if we don’t post a whole bunch in a row. I try to bring books to the table that I am really excited about more often than not.

I’m working on ways to make that format a little friendlier, so stay tuned, book fans. If you have any suggestions as to what would make you more likely to tune into a book review, or a format that would help you navigate them better, drop them in the comments pretty-please. I want to know what makes you feel all tingly when you visit a review blog.

There’s no money in blogging. I already knew that going in, but you know, you always hope that there might be some money there. Not because I’m greedy, but because I’m broke and because I do work pretty hard. Adding a bunch of commercial stuff to this blog has always, always felt wrong to me, though. Indie author ads are one thing, and things that I’ve designed are one thing; they help keep my hosting and domain expenses paid (and sponsor some giveaways) and that’s nice. I’ve been offered spots in some click-through programs, though, and nu-uh, I don’t like it. That puts the onus of my blog’s profitability on my readers, not to mention, I can’t control the content or quality of the ads if I’m not choosing them. I don’t find that practice inherently wrong, but to me, it’s unacceptable for this space.

Also, fuck people who sell reviews. Fuck ‘em right in the nose.

I write way more words than I probably should. This post is already about four times the length that is “recommended” by people who know about such things. I’m naturally loquacious. (That’s a fancy word that means I like to run my mouth–but you guys already knew that.)

Tell me, you guys–what about you? Do you have a book blog, and has it given you any insight? Or do you think I’m full of baloney? (And why the hell do we say “baloney” instead of “bologna”? And why does American bologna suck so hard? I even hated it when I was a kid.) Also, does anybody have a good cure for hiccups? I has them. Leave it all in the comments below!

 

 

The Author’s Guide to Social Media: Book bloggers can be your best friends.

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…. or, of course, your worst enemy. We’d really like to be friends, though.

(Well, I can’t speak for everyone, but I would like to be your friend, at least.)

When everything goes well, book bloggers and authors have a symbiotic relationship. We bloggers have no content without books. Authors are able to get more exposure through blog audiences. Blog readers get the benefit of both reading the blog and finding out about the authors’ books. It’s a winning situation all around–when everything goes well.

Still, I’ve seen some disdain out there for book bloggers, and a most of it seems to come from writers. I’ve seen writers sneer at book blogs, looking down their noses at us–”hobbyists,” they call us, and in context, it’s an insult. I’ve also seen the reverse: book bloggers who don’t welcome author interaction in the slightest. I think this is a damn shame, but frankly, having had some of the interactions that I have had with certain authors, I don’t blame book bloggers for being wary. For that matter, I also don’t blame some authors for being wary of bloggers, as our self-appointed role is to be critical of an author’s work, and some bloggers are better at this than others. (This is why I try to make it a goal never to be unfairly ranty, especially of indie works. It’s also why I try to be choosy in selecting the books that I read for review, because I don’t want to be that person. You know the one I mean–the cranky, hyper-critical type.)

But, look, y’all–in any given subset of people, there will always be a few who are, well, asshats. We can’t change this. What we can do, however, is endeavor to ignore these jerks. We then can move forward to create a happy, harmonious world where readers, book bloggers, and authors work together to provide the best possible outcome for everybody.

Rainbow Valley

I’m skeptical. What can a book blogger do that I can’t just do myself by building my own audience?

As an author trying to sell your work to readers, know that it’s automatically going to be more difficult for you to build an audience from nothing than it would be for a blogger (edit: also, we’re considering that this blogger has taken the same types of measures to gain an audience as anybody else would, and that they can write halfway decently and don’t suck at reviewing. It’s kind of an “all other things being equal” sort of scenario). When you reach out to readers, no matter how nice and non-markety you are, some of them are immediately going to be suspicious: is this guy or gal just trying to sell me a book? As readers, we don’t become fans until we’ve read and enjoyed your work. As social media friends, we don’t want to be marketed to until we become fans. Do you see the dilemma?

Enter the book blogger. The book blogger has become so passionate about reading that she wants to write about it. (I use she just because I’m a she. I know there are fabulous male book bloggers.) The book blogger doesn’t ask for anything in return, really; oh, there might be the occasional, “Please vote for my blog! Thanks! :D” posts, but that only comes after  the readership has been built, and it’s generally only a click’s worth of effort. She churns out content about what she’s reading just because she wants to do so, and people respond to that in a positive way–especially if she writes good content. There’s no risk involved of even a few dollars. She builds an audience by putting out free content that interests people–readers, in this case. She develops relationships with her readers, as blogging ranks on the sucky scale of activities if you don’t interact with anybody while doing it. Over time, a mutual trust builds up between blogger and reader, if the blogger stays honest and doesn’t do anything bullshitty. As far as audience-building goes, the blogger doing it for the love of the blog has an advantage over the non-blogger or the blogger whose primary motivation is to sell their books.

Book bloggers are a bridge to more readers.

I wrote before, in my post about Goodreads, about book bloggers being a bridge between you and your potential audience. Bloggers make good, sturdy bridges that you can skip merrily across if you do all of the right things. Why? That trust thing I was talking about. If you say, “hey, buy my book!” to a group of readers, you have an ulterior motive–you want to make money and you want people to read your book. Why should I trust you when you say you’re the next Neil Gaiman or Stephen King? You’d say anything to get me to buy your book. The blogger, though, doesn’t have any such conflict with the material, unless they turn around and write a book. (Which, side note–one of the reasons that bloggers-turned-authors do so well is that they’ve put in enormous time and effort putting out free content. I already know that when Allie Brosh’s book comes out, I’m going to buy it, and I’m going to love it, because I have been loving her work for awhile now. She’s probably going to sell a copy to everyone on the internet.) If I, as a blogger, say, “I really loved this book! This guy writes like Neil Gaiman!” I didn’t have any reason for doing so unless I really believed it.

Bloggers can also develop a special kind of credibility that random reviewers, like on Goodreads or Amazon, may not. Although I often look at aggregate reviews for a book, if I don’t know the individual reviewer, I don’t know how much credibility she might have. Following a single reviewer or blogger over time gives me an idea where our tastes match up, where they differ, and how well the reviewer can analyze a work. I’ve been reading Amy’s reviews for awhile, for example. (She writes them for IB, so, it’s kind of necessary that I read them–I love them anyway, though. Her reviewing skills outshine mine.) Amy often reviews from an emotional frame of reference, but she also has the literary skills to back up how she’s feeling about a work. I’ve come to know enough about her reviewing style and her taste to trust her reviews, and also to know when she reviews a book that I would love or that I wouldn’t love based on what she likes. It’s the same with me and Rob–we’ve known each other for so long that I can tell whether or not I’d like a book based on her opinion. If Amy or Rob says, hey, this is a good book, I will probably read that book. Book bloggers, over time, can build up that kind of credibility with their audiences.

Okay. You’ve convinced me. But I get turned down so often by book bloggers; how do I get a blogger to review my book?

I’ve written one post about this already. It has a basic blueprint for getting your book into the hands of a blogger who is eager to review you. I would like to reiterate here that it’s so, so, so important to make sure you’re targeting the right blogs. On IB, our main focus is literary fiction, and we primarily like to accept new books from indie authors or indie-press authors. I have this laid out right in our review policy: we prefer literary fiction. I still get a lot of pitches from people who either don’t know what literary fiction is, or mistakenly think that their books are literary fiction. I turn down all of these pitches. In fact, I turn down 48 out of 50 pitches, probably, and I reckon about half to three-quarters of the ones I turn down are people who don’t have their book categorized correctly.

Look, there’s nothing wrong with genre fiction at all. I like genre fiction, too; I don’t just read literary fiction, although that’s what I like to write about. It’s okay to be honest with yourself that your book isn’t a literary mystery or a literary romance when it isn’t–in fact, it’s beneficial to you to be brutally honest when categorizing your book. Why? Because it’s important for you to know who your readers should be. If I reviewed a romance novel tomorrow and said it was amazing, I would probably get a lot of “WTF?” responses. The people who read this blog don’t come here for romance reviews because we’ve never written them. Sure, some of them might like romance, but the common thread here is literary fiction, so you can bet that everyone who comes here probably enjoys literary fiction. If you say, “Hey, this is a literary romance,” and it’s not a literary romance, it’s not going to get a good review (or any review, most likely) and the people who visit here probably won’t read it.

If, however, you send it to blogs that do review romance novels, well, that changes the ballgame entirely. The audience there wants to read a book just like yours. Same goes for crime novels, or sci-fi, or fantasy, or whatever genre you fit into. Find the people who like to read what you write; I think that if you put in the time and have a strong focus when contacting blogs, rather than blanket contacting anybody who writes reviews or has more than a handful of Twitter followers, you’ll do better overall.

What about giveaways and stuff like that? Any blog might promote my book if I do a giveaway, right?

Nooooo. It’s the same with giveaways as with reviews. Yeah, your book might get exposure, but it’s like . . . it’s like renting out a billboard for your bacon company across the street from a Jewish temple. Probably a lot of people are going to see your billboard, but many of them won’t ever buy pork; it’s a waste of your time and resources. Exposure is meaningless if your target audience isn’t interested, and it could even generate negative exposure (such as, “Geez, what kind of idiot would advertise bacon across from Temple?” or “That’s very insensitive, that bacon guy should be ashamed of himself”). Negative exposure definitely does exist for authors; don’t think to yourself that any publicity is good publicity. It’s not.

What do bloggers get out of all of this, anyway? Free books?

Most of the book bloggers I know are drowning in free books. They have more free books than they ever care to read. I know, it seems ridiculous–more books than one cares to read?! All I can say is, sometimes you accept books that you never really wanted to read in the first place to be nice, or sometimes you overload yourself with books and you can’t seem to knock them out in time for the next crop. Plus, when you’re reading for a blog, there’s always a bit of a schedule involved–you want to be timely and relevant and that sort of thing. So books pile up, and it becomes less exciting over time to get a FREE BOOK because you start to feel a little guilty about all of the other free books that you haven’t gotten ’round to yet.

So, I wouldn’t call it *exactly* an advantage. Also, as nice as it is, I’ve always been able to get books from the library. It’s really more convenient than anything.

No, what we get out of working with authors is enhanced content. We’re not just readers; we started these blogs so that we could write about our reading experiences. Authors give us something to write about! Then our readers have something to read, and they find out about new, awesome books they could be reading (and, let’s be honest, also they find out what to avoid). I look at author interaction as a potential opportunity; rather than just reading and reviewing the book, which I could do on my own, there’s the potential for interviews, giveaways, guest posts, all of which enhance the experience of my blog for the people who read it.

So, let’s be friends. You and me and all of us.

I think it’s time for book bloggers and writers, on the whole, to kiss and make up, and stop circling each other like the Jets and the Sharks. Besides, if we unite, we can come together against our common enemy–publishers!

(JUST KIDDING, publishers are not the enemy. Heh, heh. I heart small presses lots.)

Book bloggers, tell me about some experiences you’ve had with authors! Or authors, tell me about your experiences with book bloggers! Or readers, tell us why you do or don’t like having blogger/author interaction. OR, you can tell me about your favorite dessert. (I like desserts.) Drop it all in the comments below!