Happy Monday everyone!
I have an unexpected day free!
I thought I’d take the opportunity to just chat about blogging and stuff! I was at a conference a few weeks ago and we had several discussions about blogging philosophy. These conversations got me thinking about the direction I want this blog to go in.
I started this blog for two main reasons:
1) the technological challenge
2) to write down my thoughts on books that I’ve read
I didn’t aspire to be a writer, in fact, I’ve never aspired to be a writer. I am a reader, a voracious reader. I am never without a book close at hand. I can remember reading a post shortly after I started this blog about someone who received free books in the mail. I thought to myself – that will never happen to me. Holy cow, has it happened to me! I have a TBR pile that numbers in the multiple hundreds and I have had to close to reviews to try to catch up. The reality is that I can’t possibly read all the books that I have been offered.
This made me realize exactly how many authors there are out there that have books that need at least a little voice. In fact, if it wasn’t for this blog, I wouldn’t have met some wonderful authors like Maureen Driscoll, Norah Wilson, or Virna DePaul. I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to read some of the best stories that I’ve read in my life! Feel free to drop by and say hi to these wonderful women….and read their books!!
Frankly, before this blog, it wouldn’t have occurred to me to read something that didn’t come out of a New York Publishing house. If I couldn’t buy it at a bookstore or Walmart or the grocery store, I didn’t read it. I didn’t have any sort of an ereader and I preferred to be able to hold the book in my hands. That has changed also! I understand the advantages of my Nook!
I now realize that more and more book bloggers are the new gatekeepers of book promotions. I don’t post more than once a day, but I have 7 days a week to give some publicity to some authors. I simply can’t read fast enough to post 7 reviews each week. As a result I post about 3 reviews on average each week and then offer up the rest of the days to author interviews or promotions. I want to use the vehicle of my blog to promote as many authors as I can. Does it matter to me that I may not have read their books? Not really. I feel that everyone deserves a chance to talk about their book. My readers are smart cookies! I think that everyone can decide for themselves if they want to read a book that is being talked about. They don’t need my 2 cents on every book they read!
So, have I met my original blogging objectives? Yes! I have conquered the technology and in fact spend a good portion of each week teaching WordPress and optimization to other WordPress users. I have had the opportunity to write down my thoughts on the books that I have read, and met so many wonderful authors.
I have discovered that my readers, like me, like romance, be it contemporary or historical or erotica, but they like romance. When I try to promote an author from a different genre, there isn’t much interest – ie hits. Because of this, you will see a bit of a change in the next few months. I’ll be narrowing the focus of this blog to just adult romance. I might as well stick with what I like!
Thank you to everyone who has filled out my survey – more to come on that in the next few weeks, and thank you to everyone who continues to share my enthusiasm for romance novels.
Hope you all have a great week!
Related articles
- Blogger Confession Time: Switching Genres (geekybloggersbookblog.com)
- Coffee Talk ~ With Moira (brazenbroadsbookbash.blogspot.com)
- Escape to Romance: More Historical Romance Chat with Jenn LeBlanc (booksavvybabe.com)
- Weekly Recap: What Ya Missed (3/26-3/31) (lovetoreadforfun.com)