Book Blogging 101 – Chapter 2
Figuring Out Your Look & Feel along with Your Purpose
Like your job interview attire, or your fabulous new Jimmy’s at an A-List party – your first impression should be one of WOW not PFFT and how does one make a wow impression? It doesn’t have to be flashy, it doesn’t have to cost $600 — it just has to be put together nicely, instead of just thrown together haphazardly. And there are a lot of things to think about to make your style cohesive.
Section 1: The Overall Look and Feel
Image from sqback via Stock.xchng
Something you have to think about when starting your blog is the overall look and feel of your blog. Your blogger style. This is the first impression people are going to get when they view your actual blog.
I always tell my clients to narrow down adjectives that they would like readers to “feel” when viewing or reading their blog. Great examples are:
- Fun
- Exciting
- Professional
- Stylish
- Snarky
- Helpful
These are your guideline adjectives. These should guide you on your path as you write your posts, or create a header — even guide you as you place things on your sidebar. If you choose to convey a Fun but Professional blog, you want to ask yourself before you post anything — ANYTHING! — whether on Facebook, Twitter, G+ wherever your readers are lurking, “Is this Fun? Is this Professional?”
Now, you might not want to restrict yourself all the time, but for the majority of your posts, you should be able to answer “Yes” before you hit submit. If not, you might want to revise your goal “adjectives”.
Section 2: Figuring out your “Purpose” in the blogging community
This might sound like an easy step and it really might be for some, but it is also might be very hard to hold onto as your blogging life moves into full gear.
I know you might think I’m off my money on this, but it is so easy to get off track as you blog.
If your purpose when you start is to inform the world about the benefits of reading Science Fiction novels, you might be distracted when a contemporary romance novelist approaches you to review their book. They might beg and plead and you’ve read contemporary romance before and liked it — so what is the harm?
It might not make that big of a difference to some, but you also might confuse a lot of your readers. They are looking for science fiction, not romance.
My advice, again, before you post, retweet or elucidate on a topic, ask yourself, does this have anything to do with my overall purpose? Will my readers be informed or entertained by this post?
If you answer “No” you might want to stop and think about the benefit of what you are about to post, or agree to post.
The Downfall
The point of this Section is that I assume you do not want to be labeled as a sell-out or promotion chaser. A blogger that opinions can’t be trusted because they just post whatever the publishers tell them or do advertising spots disguised as posts.
This happens all the time. It happens to me on a daily basis. Author gets in touch with me to do a Guest Post. I say yes, the book looks good, looks in-line with what I want to feature on my blog — and then I get the Guest Post — and what is it? An advertisement for their large giveaway on THEIR blog, with maybe a paragraph before the promotion that describes the book. My focus as a blogger is not to just regurgitate author’s promotions. No matter how nice the author is, I decline the Guest Post and ask them to send me another one that isn’t all promotion of their giveaway.
Things Change
Things do change. I have done it myself by adding Patti to the roster and featuring more Contemporary Romance. This occurred when it seemed like most of my readers had a big interest in Contemporary Romance. But, I polled my readers before I made the addition. The majority said yes they would like to have a strictly Romance feature.
You’ll See The Difference
I’ve posted off topic. A classic that I’ve enjoyed and wanted the world to know about it, or a straight-up Fantasy novel that I wanted to read. Usually these posts have about 20 pageviews and No Comments.
A Balancing Act
When you do tailor your posts to your readers though, you walk a fine line – between pandering to popular opinion and what you really want to do with your blog. In the end it should be what YOU want to do. If you want to write that Fantasy Review, go ahead and do it, but when no one comments or views it, you’ll see that it might not be the best place to post these things.
Tune in Next Week for Chapter 3 — Setting Goals
Reader Question of the Week:
Hey PJ,
I have a little problem. I got a review request that entirely doesn’t fit my book type from one of those indie authors that also sent me a e-copy of their book on Amazon (without me asking, mind you). And then I kinda-sorta by accident used this new feature Amazon has, where you can redeem e-books you’re gifted for money, and get a gift card instead of reading the book. And I just got $2.99 credited to my Amazon account.
My problem is two-fold. One, it’s stealing from Amazon, because the author didn’t pay to send me a copy of their book, and it’s “free money.” Two, I feel like I’m cheating the author, because I don’t blog to make money, and I just got 3 bucks off of him.
Amazon doesn’t have an “undo” button, and I don’t want to buy the book.
What should I do?
Thanks so much for all your help! You do awesome work, PJ!
(Oh, and for the record, I don’t dislike indie authors. I think they’re awesome. This was just one of those particularly pushy ones.)- Anon
Anon, yes, you just cheated both the author and Amazon. I would suck it up and use that $2.99 to buy the book that you were meant to receive or send it back as a gift to the author. You don’t have to review the book, but that seems like a really underhanded thing to do if that had been an intentional act. I understand you did it on accident, but frankly that money was meant to be for that book, not in your Amazon account to purchase another book. It is also my understanding (information gathered from twitter not first hand – link to Amazon page) that authors do have to pay a fee (authors if you are reading this and I’m wrong, please let us know in comments) to send the book. It is not a GIFT to you. It was meant to be a review copy. It also might be a good idea to let the Author know that you don’t intend to review the book because it is not inline with what you usually review and to maybe think about that the next time they just send someone an Amazon eGift.
Book Blogger News:
Paid Reviews
Again, paid reviews are in the bloggyverse – but this time the focus is on Kirkus, one of the biggest review hubs in the publication world. Now, they don’t guarantee a positive review, just a review. But, you still have to pay them. Some indies swear by them. Others think it is a gross mishandling of something that should be a free service. Back sooo long ago in July Michelle Gorman wrote a post about a Blog called Chick Lit Girls (chicklitgirls.com) accepting money for reviews (not guaranteed positive) – that subsequent post and then blogger backlash shut down that blog completely. But, the question remains, Kirkus charges – why is that any different from the Lit Girls? Respectability and Longevity seem to be the answer. What do you think? Is this a biased view just because of the fact that Kirkus actually has paid employees?
RT 2014 NOLA Baby!
This was last week, but in RT’s newsletter they announced that RT2014 would be in New Orleans. I recommend the RT convention to book lovers, even if Romance isn’t your focus. It was so much fun and more hands on then the “Book Grab” conventions like ALA and BEA.
Happy Thursday. Talk Less. Read More. Blog with Integrity.
Have a question? Fill out the form by clicking on the button to the left. This will go into a spreadsheet to be looked over at a later date and hopefully answered on this blog. This is completely anonymous, you do not have to leave your real name. Urls will not be included in your question unless it pertains to the question.
Latest posts by Parajunkee (see all)
- Feature & Follow #150 – May 23, 2013
- Blogging 101 Presentation – May 23, 2013
- Gag Worthy Cliches – May 22, 2013
- Audiobook Review: The Program – May 21, 2013
- The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau – May 20, 2013
- Feature & Follow #149 – May 16, 2013
- Ten Tips for New Bloggers – May 16, 2013
- The Adventures of Evil Book Blogger Ep. 1 – May 15, 2013
- PJV News: Hot Books Releasing Today – May 14, 2013
- Breath by Jackie Morse Kessler – May 13, 2013
Fantastic advice! We have just re-done our blog and these tips really help!
Oh my gosh, LOL “Jimmy’s at an A-List party” – I wish! Spend too much on books to afford Jimmy’s and I’m on no one’s celebrity guest list. LOL!
Anyway… Unless you are one of those bloggers that took the time to “shop around” the blogosphere and think hard about what type of blog you wanted before you started and had a set gameplan, it’s likely that your blog’s style, format, content will shift a bit. When I started out I was focused only on fiction. I didn’t want to be a “YA blog” or a “Paranormal” blog. I was up for anything. But readership and what I was passionate about reading sort of dictated the direction things took. I wasn’t reading historical fiction or classics or horror so it became a YA blog.
As you know, I created other blogs to meet those other reading needs.
But if you are blogging just to talk about books in your way and aren’t concerned with pageviews, hits, etc. then it probably doesn’t matter what you talk about – book-related. You might interest a few readers in a different genre, or you might lose a few readers. But if they’re stopping by for your eclectic mix of posts then you’ll probably develop an audience, it just might be more limited.
I can’t remember what words I used to ask you for a design, I think it was fun, dark, grungy but professional? LOL.
If so you met all those needs I had for my blog’s design style. Not sure I live up to it on the content side of things.
Ahh the Downfall… I am a happy promo whore to a degree. I’ll will promote the heck out of something I believe in. I’m not ashamed of that. People may not like it but that’s okay by me. I used to struggle with what people might think but I love sharing the books I love in any way I can. Of course I will not promo something I don’t believe in. I am not someone’s marketing tool or a platform for their big event. Unless I want to be a part of spreading the word about that event. But I agree with you, I’d ask for a re-write on a Guest Post that was nothing more than an advert.
And I agree it’s a total balancing act. You have to do what you love, but ignoring your readers completely is a level of hubris I don’t aspire to. That being said, we have to love what we do. *sigh* You bring up some awesome points as always and you always make me think….
There’s really no easy answer and no set of rules to just check boxes and live by. Can’t wait for your post on goals next week!
Keep these coming, Parajunkee.
As someone who’s had a blog for a long time and enjoys writing in it but has never managed to really “focus” it into something valuable, I think I’ve already benefited from these posts. Thank you for writing them.
Great post! It can definitely take some time to find that focus of your blog — maybe a blogger will try out different features or memes — but eventually you find something that works for you. I entered blogging knowing that I couldn’t expect everything to happen right from the get-go. My blog is something I had to get to know slowly. Now, I finally feel like me and the blog are finally going in the right direction!
Why do authors do that? The same thing happened to me–twice and with the same author. An author sent me a Amazon Kindle gift. Two problems 1) I don’t own a Kindle and 2)It’s not something I would be remotely interested in. Wouldn’t it have been easier to email before gifting the book to see if I would be interested? Both times. Imagine all of the money he is wasting on books that will never get read.
I really enjoy reading these type of posts. I’ve only been blogging 5 months so I’m still trying to figure things out. But it’s amazing how many times I have to turn down people (authors/tours/publishers) to do promos and reviews because the book simply is not a genre I review. You can’t pay me enough money to review a straight up contemporary or romance novel on my blog.
After 5 years, I’m still learning new stuff from Rachel. *grin*
I always love reading these posts! They are so helpful and informative! Thanks so much and I look forward to Chapter 3!
Crap…I missed Chapter 1! *grin* I think I did at least. I’ll have to go back and look.
You’ve sent back a guest post as not acceptable? Can I ask how they reacted? I’ve had that happen a couple of times where the author sent pretty much what you described, but I’m not the confrontation type, so I just went with it. Mmm…I always ends up thinking after these posts. Thank you!
I heard about RT. I’m so there, but I don’t know if I’m going to register this time around. At least not for the whole shebang. Thinking of making it a working holiday. *grin* BUT I am planning on it. *grin*
I love your blogging tips.