Top Ten Tips For New Book Bloggers

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's post is Top Ten Tips For New Book Bloggers.

So, I'm still a relatively new book blogger.  And as you can tell, my blog consists of about half reviews and half memes (with the exception of a few posts).  I may not be much on the giving end of today's top ten, but I'll definitely be looking at other people's top ten to get some new ideas.  But I thought I'd touch on what has worked for me (and my top ten will be more of a top four).

1.  Why do you blog?  I initially started blogging to keep track of which books I've read and which ones I want to read in the future.  I was also looking to meet fellow readers to help broaden my selection of books to read.  Remember why you started blogging and don't forget it.  It's so easy to get stuck in numbers:  the amount of posts you do, the amount of followers you have, the amount of books you read, etc.  And it can overwhelm you and make reading less fun.  So no matter what happens, remember why you started blogging when you get overwhelmed.  To me, it's all about the books and the worlds I go to when reading...

2.  Memes.  Pick a few memes to do each week.  I definitely recommend you do "In My Mailbox hosted by The Story Siren.  I also do the Top Ten hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and Waiting on Wednesday hosted by Breaking the Spine.  And plan on leaving comments and networking with others.  One idea I've played with is doing other memes that I haven't previously done to make some new friends. Do you guys have any recommendations for memes I should try?

3.  Giveaways.  I love doing giveaways, but the hardest thing about it is getting the word out.  Making sure everyone who wants to know knows about it.  I definitely suggest if you're barely starting out that you do giveaway hops to help get some regular traffic to your post.  One blogger that I know of who does giveaway hops is I Am a Reader, Not a Writer.  Do you know of any other bloggers that host giveaways?  Do you have additional tips for giveaways?

4.  Respect for the book, for the author, for fellow bloggers, and for yourself.  There's a major difference between hating a book and disrespecting a book.  An opinion is just an opinion and bloggers are expected to voice their opinions loud and clear.  However, if you're going to bash a book, make sure to keep it separate from the author and you better have good reasoning to back it up.  And honestly, I see no reason why you would ever need to bash an author or fellow blogger.  Remember why we started reading and blogging?  I don't think anyone can answer this with, "I want to make authors feel bad about themselves and their books."  Words can hurt even when they weren't intentionally meant to hurt, so be careful with what you write.

Be sure to check out my author interview with Jennifer Krey and a giveaway of The Hollow of Mont Noir!!