Book Blogging 101 - Blogging Changed My Life

Today marks a momentous occasion on the PJV. This post is the 1000th post. *stop pause and sit back and stare at that*

I know a few other blogs around my same age have reached 1000 posts a few months ago, and this number is not really intrinsical to achievement. It doesn't mean 1000 quality posts, technically someone could do 1000 posts in one day. And goodness knows I've put out some questionable material. It is just a crazy little number, one that says, "Damn I had a lot to get off my chest."

Do y'all want to know details? Because I would like to hear how book blogging changed your life. Here are few highlights from me.

• Blogging changed my life by giving me an accomplishment that I can really be proud of. 
• Blogging changed my life as a hobby that takes up a good portion of my day.  
• Blogging changed my life by opening me up to a new industry that actually "gets" my design style and I'm flourishing.  
• Blogging changed my life by actually getting me fired from my job (I needed it though).  
• Blogging changed my life by introducing me to a great group of people that I can now call good friends. 
• Blogging changed my life house by turning me into a book hoarder.  
• Blogging changed my life and my vocabulary with terms that I now throw around like candy - ARCS, tweet, #FF, I sound like I'm either back in the military with all the acronyms or sneezing…

I think I could go on and on, but they would get lame and you guys would get bored.

Do you want to participate? I want to see how Blogging changed your life. If you decide to do a post, even if you do it next week, I've included a linky that you can post your Blogging Changed My life posts…

Add your link here:

---

Enough of that right? On to the reader questions:

How do you (nicely) correct an established blogger who is incorrect about a genre, or a fact or tidbit? Do you leave a comment or email them? - Rywn

A: Established blogger or not, if someone has an error it is really up to you as a blogger, to whether it is worth it to correct them. Some people don't like to be corrected, some would love for you to point it out because they don't want to look silly.

I can only tell you how I feel. I don't want you to point it out in comments. Please email me. I've learned this by doing and receiving. For one, problems are embarrassing and putting it in the comments points it out to EVERYONE. Not to mention tone and personality do not come out in the written word, so it can sometimes be taken as haughty - like "Look what you did - ha." Not saying that this is your intention, but a simple phrase can come off quite different to two different people. I've left a comment on a blogger's sites before - and I've either been completely ignored (but this isn't anything new with this particular blogger) or I got a pithy response. Later I realized I should have emailed.

Then I got my own comment and realized that maybe emails are the better way to go, especially when people commented on the comment (so embarrassing - and the comment came across as rude - even though it wasn't intended that way). What I do recommend, above all though, is to be specific and to reread what you write (check for tone!). Cite the exact problem then give your reference - "this book is actually a comedy, not chick lit as said by this description…" and list a URL.

As far as tone, best advice would be to try and sound like you are just passing on a casual FYI, not being a know-it-all. Much like you would in conversation with someone if you were correcting them. Constructive criticism is very hard to give, we know this in life, we know this in blogging - like all things, it's how you say it. So, just check your intentions, are you doing this to help the blogger or are you doing it because you know the right answer? If you are seriously doing it to help out then you might as well give it a try.

Donation buttons. Done or not done? - Amber

A: I've seen them around, I think I might have one up somewhere! Don't expect a lot of donations, unless you are running a service (like BB101 hint hint) but I don't see anything wrong with them. It's hard times, every little bit helps and running these blogs can get expensive.

What is your opinion of blogs with auto-sound? Personally, I find it very distracting, but more and more blogs play sounds. - Book Savvy Babe

A: I think we've gone over this before, but really it kills me sometimes - well if I don't like the song! If I like the song I'm OK with it. But, in all honesty, sound on a blog can be irritating to most viewers and from a technical stand-point they bog down your blog's load speed, which can mean a lot of readers "jump" off your blog before even seeing it download.

Sound is sometimes associated with non-professionalism and gives an almost cheesy personality to the blog, from what people told me, anyway. I don't recommend those sound playlists that auto-play — if you want to share your taste in music, maybe stick a playlist up there, but without an auto-play.


That's it peeps, Less Talk, Read More, Happy Thursday. Remember there is a TWITTER PARTY today at 11am CST:

TWITTER PARTY
Sept 29, 2011, 11am - Noon CST

I can't get to all the questions, but please ask your BB101 Questions here...

Book Blogging 101: Should I change my blog name?

Well Thursday just snuck up on me...guess this calls for a BB101 Vlog...enjoy!

That's it folks. Talk less. Read More. Happy Thursday.

Ask your BB101 Questions here...

Book Bloggin 101: Digital Footers and Blog Tours

How do you sign up for blog tours?? Is there a particular site or something?? I am a fairly new blogger and wanted to interview authors and participate in blog tours.
Thanks for all the help PJ. I love your blog and have found some great advice in your BB101 posts. - Mia

Yes. There are tons of sites that host blog tours. Most of the time all you have to do is get on their mailing list and then they will send you notifications of when a tour is coming up.

Here are a few and if my readers can chime in with any they no about it would be greatly appreciated.

http://bewitchingbooktours.blogspot.com/
http://blogbooktours.blogspot.com/
http://tlcbooktours.com/
http://virtualbooktours.wordpress.com/
http://mysticalbookblogtours.blogspot.com/
http://litfusegroup.com/blog-tours
http://www.novelpublicity.com/tour/
http://www.goddessfish.com/tours.htm

I've seen a couple of blogs I follow that have specifically mobile versions of their blog so that it's easy to read on a cell phone/PDA/whatever.  How do they do that?! - Thinking Cat

Easy to do. Go to your dashboard. Click on Settings. Click on Email & Mobile

Where it says, SHOW MOBILE TEMPLATE click yes. You can view what it will look like by clicking MOBILE PREVIEW. That little black box next to it is called a QR code. It is a scanner for your mobile phone. People "scan" it with their phone and it goes directly to their website. They  have to have a QR reader on their phone though - but it is a free app.

I've only done a few vlog posts, but never for IMM or reviews. How is this a good tool to use?  Also, what is a good length for vlog post?  Finally, I don't know how to edit video footage...will my vlogs look goofy? - ArtsyBookishGal

Show us your face! It puts a face to your name. And it brings a personal feel to your blog which people have just read, now they can see. Not to mention when you yammer people see a side of you that they might not get from your writing. Also, it's sometimes easier to make a quick vlog than to write everything down. I would suggest 2 to 3 minutes. When I see ten minute vlogs I think in my head, "Girl I like you, but I don't want to hear you go on for that long..."

My best vlogs are done in one take. If you can't edit, practice it a few times and just do the ones that go right though...

I would LOVE directions on how to create a digital fingerprint and copyright footer. So my question is, how do you create a digital fingerprint and copyright footer? - Juju at Tales of Whimsy...

Digital Fingerprinting is one of those odd little extras that people add to blogs but don't really explain how they do it. So, first let's do the easy one. Let's add a copyright footer.

In your DESIGN view in the DASHBOARD there should be a widget at the bottom called ATTRIBUTION...

By clicking on that you can add a quick copyright setting to your footer.

Now let's add a Post Feed Footer...so this will be added to you feed in case someone hijacks it.

Go to your DASHBOARD > SETTINGS > SITE FEED > Post Feed Footer
and add some original content there, like "This post is protected under copyright"

I've heard there's a way to make Blogger tweet your posts when there published, but I can't find it.  Does it exist?  Where? - Thinking Cat

Feedburner. This is a free Google service. There are tons of extras you can get by using feedburner and one of them is that it will tweet out your post.

Since copyright has been brought up, how does that work if we want to use quotes from a book in our review? Are we allowed to do that? What do we need to look for? Thank you!- Natasha A.

Use them. Quoting is a-ok. If you are reviewing a title you are allowed to show the cover and quote the work because this is considered "Fair Use" by copyright law - as long as you are critiquing. When you start getting into excerpts you need to ask permission first.

There were also a few other questions regarding cover images and posting a synopsis. These are also fine and under the Fair Use law. As long as it is a critique of that work.

How do you add an extra bar under the header/pages for miscellaneous stuff ..like text (eg. extra description statement), movie strip-like slideshow, etc.? ~Thank you. :)    


&

How do you execute a "Post-it"-like message/link to go on top (say you want to flag a giveaway or something important) that you want to remain at the head of the blog section?  --Thank you so much.  You are awesome!!

Text gadget. Implement those HTML/Text gadget. You would insert a new one into your design and drag it over your POST widget.

Want to get fancy with it. Create a post with an image and that text and align it how you like and change the color etc...then go to EDIT HTML and copy the HTML in that post. Then go to ADD A GADGET and you would scroll down to HTML/JavaScript Gadget and copy that code into the gadget. Easy peasy. You would drag it on top of your BLOG POST gadget not under the header gadget.

I've been blogging since September of last year, and I put a chapter from one of my fan fiction stories up on my blog from time to time.  Do you think this is a good idea?  Are people not interested in reading this type of thing on a blog?  I have noticed that I either get no comments on these stories, or maybe one, at the most.  That should be my answer, I guess, but I'd still like to know your opinion.  The fan fiction stories are related to The Twilight Saga and The Phantom of the Opera.  And, by the way, I always include a disclaimes at the very top of each post that contains a chapter, so there's no doubt that this is fan fiction, and not original work. - Maria @ A Night's Dream of Books

Do they comment? You said it yourself that is your answer right there. I think I might be a bad one to ask this, because I don't usually enjoy fan fiction. I think it is a good exercise in writing because of the established routine and plot lines. But, I don't like to read it, especially if I'm a fan of the series because I feel fans sometimes tend to take things a little too far. Yeah you know who you are, LOL, hooking up Jacob and Edward - scared for life! So, personally I wouldn't read your fan fic, but, if you want to put it out there, start a writing blog and put it there. Or keep on posting it. It's your blog. Do what you want, if your readers don't like it, they don't have to read it, right??

<div style="background-color: white; border: medium solid rgb(0, 0, 0); color: #660066; padding: 5px;">

**How do we change the color of the box? I tried replacing "White" with html color reference but it doesn't work and when I use the word brown its an ugly red color?

Did you add the #? Don't forget that one. It's quite important - see I changed it to #000 or black and I changed the text to white with the #FFF tag. See? This is my code:

<div style="background-color: black; border: medium solid rgb(0, 0, 0); color: #FFF; padding: 5px;">
Wuz up div? </div>

That's it folks. Talk Less. Read More. Don't steal. Happy Thusday.

Ask your BB101 Questions here...

Book Blogging 101: Ten Tips for Newbies

I just started blogging and I can't even think of what I need to know much less what you can tell me. Can you maybe give some tips for a new blogger, things I should know. - Viv

A: How about a Ten List?? Everyone likes these. Now I don't know if this is the top ten items you should know...but its stuff I think you should know.

Ten Things a NEWBIE Book Blogger Should Know.

1. Nothing happens automatically. Authors will not automatically send you books as soon as you slap a review policy up on your site. Book Blogging takes time and in order for authors to find you, you need to get your book blog off the ground. So step 1 with any book blog is marketing and networking. 
2. ARCs also come in time. Do not assume you will get tons of ARCs just because you start your blog. The best way to get in on the ARC craze is to join netgalley.com
3. Most of the time you should request books from the publishers. Authors get a few ARCs and finished copies, but they don't get a ton of them and those will usually go to their author friends, family and their choice reviewers. A lot of the time if an author sends you a review copy they purchase them and then mail them to you. So, easiest way to get a review copy is going through the publisher. Publishers will have special email addresses for requesting review copies on their webpages. Just do a search, you can usually find the email address on their CONTACT US page.
4. When mailing a book to a contest winner, a friend, or for a book exchange you can mail through MEDIA MAIL, this is a way to save money on postage.
5. No matter how pretty that picture is on the internet that you found, if it does not say that it is available for use, please don't use it. Always ask for permission. This also goes for content and writing.
6. You have a blog -- now join twitter, facebook, ning sites, publisher forums, if it has something to do with writing join up! Network, network, network.
7. Put your URL on everything. It should be in your facebook, twitter, ning profile. It should be in your signature of your emails. It should be at the end of every comment. It should be on everything!!!
8. Play around with things like FEEDBURNER, Google Docs, Goodreads - utilize them and implement everything they have to offer!
9. Keep on top of your favorite author's blogs and web sites, follow them on twitter, facebook etc. A lot of the time they make announcements this way and it is always good to share this with your readers.
10. And lastly, book blogging is a lot of work. You are looking about probably 1 - 2 hours daily, minimum. If you don't have the time, inclination or patience you might want to think about the investment you put into it.

I have an option on my blog to follow by email. Is there a way for me to check what the emails are that are subscribed? I use Feedburner, though I may switch over to Blogger's way of subscribing, if Blogger can do it and Feedburner can't.
Thanks for all the awesome advice, PJ! - Riv Re

A: Step 1: Log into feedburner
Step 2: On front page that lists the number of subscribers, click: See more about your subscribers »
Step 3: Scroll down to: Email Subscription Services, click on FeedBurner Email Subscriptions, then click Manage Your Email Subscriber List

There you go, the list of who subscribes to you...

What's my blog's RSS feed? And how does it work?
Thanks!  - Riv Re

A: In blogger to find out your RSS feed, scroll all the way down until you get to the bottom of your posts and you see ATOM. That link is your feed. Right click and scroll to copy link. That is your RSS feed.

Now what is it? The wikidef is: RSS (most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.^[2] An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed",^[3] or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place.

In ENGLISH?

The old way of doing things was:

YOU ----> go to ----> Blog 1 ----> look around *nothing new!* on to ---> Blog 2 ----> Nothing new! ---> search search more

But with RSS those feeds come to you, so it turns it around

You <---- Blog 1 New Post <---- Blog 2 New Post

Subscribing to someone's RSS is their stream, feed, burn, post, update all getting pushed over to your reader, instead of you going to them. I saw an explanation where they compared Netflix & Video stores to online search and RSS feeds. RSS = Netflix

I would love to see you do a tutorial on how to create
named attribution jumps (i.e. for review pages). I saw a tutorial for this on another blog but the instructions were not clear and Blogger keeps  corrupting the code every time you go and update your post/page. Surely there has to be a way to add the code into Blogger without it corrupting each time, right? I figured if anyone would know how to do it, it would be you :)  - Abby

A: A named attribution jump is what in web design speak is also called an anchor.

Basically if your link looks like this <a href="parajunkee.com">Parajunkee</a> You add an anchor to a certain part of your code. Let's say...TOP, so your link would now look like this:

<a href=<a href="parajunkee.com#TOP">Go To Top</a>

Did you notice that I put the # sign before the name of the anchor? That is integral to the link! But now how do you make an anchor?

It is really rather easy. You would navigate to where in the code you would like your anchor. If you are doing a top anchor it would of course be at the very top of the page.

Paste this: <a name="TOP" id="TOP"></a>

That is it. You would just change TOP to what you want to call it. It is CASE SENSITIVE, so keep it all same.

How to create a drop-down navi bar.  - AnnaBanana

A:I'm sorry Anna - but, I'm not going to do a tutorial on this. This would fall into the ADVANCED category. There are a few sites that offer downloads, like this one: http://www.cssmenumaker.com/

And last but not least...the winner of the "Someone Needs a Hug or a Slap Award"...

Book blogger jealousy! YEA I'm are jealous! You big follower book bloggers wave your ARCS around in our faces. Of course I"M jealous. They never want to send ARCS to me. The only way I can get one is by winning one. I don't think publishers should count followers for who they send ARCS too, they should send it to the REAL fans. Not the people that just get them cause they are the IN book. Why do authors look at followers? That shouldn't count at all. - Anonymous

A:I'm sorry you are feeling the Book Blogger Envy. But, I'm kinda of feeling a bit grumpy about the waving books in your face remark. I'm sorry you feel that way, but just because I'm showing off my pretty book doesn't mean I'm rubbing it in your face. If I pulled up in a new car -- but you had an old car, would you consider that rubbing it in your face? Because, I don't mean it that way, I'm just excited about my new shiny book and if I show my husband he goes "Whatever." If I show my Book Blogger friends they SQUEE with me. I sooo want people to SQUEE with me. That is not rubbing faces, that is excitement, glee, happiness and joy over a new book. Don't let that green seep into your skin --- makes for an unhappy person. You don't want to be unhappy. No one wants to be unhappy.

Now as for those followers, those people that read the blog that you don't think count. Well, you see I think they do. I think I put a lot of work into my blog. I've been doing this for almost two years. I've seen blogs come and go. Every week I meet at least ten new blogs that just popped up and ten blogs disappear off the radar. Now publishers and publicists and authors, this is their JOB. JOB JOB JOB. Their writing = their paycheck. That book you review, well it could equal increased profitability. If the review is read. They want to look for a blog that will review their book (so first thing they look for is how long the blog has been around) an upstart blog might have more trouble because they haven't established a reputation yet. And then more followers equal a broader platform that they are reaching. Now, granted they don't always go for the highest follower count. 500 dedicated followers is a lot better than 2000 followers that aren't reading your posts...so they also look at comments and things like that to see if you are getting responses. All of this takes time, work and a little elbow grease. Ranting will not get you ARCs - why don't you try netgalley. They might be more accommodating.


That's it folks. Talk Less. Read More. Happy Thursday.