Discussion Post: How Do I Support Bloggers?

 

I thought I would post a small discussion today.  Being a blogger is hard.  It’s time consuming and sometimes it feels like people aren’t visiting.  I try really hard to support other bloggers, but it can be difficult at times to know what’s best.

Discussion Post: Young Adult vs Teen. What is the difference?

 

This is a post that kind of follows up the post I did last month on how mature young adult books should be and how we police them.  This is something that’s been bothering me a bit.

 

Why do publishers consider young adult to be 14+?

Discussion Post: ARCs vs Finished Copies

 

I apologize now if I ramble with this one.  It was just something I was thinking about and wanted to see what others thought.

 

What do you think about reading ARCs? 

 

Do you ever feel pressure to read ARCs?  Either from publishers or other bloggers?

Are we policing books too hard or not enough? Are we helping books get banned? Controversial Book Discussion Post. (Massive warning for triggers and hot topics throughout the whole blog post.) Do not read if you don’t feel comfortable with heavy topics/triggers.

 

Let me start this post with a warning.  Everyone is entitled to their opinions.  Please do not start fighting or attacking people in the comments.  We can all be adults and have a conversation to see how we can help with these issues.

 

This post will mostly be about young adult books, but can be pretty much any book.  I’ll be including adult and middle grade topics.  This will also get long because I ramble.  Know ahead of time that I don’t always explain things as well as I should.  I may not get my point across in the right way.  This happens with me a lot.  I am NOT condoning or supporting any illegal behaviors.  I just want to see if we can find ways to show things happening in a way that’s not harmful.  A book can be realistic without it having to be non-fiction.  AGAIN, I am NOT saying any of these illegal activities are ok or good.

 

My anxiety is racing as I write this post since I never want to upset anyone.  I really hope I handled it ok.   I’ve been thinking about this for awhile, but I’ve been terrified to write it all out and publish it.  This is a lot of me thinking out loud and I apologize if I have something bad mentioned.  I’m definitely not saying any of my thoughts are correct.  They are opinions and mostly questions on what we can do differently.  I’ve tried to make it very clear that I don’t condone the acts themselves, but that I want to see how far is too far in YA before it needs to go up to NA or adult fiction which tends to get away with a lot more controversial subjects.  How can books reach the correct audience?  I’m also sorry if I repeat myself a lot.  I’ve added to this post throughout the week.  I have no idea how many times I’ve edited it.  And I’m still second guessing myself and worry about how I’m coming off.

Discussion Post: What Makes or Breaks a Book?

 

As you’ve probably noticed, I’m not a very picky reader and generally like everything I read.  But I do know there are some issues that a lot of people have with a book.  I want to know what makes a book great to you and what makes a book terrible.

 

Edelweiss vs Netgalley (discussion post)

 

I wanted to do a discussion post today on two of the most used ARC websites.  I know there are people that aren’t familiar with both.  I have been using Netgalley longer, but I really like Edelweiss, too.  I have some tips to share and thought I could talk about why I like each one.

 

Netgalley:

Netgalley seems to be the more popular website that more people use.  I started using Netgalley well before I started this blog.   I was just reading and reviewing on Goodreads.  But I did notice that I was getting declined for quite a few books.  A couple publishers added that they were only approving for bloggers and not just reviewers anymore.  So having a blog will help.

Netgalley is easy to use.  Definitely fill out your profile and link up all your sites.  Also, update it every so often.  I try to update my profile social media stats every 3-6 months.  I find that this helps.  Publishers really like to see you have an 80% rating if possible.  This gets easier to maintain after you have reviewed so many books.  I’m at 199 reviewed right now, so my percentage doesn’t go up or down much anymore.

Discussion Post: Decline in Blog Activity

 

I recently asked about this on TBR and Beyond, but thought I would post it here, too.  Just a quick discussion since I’ve only been blogging for just over a year.  I’m curious if there are any trends in stats.

 

I noticed a slight decline in blog activity for August, but September has been a drastic decline.  My number of views is way down.

 

I was barely blogging at this time last year, so I can’t really use that to judge.  But I’m curious if this is normal this time of the year (school starting)?  Or is there something that I might not be doing to get people visiting?

 

Have you noticed a decline in activity for September?  If you’ve been blogging for awhile, is this a normal thing for this time of the year?  Do you have any advice to get the views back up or will it just get back to normal again soon?

 

 

 

Discussion: Book Formats

 

I thought I would post a discussion post today.  The topic is something I see pretty often and I always like to see what people prefer.

 

Which book format do you prefer?  And why?

 

Audiobooks:

I just started listening to audiobooks last year.  I usually use them as a reread or for nonfiction books.  I like that I can listen in the car with my husband, but also at home using my Amazon Echo.  We have audible.

To TBR or Not To TBR

 

I definitely have a large TBR on goodreads, but I really don’t do monthly TBR’s.  I see so many people that do, so I thought it would be fun to discuss this topic.

 

For me, I’m a mood reader.  If I set a very specific TBR, I am setting myself up for failure.  It also takes away some of the fun of reading and makes it feel more like a chore at times.

Discussion Post: Why is there so much hate towards certain authors?

 

I’m still fairly new to Twitter, but I’m definitely seeing a lot of hate on there and Goodreads, so I thought I would start a post about some of what I’m seeing.

 

I know that not everyone will like the same books.  We all take things differently from them.  Some people read into things more than others.  Some people want things to only be realistic and others are good with knowing that books don’t have to be real or even happy.