Armchair BEA: The Future of Blogging

It's the final day of Armchair BEA! It's been an awesome week and I'm so glad I decided to sign up for it. That being said...as much as I loved it I'm definitely making sure I'm at BEA next year! :) It was great to meet so many of you through this and I have some awesome new blogs to read now. Also, thank you to all my new followers and to those who left comments. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that.

For today's post we're supposed to "ask the experts" or offer our own blogging tips. As I mentioned in Wednesday's post (you can read it here if you missed it) I don't feel like I have many tips. I'm looking to grow my blog and I'd love to figure out a way to do some freelance writing as well. Do I have many ideas on how to do that? No. Would I like some tips myself? Absolutely. 

I've been looking at bloggers I admire and seeing how they do things. It helps that I've developed a good relationship with one of them and feel comfortable asking her any question I may have, even if it may be simple to her. I think I'm doing ok with making connections and participating in conversations. You never know what will result from a Twitter conversation (I was once offered a Kindle ebook because the author and I had an indepth convo about sock monkeys. Only sucky thing is that I don't own a Kindle...haha). I guess my approach has been a studious one. I've been quietly watching what my favourite bloggers have been doing and trying to emulate that. Is it working? Kind of. Even though I'm not really sure what exactly I consider a "success." Comments? Twitter replies? Review requests? Actually, I think that last one factors heavily for me. It shows that authors, publishers, publicists, or other reviewers are noticing my work and that means a lot to me. It's not even about the free books (though that's a definite perk). It's more that they think my writing and reading tastes fit with their work. What about you guys? When do you think/know you're being successful with your blog?

I have to say that I'm totally envious of those bloggers that seem to have amazing connections with authors and publishing houses. I've tried the sign up forms for doing blog tours through some of the big publishers and that hasn't resulted in anything. I have been approached by some smaller publishers and it's so awesome to create relationships with them. Would I love to get an ARC of, say, Emily Giffin's latest book? Abso-freaking-lutely. Have I found other, equally amazing, authors through challenges, tours, and Twitter? Abso-freaking-lutely. Blogging opened my eyes to the various ways books get published and promoted. Just because the author isn't well known or marketed doesn't mean they won't be awesome. This week I also made a list of seven of my favourite books I've read so far this year (here's the link). I had a couple of people comment that they hadn't heard of any but Kinsella's. That was odd to me. Then I got to thinking and realized it's because I'm so connected with some of those authors (or at least pretend to be, hehe) that I think everyone should know who they are. It was an interesting revelation for me.

I know I haven't really asked any questions or offered any tips, so thanks for sticking with me. This week has allowed me to see how other blogs work and what I like immediately and what appeals to me after looking more in depth at other sites. Once again, I appreciate all the love and comments I've gotten this week. I hope some of you stick around to see what else I write. I've got a busy summer coming up that will feature a lot of great books. Thanks for a great week and, as always...

Happy reading :)