Tagged: discussion
Discussion: Being Open About Blogging Statistics
As you guys have obviously realized, I’m very open about my blogging statistics. I’ve been doing my monthly “The Best and Worst of…” series since September 2012, about 9 months after I first started blogging. I don’t think statistics are something to brag about or be embarrassed about. They simply are. Why I publicize them is mostly because I like to analyze them and hear other people’s thoughts and commentary on said analysis. It’s nice to share ideas about why some posts are more popular than others or why my views spike/drop in a particular month.
Another reason is because when I started blogging I was looking into what book blogging statistics typically looked like and came up with zero information. I want to help new bloggers have some more realistic expectations about how many hits they’re going to get in the beginning as well as how their monthly stats aren’t going to grow at a consistent rate.
With that said, not every blogger is as open about their statistics. Some are even more open about their statistics and go so far as to do fancy pie charts and graphs about their traffic. It all seems to come down to the individual, which makes sense. Some people like me are a little bit more focused on their stats than others. At the same time, there are people who don’t care about their stats at all. Neither approach is better than the other; they’re simply different.
What I want to know now is: Are you, as a blogger, open about your stats? Why or why not? Do you enjoy it when bloggers share their stats or do you think it’s more of a bragging thing? And, do you think bloggers in general should be more open about their stats?
Discussion: Book Trailers
You know, to me movie and TV show trailers make sense. They get audiences excited for what is a very visual medium. But what about book trailers?
Most book trailers are just visual representations of the blurb that the author copies and pastes right above. They’re getting more and more popular with the rise of social media marketing strategies among authors and publishers alike. Yet I just don’t see the point. I mean, you read the blurb above so why would you need to watch the trailer? Maybe I’m missing something here but as a reader and blogger I don’t feel like they add anything to the whole bookish experience.
What I want to know is: What do you guys think of book trailers? Do you enjoy them? Why? Are you like me and fail to see the point? Let me know in the comments section! This is a topic I’m not really all that familiar with so I’m more than willing to hear both sides of the argument.
Discussion: Your Reading Influences
Yes, it’s the second discussion in a row this week! I had a brainwave the other night while thinking up a post and decided that this was actually the perfect topic for a bonus discussion.
A lot of people influenced my love of reading but the main credit would have to go to my parents, who read to me every day before I began going to school. Even after I started going to school, my mother would still read me bedtime stories up until grade three. By then I just enjoyed listening to her read rather than actually needing her to read to me. Even though the school reading program and the teachers did their best to suck all of the joy of reading out of me, I persevered and became the avid reader I am today.
Most of you reading this blog are readers of varying degrees. So what I want to know now is this: Who influenced your love of reading the most? Was school a positive influence on your reading or a negative influence, as it was on mine?
Discussion: Blog Tours
No, this isn’t my usual ‘good or bad?’ discussion, but rather just a place to share experiences. In this case, I want to share blog tour experiences. And just in the spirit of fairness I’ve devised questions for authors, reviewers and blog readers so everyone can participate!
Authors: Have you ever done a blog tour? Did you organize it yourself or did you go through a tour company? Which company? Would you say your tour was beneficial in terms of sales, exposure and reviews? Why or why not? If you had the chance, would you do a blog tour again?
Reviewers: Do you tour with some blog tour companies? If so, which ones? If not, why not? What are some of the benefits of joining a blog tour? How have your experiences been with blog tours (i.e. good or bad)?
Blog Readers: As a reader, do you enjoy blog tour posts (i.e. cover reveals, book blasts, guest posts, interviews and/or reviews)? Why or why not?
Discussion: Auto-Buy Authors
Auto-buy authors are actually a pretty simple concept: you really like an author so when their latest work comes out you automatically buy it whether or not you’re really interested in the genre/topic/characters/etc. I personally have a couple of auto-buy authors.
John Heldt isn’t technically an auto-buy so much as an auto-review author for me. He’s contacted me to review all five of his books in the Northwest Passage series and it isn’t even a question of me accepting any longer. Basically he’s an auto-review author, one that I’ll finish his current series and automatically request a review copy for his next series. I have several indie/relatively unknown authors like that, to be honest and it would take forever to name them all. Some other notable ones are Diantha Jones, Carla J. Hanna, Katie Hamstead, Terah Edun, K. L. Kerr, Luciana Cavallaro, Vanessa Garden, Danielle L. Jensen and Krystal Wade. Those are just the ones off the top of my head and I know there are far more.
As for traditionally published authors one of my auto-buy authors is Julie Kagawa. Her Iron Fey series is guilty pleasure whereas I actually enjoy her Blood of Eden series on a more intellectual level. Mira Grant (aka Seanan McGuire) is a definite auto-buy/auto-request from NetGalley because I’ve never read a book by her I didn’t like. Mark Lawrence, with his The Broken Empire trilogy is now an auto-buy author and I can’t wait until his spin-off series The Red Queen’s War comes out.
Well, these are just some of my auto-buy authors. What are yours? Why?