Don't Take It Personally...I Can't Review Your Book.

Woo! It has been a LONG time since I did a Blogger to Author post. 3 years maybe? Eep! Goodness. But I had something to say so figured I'd do a new post.

I Just Can't Review Your Book. 
It's Nothing Personal.

If You Liked THIS Book.... You'll LOVE My Book! aka #BookDeath

So. A wee #RantyAnna moment this lovely Saturday. 

I got another blog request tonight that basically went like this...

You liked THAT author's book so I think you'll LOVE this other author I'm pimping at you right now!

Blogger to Author (4)--When is it OKAY for an author to comment...

Blogger to Author is a bit of an advice column for authors with tips and suggestions about working with bloggers, blogging in general and making the most of the platform.

After 3 years of blogging I've noticed trends and methods I think can help or harm authors and their goals and wanted to put something together to hopefully create better author/blogger relations and give some insight to authors who may not be bloggers themselves. It's all based on interactions that have happened here on herding cats & burning soup over the years. 

Alright so a maybe kind of touchy subject today. Authors and commenting on posts! Eeps! In the last couple months I've had 4 authors tell me they were told to NEVER (ever) comment on a blog. Not just a review post. But ANY post. Spotlight, guest post, interview, etc. And gotta say I completely disagree with this train of thought.

Blogger to Author (3)-- Using a BCC when mass emailing--Please, please, please do this. Please.

Blogger to Author is a bit of an advice column for authors with tips and suggestions about working with bloggers, blogging in general and making the most of the platform.

After 3 years of blogging I've noticed trends and methods I think can help or harm authors and their goals and wanted to put something together to hopefully create better author/blogger relations and give some insight to authors who may not be bloggers themselves. It's all based on interactions that have happened here on herding cats & burning soup over the years. 

Hey guys!! Hope yall are all doing fabulous today. So a really quick Blogger to Author chat for this month. This one is about emails and if you're sending out a mass mailing.

One big thing for a LOT of bloggers is keeping their email fairly private. It's a huge aggravation--aka make a girl twitch-- type thing when mass emails are sent out and the person sending them does NOT BCC the email addresses. And it happens a LOT in our community. Not just by authors. But tour companies, publishers, etc. And oh my word is it frustrating.

Blogger to Author (2)--making an interview/guest post shine

Blogger to Author is a bit of an advice column for authors with tips and suggestions about working with bloggers, blogging in general and making the most of the platform.

Am I the be all and end all of bloggers? ::snort:: Hell no. But after near 3 years of blogging I've noticed trends and methods I think can help or harm authors and their goals and wanted to put something together to hopefully create better author/blogger relations and help authors who may not be bloggers present themselves if ways that may show them off better. It's all based on interactions that have happened here on herding cats & burning soup over the years. From sending requests to guest posting and what works best on the blogger side of things with this or that. While it might not all apply to every author/blogger it will hopefully give a bit of a starting point for discussions. 

Annnnd we're back with our second Blogger to Author chat! This time it's all about guest posts and interviews. Posts that can totally charm the reader or wind up being a little bit flat. I read somewhere that the average blog visit lasts less than a minute with people deciding if they're going to stick around and read the post within 10 seconds. That's...a lot of pressure. And how you start out a post/reply to questions can have a lot to do with keeping people on that page to see what you have to say.
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I'm going to focus on those being interviewed for this post but a lot of this applies to those interviewing as well. And while I think these are good universal rules there are also, of course, exceptions to the "rules".

Jumping in...Obviously you don't want things to be flat. Just like in books...in interviews or guest posts if it's flat...it's gonna make eyes glaze over and not grab anyone's attention. You want to get people engaged, interacting and wanting to read more from you and the best way to do that is to snag their attention and make them comfortable. Where they finish the interview or guest post and instantly want to grab up the book or whatever it is because you've made such an impression on them.

Blogger to Author (1)--That first meet!

Blogger to Author is a bit of an advice column for authors with tips and suggestions about working with bloggers, blogging in general and making the most of the platform.

Am I the be all and end all of bloggers? ::snort:: Hell no. But after near 3 years of blogging I've noticed trends and methods I think can help or harm authors and their goals and wanted to put something together to hopefully create better author/blogger relations and help authors who may not be bloggers present themselves if ways that may show them off better. It's all based on interactions that have happened here on herding cats & burning soup over the years. From sending requests to guest posting and what works best on the blogger side of things with this or that. While it might not all apply to every author/blogger it will hopefully give a bit of a starting point for discussions. 

*waves madly* Good morning authors! Today kicks off our first Blogger to Author chat! Woot! with a side of I'm nervous as hell about doing these. ::snort:: Excited too because I'm hoping they'll really help get some topics out in the open and some discussions happening. And for today I wanted to talk a little about first contact and reaching out to bloggers via social media and email. Something that can go awesomely well for both sides or be an immediate...crash and burn. (A lot of these points can also be applied to bloggers reaching out to authors but to keep things simple for this post I'm just going to go with authors reaching out to bloggers when I type).

Blogger to Author is a bit of an advice column for authors with tips and suggestions about working with bloggers, blogging in general and making the most of the platform.

Am I the be all and end all of bloggers? ::snort:: Hell no. But after near 3 years of blogging I've noticed trends and methods I think can help or harm authors and their goals and wanted to put something together to hopefully create better author/blogger relations and help authors who may not be bloggers present themselves if ways that may show them off better. It's all based on interactions that have happened here on herding cats & burning soup over the years. From sending requests to guest posting and what works best on the blogger side of things with this or that. While it might not all apply to every author/blogger it will hopefully give a bit of a starting point for discussions. 

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Past Blogger to Author Topics

[Are you a blogger? Leave your link so I can visit you too! ~Anna]