I’ve had the privilege of being a member of Book Blogs for a little while now and every so often there’s a thread that comes up that you really has to dive into and give some honest answers to. Skip at the Reading Ape has just asked a set of questions that were not only thought provoking but insightful so here are my own responses to them:
1. What does book blogging do best?
It gets the word out to readers about titles that are worth their money, it gives new authors a voice and to be honest it gives everyone the chance to say what they like and thus hopefully influence the market in the future.
2. If you write a book blog, why do you?
I write because I love to read. Whilst I also dabble in creating fiction, its just for my own pleasure and as such would never be of publishable quality. Blogging gives me chance to voice what I think of a book and, hopefully, allows authors to know what I appreciated in the title that, for some, has taken years to write.
Other than that, as I mentioned in question one, it allows readers to make a more informed choice about where to spend their hard earned money.
3. What do you think the future of book blogging is?
The future of blogging I think is something that’s going to evolve. As more become internet dependent for purchasing as well as research, book blogging is going to be something that will always be there to entertain as well as inform. Yes in twenty years time we may be more Electron destroyers than trees but in essence we’ll all still be there in one form or another.
4. What do your favorite book bloggers do?
This is tricky to answer, the blogs that I tend to read often are the ones that engage me with their review style. I like the way they get their point across, I like the way that they have some tastes similar to me and perhaps best of all I like it when they bring a new author to my attention that I may have missed and I also like the way that they bring me author interviews so that I can gage if I like their personality.
5. If you could tell all book bloggers one thing, what would it be?
It doesn’t matter how small you are, there will be people out there that agree with your point of view and whilst you may worry about being honest about a title, you have to be as without integrity you lose your readers.
6. If you could change one thing about book blogging, what would it be?
The countless hours spent typing. LOL Seriously, I’d like to have it so that people wouldn’t tell me the books story from start to finish, by all means utilise the book blurb but other than that leave the rest a mystery by commenting on the writing style, the characters and the prose.
7. How do you think book blogging fits into the reading landscape?
Blogging is there to help people choose how to spend their hard earned money on titles that will entertain. In the past I used to get annoyed as well as upset when I spent money on a title where I felt that I didn’t get value for money. I’m not saying that this is a common occurrence but at the end of the day, with money becoming tighter, luxuries like books are often overlooked due to a poor experience. By blogging we can help people find that gem that they’ve been looking for.
8. What about your own book blogging would you like to do better/differently?
To be honest I’m not sure. I do look at how I do things quite often, and where possible implement changes to help make it a better experience not only for readers but for me. When thinking things through, I suppose I’d like to be able to spend more time reading and perhaps plan further into the future than I do but when you work to a rough six month schedule things can get hectic at the beginning and completely change by the end due to publishing changes.
Gareth
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