Bloggish Questions: Reviews, Link Spam, What to do when you didn't like the book, Giveaways, Balancing Life & Blogging, Blog Tours, Copyright, Stats...
Dear Story Siren:
How many memes are too many? I am able to finish about two books a week since I have a full-time job and a 2 month-old infant. What would you consider a reasonable ratio of memes (or non-review posts) to review posts?
Emily (emilysreadingroom.blogspot.com)
Dear Story Siren,
I have just started my blog a short while ago and have gained followers through participating in things like the Book Blog Hop and visiting other people's blogs. I have noticed all of the book blog memes that are very popular and think they are all good ideas. As I have a lot of school work to do, I don't have as much time to blog as I would like and once or twice I have not posted a review in a week but a couple of short blog memes which take less time to write. Can you give me any advice on whether it would be ok to not participate in the blog memes like Teaser Tuesday every week or choose which ones to do this week?
Thank you so much for any tips!
Steph :)
Dear Emily & Steph,
I'm going to answer both of your questions together since they are slightly similar. I see bloggers struggle with this a lot. It's not surprising that you would feel overwhelmed seeing bloggers that post everyday, like me. But the thing is, you don't have to post everyday! And no one will think any less of you if you don't. I know as a blog reader I would rather have quality, unique content to read once a week... rather than a different meme everyday.
So I guess what I'm saying is, if you only have time to post one review a week. Than just post one review a week. Don't feel like there is some blogger criteria that you have to meet. It's your blog! You make the rules.
And to address your question a little more specifically Steph, I'd say if you want to do a meme one week and then skip it the next few times, go for it! Don't feel like your stuck when you participate in a meme!
Story Siren
Hi there,
I use links at the bottom of my blog posts for people to link their reviews so they can have their reviews looked at too. The trouble is there is one blogger that leaves about five links on all my posts everyday and they're completely unrelated. Is this blogger spamming me? Should I delete the links without feeling bad about it? Should I confront them?
Thanks very much.
Anonymous
Dear Anonymous,
It definitely sounds like you are getting spammed! I wouldn't feel bad about deleting the links at all! If they continue to leave the unrelated links it may be time for you to confront them about it. Sorry you have to deal with that.
Story Siren
Dear Story Siren,
For the past month, I've been promoting this book. I did a blog tour on it, told people to get it when it comes out, etc.. etc..
But it's out now, and I read it, and I didn't like it much. I'm gonna post a review on it now, but i'm stuck. I mean...I told people they should read it and now i'm posting a half-negative review on it?
Doesn't know what to do,
H.
Dear H,
This is a tricky situation for any book blogger. Don't feel bad about promoting the book. My way of thinking is this... just because you didn't like the book, doesn't mean that someone else won't. I don't think there is anything wrong with promoting a book you didn't like as long as you are honest in your review about how you felt about it.
I've had interviews and guest posts with authors to "promote" their book, but my review of the novel wasn't a five stars and glowing... was that wrong of me? I don't think so. Although not every blogger would agree with that assessment.
If you are uncomfortable with the situation, just make sure you don't have something similar happen to you again... read the book first.
Story Siren
Dear Story Siren,
I've finally hit that point in every bloggers career where it's time to do a give away. I'm pretty sure how to run the contest and prizes, that's the simple part. My question is when I finally get a winner and it's time to send out the goods. How do I approach getting the information from the winner to mail them the goods. Personally I'm always REALLY nervous when I give out my mailing address or anything like that online. How would you approach this? What is the etiquette when a blogger contacts the winner of the contest?
Also an advice you have on giveaways would be great!
Sorry if this is a silly question, but I couldn't find much doing a search engine.
Thank you,
Babbles is her Name
Dear Babbles is her Name,
Having contact information for the winner is always a must. Then usually it takes a simple email letting the winner know of their win and asking them to reply with their address. The tricky part is getting them to reply. When I used to contact winners via email for their information 95% of the time I wouldn't hear back from the winner, and would usually contact several winners until I'd finally hear back from one. This can take several months when you wait to hear back from each winner for a few weeks. It's frustrating for me and for the author/publisher that is providing the prize.
Now that I use Google Docs, I ask for the address information right away. That way I don't have to do the email run around for months before I'll get a winners info.
Just be courteous and professional when sending the email!
(I'm not recommending you give your mailing address out to everyone... DON'T! Be sure it's a reputable site or a blogger that you can trust!)
Hopefully that helps.
Story Siren
Dear Story Siren,
If you start a blog, how do you make sure it doesn't like become more important than your life? I always see these bloggers and they talk about their lives and it amazes me that they half tim to read the TONS of books they receive AND keep up with the fun things in life.
Anonymous
Dear Anonymous,
This may seem like a silly answer... but, you don't let it.
You blog is what you make it. You can be extreme, you can do it on the weekends only, you can do it once a month. You are the one in control. It's like anything else.
Story Siren
Dear Story Siren,
How do you become apart of a blog tour where you get to interview an author and normally give away a copy of their book?
Anonymous
Dear Anonymous,
Usually you are invited to be a part of a tour, or you can sign up to be a part of a tour on different tour sites.
Traveling to Teens
Novel Noise
The Teen Book Scene
Center Stage Book Tours
Story Siren
Dear Story Siren,
Do you know if there are any copyright issues with regards to including the book cover with your reviews? Do you have to get special permission to use them, or does using them fall under the category of "fair use"?
Perhaps this is a silly question, but I thought it would be better to be safe than sorry.
Anonymous
Dear Story Siren,
Does publishers mind if you don't write your own summary and simply use the one from the jacket cover or a site like goodreads? Or do they prefer you write your own summary to post with your review?
Anonymous
Dear Anonymous & Anonymous,
I'm sure in the grand scheme of things there probably is a copyright issue with using the cover image and summary, but since most of the time book bloggers are using it for "promotional" purposes the publishers let it slide.
I could be wrong, but seeing as there are a lot of book bloggers that use book covers and publisher summaries and have never been reprimanded or contacted by the publishers because of it, I'm fairly certain it's "allowed."
Story Siren
Dear Story Siren,
You say to give blog stats. I can figure out how many followers i have but how do you figure out how many unique visitors you have and is there a way to find out who signed up for your blog via a reader.. I am new to blogging and not really had time to get into this aspect of it. thanks
Pamk @ www.bookcrazyscrapbookmama.blogspot.com
Dear Story Siren,
How do I know my number for monthly unique visitors?
Anonymous
Dear Pamk, & Anonymous
There are several places that you can use to keep track of your stats. Pam, I see that you have a blogspot blog, Blogger just implemented a new stat option so you should be able to find your unique visitor count there, just be sure you check that box that will keep the stat counter from counting your visits to your own blog.
Google Analytics is a great way to keep track of all your blog stats. You can see visitors, top posts, referring sites. You just have to instal some html on your blog, there are easy step-by-step directions to install the code you need.
There is also Site Meter. It's easier to install than Google, but it doesn't give you all the same stats. It's more of a counter than anything.
Story Siren
Dear SS!
I really appreciate all the giveaways you host. You are so sweet to offer so many and not require anything at all from those who enter. My question is, how do you afford to offer so many giveaways and open them up to everyone? Any tips that could help with shipping costs?
Anonymous
Dear Anonymous,
Well thank you!
And honestly it's not because I'm sweet that I make the contests easy to enter... it's because I'm too lazy to do anything complicated!
Most of the time the contest that I hold are provided my publishers and authors and they send the books directly to the winners, otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford it!
However, most of the time pubs won't send prizes overseas because of the cost. And it is expensive. I know that a lot of international readers get discourages when then see a US only contest (I've even have one person say it was discriminatory, which is ridiculous!) but if I don't have an international contest, it's not because I'm trying to be mean, or discriminatory!
You can get a flat rate international box that you can send almost anywhere for $50 US dollars, that's a good deal when you are sending a lot of books. The average hardcover book weighs just over one pound... to send just one book it can cost anywhere from $15-30... it adds up believe me!
Within the US, your best bet is to send book via Media Mail. It's a little slower on the delivery time, but it's the cheapest way to send a book, you can send 10 pounds of books for under $6!
I am an Amazon Affiliate, that means anytime someone clicks a "buy the book" link from my blog and buys something at Amazon... I small percentage. That is what I use for my shipping fund. It's not much, but every little bit helps!
Story Siren
Dear Story Siren,
We all know The Story mainly focuses on YA but you also read adult romance. I'm wondering if you'll ever create a separate blog to post about your adult romance reads?
Sincerely,
TBV
Dear TBV,
I actually had one at one time... but I just didn't keep it up. I spend way to much time on The Story, I can't imagine trying to do two blogs.
Maybe someday... perhaps I could collaborate with someone...
Story Siren
Check out other general questions from real readers on other "Dear Story Siren" posts:
Dear Story Siren (1) (Contacting Author for interviews)
Dear Story Siren (2) (Asking for ARCs International/US)
Dear Story Siren (3) (Hours spend blogging, personal and Navigation bar questions)
Dear Story Siren (4) (Advance Reader Copies/Reviews questions)
Dear Story Siren (5) (Blogging 101 Volume 1)
Dear Story Siren (6) (Author Interviews Edition II)
Dear Story Siren (7) (Publisher Interaction/Asking for ARCs
Dear Story Siren (8) (The Personal Edition)
Dear Story Siren (9) (Followers Edition)
Dear Story Siren (10) (Contest/Vlogs/Blogger Tricks)
Dear Story Siren (11) (Review Edition II)
Dear Story Siren (12) (Blog-ish Questions)
Dear Story Siren (13) (Blog-ish Questions)
Dear Story Siren (14) (Blog-ish Questions)
Dear Story Siren (15) (Publisher/Author q's & ARC Questions)
If you have a question... blog related, personal, book related... submit it below to be featured on a future post of "Dear Story Siren" If you've already submitted a question and it hasn't been answered, don't fret! I will try to answer every question, so I may not have gotten to it or it may have already been asked before. That being said you can always check a previous post to see if your question has been answered already. PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE COMMENTS IN THE BOX BELOW. The form below is to submit a question for the "Dear Story Siren" posts, not to leave a comment. Feel free to leave a comment in the "comments section"
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