#why can I only find a hardcover copy tho???????????? I don’t want a hardcover copy 😔

[bobtheacorn]

Already having an intense, pre-established hyperfixation on japanese folklore and culture prior to reading Usagi Yojimbo and then my stupid lil sci-fi loving brain learning about the Space Usagi and Senso spin-offs:

[crispyjenkins]

20-ish Questions

Book Edition

Tagged by my darling @dbakeiro, haven’t been reading much recently, but this was fun!

1. hardcover or paperback

both! i love tiny hardbacks and big paperbacks the most tho

2. rent or buy

buy. i’ve been a used book reader since i could read at all, i love buying from little used bookstores on the coast. i’m from portland and i’m DEVASTATED that powell’s turned more into a retail bookstore.

3. reads in silence or reads with music

same as dicky, i’m always listening to music. altho when i was doing the most reading, i wasn’t listening to music yet much so maybe both!

4. standalone or series

i have a few series that i super super love, but find i fall in love with single stories more, so i’ll go with standalone

5. annotations or pristine pages

two answers: i fucking LOVE buying a used copy of something full of annotations because i love annotations and essays and love seeing how someone else experienced a story, BUT i also never find myself annotating my own copies of stuff :/ don’t actually know why

6. ebook or physical copy

never had cause to read an ebook, actually. like i said, i don’t read much outside of fanfiction these days

7. dog ears or bookmarks

i have so many bookmarks and always plan to use them and then absolutely never do. dogears til i die

8. mismatched series or complete set

depends! my shakespeare collection is every play is from a different edition/run, and i often don’t actually finish a series all the way through so i don’t end up with every book in the first place.

on the OTHER HAND my song of the lioness quartet has three different runs and ONLY the second book has a good cover and it drives me BONKERS

9. cover matters or you don’t judge

cover matters, ‘cause adhd, but super isn’t the only thing i look at! altho if it doesn’t have a synopsis and only has blurbs, i 99% of the time put it back, i dunno i just don’t have the patience? 

10. lend books or keep them to yourself

not to be all sob sob lonely, but i really don’t interact with people i can share books with! my family have always been big readers, and there’s some contention who gets to move out with which books lol but i moved out first so i’ve got all the ones i wanted 🙃

11. enjoys lit classes or despises them

oh boy, big question. liked eighth grade lit the most, my teacher pushed me in a lot a lot a lot of good ways and is sort of the reason i write at all, but i’m not super into trying to discuss a book with people who didn’t want to read it. otherwise, i loved english classes, specifically my ap course in my last year of high school, which was about syntax, both fiction and non fiction essays, and rhetoric. never vibed so hard with a class before.

12. browses shops or orders online

browse shops! i rarely NEED to get a book right away for any reason, so i don’t tend to order online, unless waitlist at the library counts?

13. reads reviews or goes in blind

i’ll check the blurbs on the covers to see if i know anyone (like if i see neil geiman, i trust this book) but otherwise, i never read reviews. never think to?

14. unreturned books or clean library record

yes.

15. rereads or once was enough

reread for sure! some stuff i never go back to (or never finish......) but anything i like i’ve ready upwards of five times. there was this novella i stayed up all night reading and it’s the only book i’ve ever cried over and i immediately flipped back to the start and read it again. 

16. fanfic enthusiast or a stickler for canon

fanfic. largely because that’s where i tend to find the stories i want to read at all, but also where’s the fun in only doing things by canon? (also the term canon comes from biblical literature and the bible has never been one thing either ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ canon is fake)

17. deep reader or easily distracted

both, depending. i have adhd so i’m often distracted while reading, but with the perfect conditions, i’ve easily lost nine to ten hours and have no idea where they went.

18. must read the book before seeing the movie or order doesn’t matter

depends! i usually try to seperate them as different interpretations of the same story, but i do like having the knowledge from both. what gets me is when movies change unnecessary things? like making that dress pink when it was blue, or i dunno, blowing up the fucking burrow in half blood prince???

19. neat bookshelves or messy bookshelves

i tend to be both, but i don’t actually have bookshelves right now. haven’t in five years. they’re all in boxes and i’m suffering.

20. skips ahead or resists temptation

i skip ahead in paragraphs ‘cause my attention jumps, or maybe onto the next facing page, but i never look further than that!

21. reads aloud or in your head

fucking HATE being read to, it was such a family bonding thing that i just super did not like so i do feel i missed out on some stuff, but some of my happiest memories with my baby sib and a family friend we don’t talk to anymore were when i was reading murther fic to them as we fell asleep (ノ*´◡`)

22. guesses plot twists or never sees them coming

i tend to guess small details that lead to the plot twists, but often miss where it’s going as a whole! i’m rarely like, fucked up by a plot twist, but i do get excited when it wasn’t something i saw coming.

as dicky said, you can tell a lot about people by what they read! soooo i’m tagging @atelier-dayz, @theclonewarsbrokeme, and @drjackal-and-mrsnide! this one is super long, so you’re more than free to pass this one up~

Originally posted by thesunshineatsunset

[avidreaderblog]

Hello everyone! When I first started blogging, I had no idea what I was doing and it stayed that way for two years until I joined WordPress and participated in challenges and read about what to do. Now, I’m still learning, but I’ve got a better handle of the ins and outs of what to put on a blog/website and what NOT to do, but it’s taken me 6 yrs to get here.

Today, though, I figured I’d list what bloggers should and shouldn’t have on their website, all of which would help them reach more readers and get more views so that no one else has to take at least 2 yrs to figure out what they’re doing. Let’s go…

What To Include (general page ideas):

Landing page aka Home (optional)

as an alternative for readers to land first on your blog, you can have a static home page which gives a little intro to who you are and what you blog about. It can either serve as a short version of your About Me/Blog sections or it can actually be the sections.

the only thing you should watch out for is that if your end goal is for people to read your blog posts, you would be increasing the number of steps it would take for readers to get there, which decreases the likelihood they will actually press on a post and read it.

About Me

this is the page where you introduce yourself. Some things to include are:

your name (either real one or that of your online persona)

what reading means to you

how you got into blogging or why you’re blogging aka what’s the goal that you want to accomplish with the blog. It doesn’t have to be big or overly ambitious. It can just be to “help readers find good books” or something.

your social media

About The Blog (optional)

you can combine this with your About Me page if you want (I did!) and summarize what types of books, genres or topics you like reading about, what kinds of blog posts you do (reviews, discussions, blog tours etc) and how often you post. It’s best to only disclose how often you post if you are good about being consistent, otherwise, readers might get confused/lose faith in you if you say you post twice a week when you might only post twice a month.

Blog

this is basically the page where all your blog posts show up – regardless of what type of post they are. You can create extra pages that specifically show one type of post (see next section) but that is optional and, regardless, you should have all your blog posts together on one page

Blog Category Pages (optional)

Along with their general blog page, some bloggers will also create pages from various blog categories. Some of the most common pages I’ve seen are:

Discussions

Reviews (A – Z)

Reviews (by author)

Memes page(s) like Top Ten Tuesdays or Waiting on Wednesdays

Interviews

Blog Tours

again, these are all optional and, in my opinion, neither especially help or hurt your blog. TBH, you can just create a “categories” widget (which you can see on my sidebar) so that people can easily see only one type of post.

(Review) Policy

this is where you talk about what you are willing to accept from authors, publishers and companies and what you are willing to do. some examples of things to mention or keep in mind are:

what genres of books will you read? what will you definitely not read?

are you willing to read e-books (and more specifically, pdfs, e-pub, kindle)? or do you only read paperbacks/hardcovers?

will you do only book reviews or might you also be willing to collaborate on doing interviews, subscription box reviews, giveaways, blog tours etc?

what’s the best way to contact you? you can link them to your contact form and/or give them your email address

Contact Me

the best way(s) to contact you whether it’s a contact form on the website, social media, letters, email etc.

a brief summary of what people can and can’t contact you about

a link to your policies page for the specifics of what to contact you about

[Related – DISCUSSION: 15+ Author Website Tips]

What To Include (specific content):

Search bar – pleaseeeeee put a search bar somewhere on your website whether it’s up top or on the sidebar where it is immediately visible (aka don’t put your search bar in just the footer). Search bars are you and your reader’s best friends because it is a lot easier to find a post using the search bar than having to comb through post archives.

Blog follow buttons – whether you want them to follow on WordPress, via email, BlogLovin’ or an RSS feed, make sure you have a follow button on your sidebar and your footer so your readers know when you have new posts out and can keep coming back!

Social media buttons – if you have any social media relating to your blog (and you really should have at least one!), then you need to include a way for your readers to jump to said social media and follow you. I personally recommend you put them either up top or on your sidebar, as well as down in your footer.

A blog graphic in every post – images catch people’s eyes much faster than texts do (an image is worth a thousand words) so, by adding an image to your post, you can catch the attention of the reader and draw them into reading the post. Of course, the image should be appropriate to the topic and, typically, follows a consistent style. For me, when I need to create my own image (aka I’m not using a book cover or blog tour banner), I tend to do the same kind of thing. As you can see from the gallery below, I have the same background in each of my images, the font is the same, and the size of the words are typically the same (tho there are some outliers depending on the post). This consistency allows readers to become familiar with you and your blog in another way so that, if they saw one of your images on social media, they would immediately know “hey this is from X’s blog!” even if they’ve never read the post or seen the pic before.

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What NOT to do:

use weird coloured backgrounds or writing (like yellow, purple or green) PLEASE – My eyes are already bad we don’t need to make them even worse lol

show your entire blog post on the blog home page – in doing so, people are not going to press on the specific post and read it there. This means that all your blog views will show up as “home” and you won’t see any stats about the specific articles people are reading which you need to help you understand what types of posts are doing well and which aren’t. To fix this, just go to your blog settings and make sure the “Limit feed to excerpt only” option is on. For bloggers on WordPress, this can be found by going to settings –> writing –> feed settings.

not personalizing your website – if you have any free blogging account (aka free WordPress, free Blogger, free Tumblr etc) you are most definitely going to pick a theme that hundreds of others have used before. The key to making YOU and your blog stand out is in how you design it. This happens by changing around

the colour palette you use (mine is primarily white, turquoise, black)

your blog header and other blog images

the formatting

fonts

Tips:

Put the link to your website in all your social media bios

Have at least one social media that you can focus and build an audience on, as well as share your posts to. For me, my main social media is Twitter (though I am on others) and it’s where I get the majority of my blog views. Every time a new blog post is published, it gets automatically shared to Twitter and I spend time marketing posts on Twitter to drive up views on the blog.

Make sure your posts will automatically be shared on your social media(s) when they are published. On WordPress, you can do this via Publicize.

Don’t include more than 3 category-like blog pages otherwise, you’re just crowding the top of your blog for no reason

Have a master spreadsheet or list of any and all blog post ideas you think of. This will better help you when you’re in the writing mood but can’t think of any ideas.

Also, when you’re in the writing mood, write as many blog posts as you can – whether partly or fully – ahead of time so that it’s easier when you have less motivation or need to post something ASAP (seriously scheduling posts out are the absolute best!)

If you aren’t art or design-inclined, make sure you hire someone to make your blog header and other blog graphics and help you design your website. I’m a graphic designer (and former website designer) and I love helping people out with their blog headers, business cards, post graphics etc. If you want to know more about how I can help, tweet me, contact me or email me and I’ll get back to you within 24 hrs (twitter is definitely faster tho)!

Other Blogging Guides

All About ARCs (Advance Reader’s Copies)

Book Publicity Contacts Directory

Writing Tools, Resources & Tips

And that’s really all I can think of in terms of tips and tricks. What do you guys think? Do you have any cool blogging tips or tricks? Let me know in the comments below! If you have any questions, concerns, or ideas, comment them below! Lastly, don’t forget, I’m always happy to either casually or completely audit your website and see what you’re doing well & what you can improve on, as well as make any graphic designs, blog headers, business cards etc for you! Just tweet me, contact me or email me and I’ll get back to you within 24 hrs! Thanks, have a great day/night and tata for now!

Angel

Red Bubble ❙ Society 6

DISCUSSION: 15+ Blogger Website Tips & Tricks Hello everyone! When I first started blogging, I had no idea what I was doing and it stayed that way for two years until I joined Wordpress and participated in challenges and read about what to do.

[shiftingreys]

Thank you @tracer85s for the tag. I rarely get to do these kind of things but it was about books and I said why the hell not ^^ 

hardcover or paperback - I like hardcover but somehow I own more paperback... now I’m sad 

rent or buy - last time I rented a book I was in highschool and it feels like a whole lifetime ago

reads in silence or reads with music - I can do both but I find music to help with the ambience/mood

standalone or series - at the moment I’m trying to put together the long ass Discworld series, but generally nothing is a deal breaker 

annotations or pristine pages - I can’t understand people who write on their books....

ebook or physical copy - there’s just something about holding a book in my hands that gives me joy

dog ears or bookmarks - I profusely apologize to all the books I dog eared in my youth; I was stupid and didn’t know any better

mismatched series or complete set - I itch under my skin if I miss parts of a series

cover matters or you don’t judge - here I’m of two minds... if I don’t know anything about the book, if I don’t have any point of reference, the cover will dictate if I’ll actually pick it up and investigate more, but if I know the author or anything about the plotline, nothing else will stop me from it

lend books or keep them to yourself - I once received a book from my Master classmates and even though they got it for my birthday, I only managed to read it after it made the rounds of the entire group. Fun fact, that’s the only book that has little bits of writing all over it, cuz they left me awesome messages that I treasure to this day.  

enjoys lit classes or despises them - I never really despised any classes tho

browses shops or orders online - the online world is my saving grace. I live in a country where, to this day, I still struggle with the language and the international section of their libraries is lackluster to say the least

reads reviews or goes in blind

unreturned books or clean library record

rereads or once was enough - I’m at the point where my library keeps getting bigger, but I do have some go to comfort books that I like to revisit

fanfic enthusiast or a stickler for canon - there are just some worlds that I could never get enough of

deep reader or easily distracted - depends on how much I enjoy the book

must read the book before seeing the movie or order doesn’t matter

has neat bookshelves or messy bookshelves - too many books, not enough space

skips ahead or resists temptation - does the last page count as skipping ahead? I sometimes need to spoil myself to keep on reading

reads aloud or in your head

guesses plot twists or never sees them coming - depends. Nowadays for movies or tv shows I can spot the plot a mile away, but certain books still surprise me and I love it!

I have no idea who to tag so I’ll take the coward’s way out and leave it to anyone who comes across this and wants to do it