#BBAW – How to Avoid Burning Out on Blogging

Today is the last day of all the previous days of our lives. And also of Book Blogger Appreciation Week! Brought to you by the lovely ladies of The Estella Society.

Anyway, today's topic is how to avoid blogger burnout. I don't often get blogger burnout, I think because I'm so casual about this blog. I take on minimal commitments and only do things I'm excited about and interested in. Blogging is a hobby, and there's a thin line between being super passionate about a hobby–which is the best–and not having fun with it anymore but feeling like you HAVE to do it, which is the worst.

That said, there was a period about four years ago where I wasn't getting burned out exactly, but I was bored and frustrated with my blogging. I wasn't enjoying it anymore or getting everything out of it that I wanted. So... and this sounds crazy...

I started two new blogs!

Starting a new blog to combat blogger burnout may seem counterintuitive, but for me it worked. It provided me with new challenges, new stuff to read and learn about, and injected some much-needed excitement into my blogging.

While I don't think starting a new blog is the answer for everyone, there are some general lessons to extrapolate from my experience:

• Dig deep and look at what are the causes of your burnout. Are you bored or overcommitted? Why isn't it fun anymore?
• What do you want out of blogging in general? Why did you start blogging and, if the reasons you're blogging have changed, in what specific ways?
• Finally, look for ways to get more of what you want out of blogging while decreasing stressors. Maybe you just need to take a break, maybe you need to stop accepting ARCs or reformat how you write posts. Maybe you need to move on to something bigger and better. It's up to you.

So, that's my advice, for what it's worth. I hope you all enjoyed BBAW 2016 and don't get burned out any time soon!






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1000th Blog Post!

We interrupt Book Bloggers Appreciation Week for a special announcement. THIS IS MY 1000TH BLOG POST!!!



I normally don't pay attention to numbers, but I feel like this is a milestone worth celebrating.

Me at my desk right now.

Here are some of the more memorable (to me) posts I've written in the past 1000:

• My most sarcastic review: The Hypnotist by MJ Rose
• Harry Potter and penises
• The greatest review I've ever written: The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll
• And exclusive interview with Edouard Manet
• The birth of a cocktail geek. It happened right there.

The most popular posts of all time at TBFB:

• How to find good books on Librivox
• A short history of Dante Alighieri and The Divine Comedy in Art
• Why have there been no great women artists?

(I suspect the latter two are popular because of school papers. Remember not to copy and paste, kids!)

• For the love of Severus Snape
• Completely ridiculous Christopher Gorham post, from back in the days when I was obsessed with googling pictures of Gorham without his shirt. Unfortunately most of the pics are dead URLs now.

Thank you to everyone who reads this blog for keeping it fun and interesting! I'd give you all presents, but that's impractical, so here's a gif of David Tennant with a kitten:

Awwwwwww.




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Bloggiesta Mini-Challenge: Protect Your Privacy Online

"Graffiti in Shoreditch, London - Zabou, Privacy" Photo by KylaBorg via Flickr.

As bloggers, we want to share stuff over the internet: our posts, first of all, plus cute cat videos, pictures of our dogs, our favorite TV shows, Benedict Cumberbatch doing anything, selfies, the list goes on.

But there's some stuff you DON'T want to share, and for very good reasons. Simple personal information like your name, address, phone, and birthday can leave you vulnerable to anything from harassment and stalking to hacking and identity theft. You don't need to be Mark Zuckerberg or a member of Anonymous to hack someone:

• The director of the CIA's email was hacked by a teenager who called Verizon and said he couldn't access Brennan's account information. 
• Wired author Mat Honan's computer, tablet, phone, Amazon, Google, and Twitter accounts were all remotely hacked in under an hour by a reader who knew Honan's email and called Apple to request a temporary password for his account. 

Neither of these hackers were trained specialists, they just used Google to get the information they needed, then followed the daisy chain of connected accounts and information to break the online lives of their victims wide open.

The good news is, you can still share what you want while keeping what you don't want to be known private. Rather than hurting your blog, this can help keep you safe from people online who want to stop you from posting your opinions and sharing your experiences–people like Kathleen Hale, who stalked and visited the home of a Goodreads reviewer; or, more recently, Richard Brittain, who went to the workplace of a teenage girl who left a one-star review of his book and physically attacked her.

Will these reviewers ever feel safe sharing things online again? Maybe-probably not. Should you feel safe? ABSOLUTELY YES, and you can do so by taking some relatively simple steps.

For this Bloggiesta Mini-Challenge, complete these nine steps to start protecting your privacy online. If you want, feel free to post about your results here or on your own blog.

1. The first step is awareness. Find out what information is available about yourself by googling your name, telephone number, home address, and social security number in quotes. Reverse image search recent photos of yourself. If you own domain name[s], do a Whois search on ICANN to make sure your name and address isn't public.

2. Lock your computer and all your devices with a password. Make sure your hard drive is encrypted.

3. View your Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ profiles as someone else to see what information a stranger can get access to. Then adjust the privacy settings to what you're comfortable with.

4. Tape over your webcam. The NSA aren't the only ones who can turn on your webcam and watch you without your knowing; there are programs anyone can download that will remotely operate someone's webcam. (Needless to say, this is particularly important for young girls with computers in their bedrooms. There is a huge black market online for photos from these hacked webcams.)

5. Install anti-tracking plug-ins on your web browser[s], like AdBlock Plus and Ghostery. Use more than one!!

6. Sign up for a free online VoIP, aka wifi-based phone number. Great for dating, Craigslist ads, and companies that require your number when you don't want to give it to them. I use Talkatone, but there are a ton available, including Google Voice.

7. Use different passwords on all your accounts. Edward Snowden casually mentioned in Citizenfour that the NSA can track a person based on their passwords (if you're like most people, you probably only use three or four). Well, guess what? This is another thing not just the NSA can do. Anyone with an internet connection can track and find you based on your passwords.

I know it's a HUGE pain in the ass, but passwords are one of the lynchpins of privacy, and in the long run using different, strong passwords for all your accounts is a safety measure that's worth it. Fortunately, password managers like 1Password and LastPass make it slightly easier to deal with, so check them out.

8. And speaking of accounts, if you have different blogs, use a different email address for each (you can have all your email forwarded to just one address). Another, slight pain in the ass that will prevent people from wiping out all your blogs in one go if they wish (see: Mat Honan, above). NEVER use "one email to rule them all." Multiplicity is your friend.

9. Think about getting a PO Box (you'll understand why when you Google your name and address). If you need to accept packages from services that don't ship to PO Boxes, companies like PostNet also provide mailbox services and accept packages from FedEx and UPS. It'll cost some money, but it will also go a long way towards preventing identity theft, RL stalking, and hacking.

There's a lot more you can do, of course, but these are the first and simplest steps.

Further information:

• The Smart Girl's Guide to Privacy: A Practical Guide for Staying Safe Online by Violet Blue: This book is a must-read, whether you're a "girl" or not. Blue covers how to get your personal information removed from websites, what to do if someone hacks or doxxes you, how to fight back against revenge porn and identity theft, and a ton more ways to protect your privacy.
• In this interview, Edward Snowden suggests some tools to keep your online activity private. They're all fairly simple to download and use, even if I've found Tor Browser to be impractical for everyday internetting (it is fascinating to see exactly what websites will and won't work on it, though).
• How Much Does Google Really Know About You? [Infographic] I guarantee you'll be shocked by how many pies Google has its fingers in. I still use Google, of course, but now I'm more aware of what I use it for and what information they have.

Questions? Tips? Please share them in the comments.




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The Evolution of a Book Blogger

This week, book bloggers all over the interwebs are participating in #BloggerBlackout to protest not just the actions of Kathleen Hale, but the tacit approval of her trip to crazy town by her publisher and The Guardian after she published her "article," Am I Being Catfished? (the answer to this question, which people have been treating as rhetorical for some reason, is: NO. YOU'RE NOT BEING CATFISHED. Catfishing is where people pretend to be someone/thing they're not in an **online relationship**. The book blogger you stalked was pursuing neither a personal nor a professional relationship with you. She was simply reading your book and offering an opinion about it online to people in general, not even you in particular).

I'm not necessarily participating in #BloggerBlackout (cuz... what exactly am I going to black out around here), but I decided to brave the perils of carpal tunnel syndrome and write about a topic that's been on my mind lately, namely how I got to this place where I spend a major portion of my life blogging about books and other things. I've been thinking about it not just because of Hale, but because in order to know where you're going you need to know where you've been. And it feels as if both this blog and book blogging in general is at a turning point right now. How we move forward will dictate how our community forms in the future.

So, if you can forgive a bit of navel gazing, here's the story of a book blogger (me).

It all started with Amazon.com reviews, which I began writing in high school. They were ungrammatical and only a few hundred words each, but I was personally quite proud of them. I was obsessed with my Amazon reviewer ranking and would check it on a daily basis (this is where my antipathy for Harriet Klausner started—her reviews were all four or five stars, and sometimes it was obvious she hadn't even read the book. Yet she's Amazon's number one book reviewer?? Enraging).

Anyway, my Amazon review phase didn't last very long. For some reason I lost interest in late 2002. My posted reviews gradually become fewer and far between, until my last Amazon review for a book I read for my thesis.

After 2002, years passed without much online activity on my end. I'd answer e-mail and check my Amazon book recommendations once a day, and that was about it. Then, in 2006, my friend convinced me to join the pretty-much-obsolete site Xanga.com. She told me I would love it, and I did. At Xanga I mainly blogged about personal stuff, but also talked about books and movies off and on. I was frustrated by some aspects of Xanga: I really wanted to blog more about art and books, but the interest in those subjects was sparse. However, I did make several very good friends there, some of whom are still blogging today, like Colette from A Buckeye Girl Reads, Anaraug from Adventures in Thing Making, and Ruth from Booktalk and More.

My other major activity online during this time was checking Amazon.com and authors' websites for information about new releases. Yes, it's strange but true: I used to be obsessed with new releases and cover reveals. I even had an elaborate calendar that I kept updated of what books were coming out when, and I'd usually read a book within a week of its release date. I say this was strange not because I consider it odd behavior, but because now I couldn't care less and read maybe one or two new releases a year. It could happen to you!

Anyway, it was through an author's website (I forget whose, but I think it was Anne Stuart's) that I came across the now-defunct Romance Novel TV in early 2008. I loved it. Romance! And TV! The site combined two of my favoritest things. After devouring all the videos, I went to the message boards, where I found something I didn't even realize existed: a community of people who loved discussing, making fun of, and rhapsodizing over romance novels as much as I did. Many of the people I met on the message boards at Romance Novel TV later started their own romance blogs, including Katiebabs from Babbling About Books and More, Kati D (who now writes for Dear Author), Kristie J from Ramblings on Romance, Etc., and Orannia from Walkabout.

One of the stars of Romance Novel TV, Sarah, had her own blog before anyone else. It was a small review site you might still be familiar with called Smart Bitches Trashy Books. SBTB is not a site I frequent a lot anymore, but when I first came across it, it seemed like the most amazing thing since Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

See, before the internet, the only critical discourse you could find about romance novels was published in more or less industry controlled magazines. Basically, the reviews were just four or five star pablum—much like Harriet Klausner's—that were NOT TO BE TRUSTED. I mean, there's differences in taste and then there's, "Were you high when you read this novel? Because there's NO WAY someone with an IQ above 90 and a middle school diploma would think this was a good book." My point being, Sarah and Candy at SBTB told it like it was. If something was crap, they mocked the shit out of it. If something was amazing, they cheered for it. And if something was problematic, they discussed it. This was NOT available before the internet, at least not to me.

In the meantime, Ruth on Xanga was linking to these new things called "book blogs," such as Bookish Ruth, and I personally was itching for a place where I could indulge my desire to write about books more in-depth (and get more readers who would care about such a thing) than I could on Xanga. So in late 2008 I bit the bullet, signed up for a blogger account, and started a book blog called Heidenkind's Hideaway, which eventually I retitled Truth, Beauty, Freedom and Books. My first post was a five star review of My Lord and Spymaster by Joanna Bourne. My second post was about my favorite scary books (in November—timely as always), and I was off and running. Soon I was participating in Twitter hashtag discussions like #RRTheater and blogging events like the 24 Hour Readathon and Bloggiesta.

I take you through this narrative to demonstrate two things: one, book blogging *is* a community. We didn't just pop up out of nowhere. We have a long history with each other, with books, and with critical discourse. At the same time, the community is diverse. We pull from different sources but come together, not just in our love books (because plenty of people who love books don't become book bloggers), but in our desire to talk about them.

Secondly, I wanted to show how my history with book blogging informs my reviews. I grew up out of the romance blogging community, which  in the early years was antagonistic toward the traditional romance review outlets. People may say reviews are for readers and whatnot, but for a long time that wasn't strictly true. I'm guessing more industry professionals than readers subscribed to Romantic Times, so is it any wonder their reviews were more of a feel-good gesture than an accurate representation of what the books were about and how people engaged with them? Sure, your book is a bestseller, but you remain blissfully unaware it's because people think it's a hilarious pile of shit until Goodreads or Twitter status updates come along and rip your illusions to shreds (and not coincidentally, it was actually Harris' GR status updates that set off Hale off, not any review. She didn't write a review of Hale's book, unless you consider a two-word "fuck this" a review... which I guess it is). Reviews are one thing, but the way people engage with your product on a critical or emotional level isn't "for" anyone, whether they be readers or writers.

And that's what book blogging was in the early days. Think of #RRTheater again (which eventually became #romfail), where Jane from Dear Author would download the Friday freebie from Ravenous Romance and then live tweet it. That was critical engagement! And it was freaking hilarious! Reviews on SBTB were fun!

That's why I started writing reviews and why this blog is *still* mainly reviews, despite the fact that popular wisdom says reviews don't get a lot of clicks. My blog isn't about clicks, or getting free books (although that's always nice), or even writing reviews "for readers," for that matter. It's about engaging with books, having fun, and sharing that with other readers. When I stop having fun, when it stops being about something, I'll stop blogging. Until then, I'm not going to let the fuckers bring me down. No one should.


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Bloggiesta + Reader Survey and Giveaway!

Heys people. This weekend is another Bloggiesta, aka a blogging fiesta! Olé! (I know, I say that every Bloggiesta.) Please don't mind the dust as I make a few changes.

Since this is a mini-Bloggiesta, I only have a few goals:

• Put a tag cloud back on my sidebar. I just miss that thing.
• Update my pages.
• Schedule some posts for the classics blog.
• Finish up a post I started last night.
• Read. This has nothing to do with blogging but I feel the need to put it on the list.
• Participate in the Twitter chat tonight.

That's all! I probably won't participate in any mini-challenges, but we'll see how quickly I finish the above tasks.

ALSO... this may seem like a strange request, but I've been meaning to ask my readers to take a poll for a while now. This is meant to help me understand my audience a little better so I can improve my blog. All responses are voluntary and anonymous, but if you give me your e-mail I will enter you to win a copy of Gone Girl. Click here to take survey or use the embedded form below. Thank you so much!

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

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Review: THE BLOGGER ABIDES by Chris Higgins

I came across The Blogger Abides entirely by chance on Twitter when Ransom Riggs tweeted about it (apparently he and Chris Higgins are friends, and Riggs wrote the intro to the book). I wasn't planning to review The Blogger Abides here, but after reading it, I realized it's a book a lot of my fellow bloggers and writers will want to read. And definitely should.

Chris Higgins is a freelance writer for Mental Floss as well as some other publications (Wired was mentioned frequently). You've probably read his posts or at least seen them posted on Twitter. In The Blogger Abides, he shares what he knows about freelance blogging: getting jobs, keeping track of payments and taxes, drinking hours, horrible grammar mistakes, dealing with editors, comments, and publicists; how to say no, trading up, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Basically, there's a shit ton of information here, and whether you're paid to blog or not, if you write you'll probably find at least some of it useful.

There was a lot I found really enlightening about The Blogger Abides, for one how a professional approaches blog posts, and writing in general. We're all familiar with posts that mine nostalgia or highlight "This day in history" topics, but I never would have come across one of them and labeled it as such before reading this book. Basically Higgins uses the same strategies most bloggers do as a far as finding topics and writing out posts, but at an increased volume and more professional level, which was something I found really interesting. After starting The Blogger Abides, I decided to challenge myself to write one post every day for the rest of the year just to see if I can meet that expectation of producing content constantly. So far it's been really fun!

Another thing that was really eye-opening for me was the concept of trading up: using blog posts as a springboard for magazine articles, books, and movie deals. Prior to reading The Blogger Abides, I knew that this happened occasionally (The Bloggess, anyone? Fed Up with Lunch?), but I only had a vague idea how. Now I'm thinking, "Hm, which of these blog posts can I turn into a book?" (Answer: probably none.)

Higgins does a great job of giving the reader a better idea of what the life of a professional freelancer entails. I can see someone thinking about going into freelancing and then deciding, after reading The Blogger Abides, that it's not for them. Not that Higgins is discouraging, but he does make it clear it's not easy (but then, is anything worth doing easy?--I felt like the woman in the Dewar's commercial for an instant, there). Do you want to have to keep track of your own taxes, your own retirement, "live small"--i.e., don't spend money on anything, because you won't have it--or worry about contracts and whether or not you get paid? If not, then you should probably just stick to writing for yourself.

As far as specific sections of The Blogger Abides are concerned, the chapter on how to get a job is probably the least helpful, since the answer is you basically have to know people. Fair enough. The chapter called "Business, Blah Blah Blah," about taxes and contracts and retirement savings and all that good stuff, was the most difficult to get through--not because it was confusing or tedious; Higgins actually breaks it down with admirable clarity and brevity--but because that's really not something I want to think about until I absolutely have to. And the part at the end about grammar was hilarious. I literally laughed until I cried over "Hard Road to Hoe." Too funny.

I've honestly only scratched the surface of the material found in The Blogger Abides. There is A LOT (plagiarism, linking, HTML, how to pitch to magazines, research--I want to write Higgins a thank-you note just for saying Wikipedia is NOT a valid source), and it's all really useful and relevant if you're interested in freelancing or just looking to improve your blog. I'm glad I took a chance on this and foresee referencing The Blogger Abides for a long time to come.

All Hallow's Read and Survey Results

I'm well-known for being a Halloween Scrooge, but this year Amy from My Friend Amy and Ana from Things Mean A Lot were inspired by Neil Gaiman's All Hallow's Read (giving someone a scary book on Halloween) to do a "spooky" book swap, and I was all in!



My "secret Satan" (har har) was Amy! Yay! She sent me The Ghost Writer by John Harwood (and another secret something that I haven't gotten yet, unfortunately), which looks really good. I can't wait to dig into it. Thank you, Amy! And thanks to Amy and Ana for hosting this great book swap.

As for NaNoWriMo, you might recall that on Sunday I asked you all to vote on what story you wanted me to write this month (see the post here). The survey is now closed and the winner is... SLEEPLESS IN PARIS! Thank you to everyone who voted and I hope the story lives up to your expectations. If you voted for one of the other stories, don't worry--I will get to them after NaNo. But for now I have about 8 hours to refresh my memory on 1920s Paris, so I'd best get started.

Enjoy Halloween!

Bloggiesta Mini-Challenge: CHANGING YOUR RSS FEED

If you've been around Twitter or looked at your Google Reader this week, you've probably heard rumblings about Google shutting down FeedBurner. If you don't know what FeedBurner is (or was, or possibly soon won't be), it's the most popular RSS tool on the interwebs. RSS, or really simple syndication, tells your blog readers that you've published a new post. It's what publishes your links and content to feed readers, FaceBook, Twitter, and other social media sites.

FeedBurner is an excellent RSS service. First and foremost, it's free; it provides analytics, a subscribe by email option, podcast options, automatically feeds into social media sites like Twitter, splices information from multiple feeds, allows you to monetize your feed, etc. etc. HOWEVER, this summer the FeedBurner blog and twitter account were both shut down, and the FeedBurner API (application programming interface--basically all the analytic features FeedBurner offers) will be shut down October 20th (Google Developers).

Will FeedBurner be shut down entirely? No one knows. Google has neither confirmed nor denied the death of FeedBurner.com, or indeed addressed the issue at all. Some say Google gets too much out of FeedBurner in advertizing, and that it's too popular, for the site to go black. But overseas versions of the site, namely feedburner.jp, did shut down without any warning in July, leaving Asian bloggers stranded without an RSS feed or a way to reach their subscribers (FeedBlitz Blog). Personally, I've suspected Google of wanting to kill RSS ever since they "redesigned" (if removing popular features and making something less user-friendly can accurately be called a redesign) Google Reader last year. Either way, the pertinent point is that FeedBurner no longer has any support for its users and is cutting down on services, making it clear Google is consigning the site to the internet graveyard. To be on the safe side, it's probably a good idea to start thinking about switching your feed.

For this Bloggiesta mini-challenge, your challenge is to switch your RSS feed from FeedBurner and notify your subscribers. Once you've finished, paste the link to your notification post in the Mr. Linky.

Step One: Do you have a FeedBurner feed?

You have to link your sites to FeedBurner manually, so if you don't remember signing up, you probably never did. But it's simple to double check: just mouse over your subscribe button. If text pops up saying, "Subscribe with FeedBurner," or if the link that shows up looks something like this:

feeds.feedburner.com/TitleOfFeed

your RSS is going through FeedBurner.

Step Two: Getting a new feed.

The Good News

All the popular blogging platforms--Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr, etc.--have their own RSS feeds you can use for free. You can easily revert to the default feed in your blog settings (in Blogger, go to Settings>Other>Post Feed Redirect URL>Remove), and you're done.

If your site doesn't have its own RSS feed for some reason, then you probably don't have FeedBurner because it basically just redirects your already-existing RSS feed through its own API and services. However, if you would like an RSS feed and don't have one, you can create one manually. Sarah at Puss Reboots had a challenge for this during a previous Bloggiesta, and it's relatively simple. See Bloggiesta RSS Mini-Challenge for more details.

The Bad News

If you're looking for a free alternative with all the features of FeedBurner, there isn't one. Blogging platform feeds will not publish subscriptions by e-mail, offer analytics, push posts to RSS readers so your readers don't have to wait 10-12 hours to see them, or do anything else beyond publishing a basic RSS feed.

As far as analytics goes, you could rely on Google Analytics or another analytical tool in place of FeedBurner's API information. If you want e-mail subscriptions (and I can promise a lot of your readers do) you can set up a separate RSS-to-email service using MailChimp, which is free as long as you don't have more than 2000 subscribers or 12,000 posts a month.

If you want post splicing, monetization, push publishing, and other features, however, the best options I've found so far are:

• FeedBlitz (Pay for service-I've heard this is also a pain to set up and expensive)
• PostRank (Pay for service-haven't heard anything good or bad about it)
• Mint (Pay for service-sounds very cool but pricey)
  
• FeedCat (Free, seems a little sketchy)
• FeedIty (Pay for service, with a free limited option)
• RapidFeeds (Pay for service, with a free limited option)

I can't tell you what service you should use or what it's worth to you, money-wise. For one, I haven't tried any of these feed services; and for another I don't make money from my blog, so I'm loathe to spend money on it. If you do make money from your blog, though, especially with RSS feed ads, then you'll probably want a more sophisticated feed service. It all depends on what your particular blog requires.

If you want more information to help you make a decision, here are some good articles you should look at:

• 3 Free Alternatives to Google's FeedBurner
• 7 of the Best FeedBurner Alternatives
• FeedBurner Alternatives? What I'm Doing

The last post offers more questions than answers, but the blogger has great suggestions and raises good points you should think about before you make a commitment to move your RSS service. As I've said, the wait-and-see decision is tempting but iffy, as FeedBurner could shut down unexpectedly. If you're frozen with indecision, to me it seems like the best choice is to switch to your platform's default feed; then at least your blog will have a feed when/if FeedBurner shuts down.

Keep in mind, too, that you don't have to delete your FeedBurner feed, even if you move to another service.

Step Three: Let Your Subscribers Know

Now that you've gone through that headache, you have to let your subscribers know to update their subscriptions. The easiest way to do this is through a post. You can find great examples at S. Krishna Books and Beth Fish Reads.

Notice both of these posts have the RSS links IN THE POST. Don't make it any harder on your readers to subscribe to your new feed than it has to be. Remember RSS or Atom feeds are links, and you can put a direct link to your new feed into a post the same way you would insert any other kind of link.

Some things to think about:

Email subscriptions

Don't forget to export a list of your e-mail subscribers. Then you can easily import them into your new feed or newsletter. Just click on your FeedBurner link and go to Publicize>Email Subscriptions>Subscription Management>View Subscriber Details>Export CSV.

Update links

You'll need to update your RSS button links, Networked Blogs feed, and any other site or service that uses your RSS feed. If you're anything like me, you've probably forgotten most of them, so this could take a while. Fortunately, this isn't something that has to be done immediately unless you delete your FeedBurner account (another reason to hold off on that for a bit).


Questions? Comments? Please share them and your experiences in the comments! And don't forget to link to your feed notification post in the Mr. Linky in order to complete the challenge.

BBAW: You Were There

Today is the last day of Book Blogger Appreciation Week. *sadface* I honestly wasn't expecting a lot from BBAW year, since it was pretty laid back and all, but I had fun! And I managed to post every day, so take a picture of that for your scrapbook.

As part of BBAW's "closing ceremony," we're supposed to talk about a highlight for us during the past week. My highlight of the week was the dream I had where I met all my blogging friends. I OD'd on reading blogs during the BBAW interview swap, and that night I dreamt we all went on a crazy road trip in an olde-timey car. Yes, you were there, and you were there, and you and you and you... Memory made a killing at the roulette table (wheel?), and we celebrated by staying in a kick-ass hotel. Other than that dream I had about the kittens playing, it was the best dream ever!

But it wasn't just a dream, it was a place--a place called the interwebz. (I could carry this metaphor further, but I won't--you're welcome.) The point is, BBAW is about how we're a community, and this year it did a great job of reaffirming that, at least for me. Amy--who is to BBAW what Jerry Lewis was to the Easter Seals telethon--wrote a few weeks ago that she thought the purpose of BBAW had been mostly taken over by Armchair BEA, but I vehemently disagree. I've participated in both events over the years, and feel like BBAW is about appreciation and acknowledgement of book bloggers, and that it does serve to renew us as a community--whether it's done on a large- or small-scale--in a way that other events don't, no matter how fabulous or rife with giveaways they are. The first book blogging event I participated in was BBAW, and I remember that as the moment I realized what a great group of people I'd become involved with. I love the fact that we're part of community that will take a week to visit one another's blogs like crazy people and learn about each other simply because we love talking about books!

So thank you to Amy for hosting BBAW once again, and vive la book blogging! See you all next week and (barring the end of the world) at 2013's BBAW.

BBAW: Day in the Life of a Book Blogger

Today's topic for Book Blogger Appreciation Week is, "What does book blogging mean to you?" Well, obviously there's the money and fame, but really I do it for the little people. KIDDING.

To me book blogging means:

• Spend hours torturing myself writing posts trying to explain how I feel about a book.
• Search Google for a fluff topic to write about in order to put off writing said reviews.
• Agonize over which LOLcat to put in the fluff post.
• Yell at Blogger for various reasons:
• Their WYSIWYG editor, which only works properly about half the time.
• Captcha on comments.
• Pages that don't load correctly. Or at all.
  
• Once that's finished, try to think of an opinion post to write in order to avoid writing reviews.
• Give up, get a drink and go watch TV.
• Visit other blogs. Also to avoid writing reviews.
• Read about some great books on other blogs.
  
• Order books from library.
• Bite the bullet and write the review.
• Edit review.
• Reread review, edit it some more.
• Realize more editing isn't going to help. Also: tired.
• Publish review.
• Try not to stare broodingly at e-mail waiting for comments.
  
• Finally, GO READ MOAR BOOKS!

What a fun and relaxing hobby, eh? Okay, honestly I enjoy writing reviews (most of the time), and love reading about books on other blogs. I would do that even if I wasn't trying to avoid doing something else. In a word sentence, book blogging means sharing books and ideas about books with other people!

The stuff about Blogger is all true, though.

BBAW: Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue

Today is the first day of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, where we traditionally give shout-outs to our favorite blogs. In the past I made my own awards (I should really dust that Best Objectification of the Opposite Sex one off the shelf and use it again), mentioned blogs I discovered because of BBAW, and gave cyber hugs to my blogging buddies, Becky from One Literature Nut and Colette from A Buckeye Girl Reads. You should check out all of these blogs, because they're definitely worth following.

Beginning in November, Truth Beauty Freedom and Books will have been around four years. As my blog gets older, it becomes more difficult for me to "discover" new blogs--mostly because I'm lazy. Finding new blogs takes time, and my Google Reader is already full of more blog posts than I'll ever get around to reading. Lately, however, I've started making an effort to find new blogs (new to me, anyway), and today I want to mention some I've come across in the past year that have landed on my favorite list:

New-to-me blogs:

Books as portable pieces of thought--Bridget is open to reading anything (or nearly anything), and her posts are very critical--in a good way--and smart. Definitely one of the best blogs I've come across this year!

Redeeming Qualities--I might have started following Melody's blog more than a year ago, I can't remember. But let's go with a year. Melody reads a wide variety of novels from the early 20th and 19th centuries, some of which are simply bizarre-sounding, but I don't think I've ever disliked a book Melody recommended. If you have any interest in classic lit, you should definitely follow this blog.

Public Domain Review--This isn't necessarily a book blog, but there are a lot of bookish things on it that I love, including video of an interview with Arthur Conan-Doyle (he speaks!) and links to rare books that are accessible online (a 16th-century edition of The Faerie Queene? Aztec Codexes? Yes please).

Readingwithanalysis--Kelly mainly discusses romance novels, and her posts are always insightful and fun. I love how she approaches romance novels from an entertainment and women's issues standpoint.

Reflections of a Book Addict--Kim also reviews a lot of romance novels, including Austen adaptions (you know hows I loves em), along with many other types of books. She's always willing to try new novels in the name of book blogging.


Favorites who started out with me: These are blogs I haven't mentioned before during BBAW, but that I've been following faithfully for the last four years because they always have great new content as well as fabulous people behind them.

Wordsmithonia--Ryan reads a ton of mysteries (yay Mary Roberts Rinehart!), and has fun features on his blog such as Favorite Fictional Character.

Booktalk & More--Ruth not only talks about books, but also some of my favorite TV shows, like Grimm, Sherlock, Doctor Who, and Downton Abbey. Her posts are always delightful.

Narrative Causality--Caspette reads a lot of UF and fantasy novels, and writes really creative reviews. For a small fee she will teach you Aussie-isms. ;)

1330v--Natasha and I bonded because we have the same name, but I keep reading her blog because her posts are insightful and heartfelt. I love the variety of books Natasha reads as well!


Special Mention: Finally, I want to thank the bloggers who helped me get the Project Gutenberg Project up and running in the past few months. Thank you for your enthusiasm and all your support; I honestly couldn't keep it going without you.

Chris from Book-a-Rama
Aarti from BookLust
Alexandra from The Sleepless Reader
Nymeth from Things Mean a Lot
Iris from Iris On Books
Lu from Regular Rumination
Meghan from Medieval Bookworm

TSS: Sunday Writers

A somewhat blog-centric Sunday Salon post this week: I'm currently reading Telling Lies for Fun and Profit by Laurence Block (excellent book, by the way), and in it he ponders why there are no "Sunday writers"--people who, as Block defines it, write regularly and develop their skills only for the love of doing something fun and creative, never expecting to be published or paid. Block does add one caveat to this: poets can't have any expectations of being published; and even if they do, they won't make money at it, so they're the exception. "When all poets are essentially amateurs, one's not ashamed to be less than professional," he says.

Naturally, when I read Block's definition of Sunday writers my mind immediately went to blogging, something that didn't exist when Block wrote Telling Lies (which I think was in the early '80s--he references typewriters a lot). Most bloggers don't get paid; and if they do, it's not very much. Instead, we write regularly because we like writing! Or at least I do. All the things Block cites as impediments to the existence of Sunday writers--wanting to share your work with others, the prohibitive cost of self-publishing and the stigma attached to doing so--have essentially been removed thanks to the internet. Now anyone can publish nearly anything, for free, and share it with the world.



But are we really "Sunday writers"? As in, do we consider ourselves as writers, and if we do, is our ultimate goal still to get published? I think a lot of people, even those who regularly write for a living, don't consider blogging as "writing" (Jessica from Read React Review wrote an excellent post discussing this a few months ago). I do consider blogging as writing; in fact, one of the reasons I started the blog was so I could have a writing outlet after a finished school. However, I also want to be published, and have been. So perhaps Block is right and there really are no Sunday writers, despite the fact that the impediments he mentioned don't really exist anymore.



Do you think there are "Sunday writers"?

New Project and Review

Hello, my lovelies! I wanted to give you all a heads up that I have a new project in works, a group blog dedicated to books in the public domain. It's called The Project Gutenberg Project, and my first review--of Princess Maritza by Percy James Brebner--just posted. I'm very excited about this new project and working with all the great bloggers who signed up (Aarti from BookLust, Alexandra from The Sleepless Reader, Chris from Book-a-Rama, Iris from Iris On Books, Lu from Regular Rumination, Meghan from Medieval Bookworm, and Nymeth from Things Mean a Lot), and I would love if you joined us as a reader, contributor, or commenter!

And, by the way, if you want to make your own Bayeux Tapestry-inspired image, like the one above, check out Bildwirkerey von Bayeux. Highly recommended for history geeks of all stripes.

What Was Exciting and Awesome In 2011?

Looking back time! What did I write and think about the most this year?

Harry Potter!
Ah, Harry. Not only did I finish making my way through all the audiobooks, the final movie came out this year as well. Sadface. I gushed over Snape, wrote about HP's connection to WWII, completed surveys, and basically did all I could to break down, revive, and hold dear the series.

Twilight!
With Breaking Dawn, Part 1 coming out in November, naturally I came down with a touch of Twilight fever and reread New Moon, rewatched all the movies (Eclipse was actually pretty good, weirdly), and ate Twilight chocolate. Good times.

Photographs!
Wow, I read a lot of books about photography this year. Photographs of Yale and Detroit; photographs by George Hurrell, Emile Zola, and Man Ray; and a book about 19th-century western photography.

Jane Austen!
Okay, so maybe Jane Austen pops up frequently on my radar every year. But it seems like there was a lot of Austen-related articles and news and spin-offs this year, no?

Classic Hollywood!
I read about it, I watched it. I now know what the phrase pre-code means. I'm all up with it.

Drinking games!
I amused myself muchly this year by inventing drinking games, both for movies during Hitchfest and for books like The Magician King.


Caw, caw.

Ballet!
For some super-odd reason, this was the year of ballet for me. It all started when I saw Jennifer Homans, author of Apollo's Angels, on Charlie Rose. Then I read her book (well, actually just the first chapter, because that's all I could get for free on the Kindle). Then there was Black Swan, which I saw in the theaters; The Nutcracker that I wound up researching and then reading ETA Hoffmann's Nutcracker and Mouse King; I read The Ballerina, the Gymnast, and the Yoga Instructor; and I watched Mao's Last Dancer on TV. Why is ballet all of sudden the 'it' thing? And why am I watching movies about it? Do not know.


What was trending in your life this past year?

The Sunday Salon: A Book In Any Other Format

One of the perennial questions of book blogging is, how has blogging changed changed your reading habits? I've always found this question interesting if completely speculative--interesting because I like to torture myself thinking of what might'ves, and speculative because the same personality traits that led me into book blogging also guide my choices in reading. Let's face it, as soon as I knew about blogging, the concept of me blogging about books was pretty much inevitable. So my reading interests without the influence of book bloggers was just never going to happen.

Anyway, there is one area where I'm confident book bloggers have changed my reading, and that's in the format of the books I read. I'm not necessarily thinking of eBooks versus paper books (although the volume of eBooks I read right now probably is a direct result of book blogging); rather, I'm thinking of bindings for paper books.

I used to ONLY read mass market paperbacks. I couldn't (and still can't) afford trade paperbacks or hardcovers--especially when you consider the number of books I read every month--so I wouldn't even look at them in the store. Why torture myself? Oh, I might buy a hardback or tpb if my one most favoritest authors started publishing in that format and I absolutely couldn't wait to read their lastest novel, but for trying out new or just okay authors? No way. Plus, both trade and hardback are a pain in the ass to carry around. I can't fit that crap in my purse!

Then I started getting book recommendations from bloggers. On the internets, you can't "see" what format a book is in, so you can't avoid trade paperbacks or hardcovers (you also can't see how long the book is, which is another problematic thing for me)! Around the same time I started getting most of my books from the library, because a lot of the books I wanted to read were suddenly in more expensive formats. Libraries buy more hardbacks and trade editions than mass market, for obvious reasons, so that availability made the price ceiling I'd placed on myself irrelevant.

Now the vast majority of books I read are hardback or trade paperback. If I buy a book, it's usually in eFormat--even mass market paperbacks are out of my price range these days. $8 or $9 for a mmp? I really don't think so (now I understand why my mom was always whining about paying five bucks for them back in '90s; that seems like a bargain these days... and now I feel old). Some publishers still have agency pricing on their eBooks, which means they sell at the same price as the paper version; but most other eBooks are four dollars or less, which is quite reasonable and cheap enough that I'm willing to take a chance on new authors or genres that I normally wouldn't.

The thing is, that used to be the role of mass market, so I can't help but wonder if mass market books are phasing out. I hope not; they're still more convenient to carry in my purse than a kindle.



Has blogging changed the format you prefer to read in?

TSS: Genre Ruminations and NaNoWriMo

Two of the biggest events in book blogging are behind us, BBAW and Dewey's Readathon; and while I had fun participating in both, I couldn't help but notice that both had a noticeable lack of romance bloggers. Only two romance blogs were shortlisted for Best Romance Blog during BBAW; and of the 249 participants in the Readathon, less than a handful were dedicated romance blogs (that I recognized, anyway). In other reading events and memes, romances seem to be taking a back seat, as well--FridayReads, for example, doesn't have a single romance blogger on staff and the closest thing to a romance novel I've seen on the "Best Read" list is Jane Eyre.

All of this would make one think romance was a small portion of the publishing market and that romance readers and book bloggers were a minuscule and inactive part of the community, but I think even people who don't read romance know that isn't true. Two of the most successful book blogs out there, Smart Bitches Trashy Books and Dear Author, are dedicated romance blogs; and some of the most prolific, well-read, and smart writers I know are romance bloggers.

Are romance bloggers being marginalized in the community, or are they just doing their own thing? I don't know, although I think it's probably a combination of both. If the bloggers running these events specialize in literary fiction or young adult, naturally the prizes and marketing for the event are going to be more prolific within those genres. But the main reason I'm concerned is because, among the more ridiculous things I worry about (aside from what job I'll be qualified for in our dystopian future) is if romance as a genre is dying.

Have you been to a bookstore lately? I admit I haven't because I don't have the monies; but the last time I was in one, it seemed like the romance section was taking a serious hit in shelf space. Even what was there wasn't necessarily romance, but YA and UF. Where haz all the romance gone? Are the sales all digital nowadays? Are people even capable of believe in romance anymore? I'm not sure I want to live in a world where truly romantic novels have to struggle to be noticed even among their own genre.

ANYWAY. I'll be the first to admit that although I still self-identify as a romance reader, I haven't been reading a lot of romance lately. Of what I have read, only a few in the past year have been "really like" books for me. This might have something to do with blogging--other books seem much more shiny when the people you know are also excited about them--but I don't think so. In 2008, I took a bunch of new releases I was really excited about with me on vacation. They included the new Mercy Thompson book, a Christina Dodd novel, and several other romances. On that vacation, my grandfather died and we wound up attending his funeral instead of doing any vacation things. When I got home, I put all those new releases on the shelf and I never finished a single one. I picked a few up and tried to read them but wound up DNF'ing them, and others I just gave up on and donated to the library. I also haven't pre-ordered a single new release since then.

That was really the start of my extended break-up with romances. It's not that I don't like them anymore or aren't interested in them, because I still do want to read romantic stories; and when I do go to the bookstore I buy a lot of romance. But once I have them here, on the shelf, I can't force myself to actually read them.

But the recent lack of romance representation within book blogging in general has inspired me. In the near future, I plan to read a lot more romances and do a lot more features about them here on my blog. I have several ideas in the works, so stay tuned for announcements pertaining to that in the future.



In other news, I plan on participating in National Novel Writing Month this year for the first time. Since I don't currently have a full-time job and aren't in school, I thought this was the perfect time to try something different. What this means for you, my lovely blog readers, is that I probably won't be posting very much this month. I will try to have at least one post a week (even if it's just Schnauzer Saturdays), but I will be focusing mainly on getting my 1600 words a day (cough cough cough) in. Don't worry, though, I'll be back in December with a vengeance!

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo or any other special projects in November?

BBAW: Blagging

Gratuitous LOLcat pic.

On this, the final--and therefore saddest--day of BBAW, we're asked to share three blogging tips and three cutting edge things we want to adapt to our blahgs. So here's we go:

TIPS

• One--Blog for Yourself First. Look, I love comments and free crap as much as the next person, but if I blogged for those things, this blog would have shut down a long time ago.
• Two--Bring Your A Game. Everyone loves seeing people doing something new and different and creative, so be that person! Let me know if you figure out a way to do this on a consistent basis.
• Three--Be Chill. Honestly, I'm drawing a blank on a third piece of advice, but chilling out sounds good to me.

IN THE FUTURE

• I'd like to do more videos and art original to this blog.
• I want my own URL shortener. I want one SO BAD!
• I'd like to have more author interviews.

There you have it! What are some of your tips?

An End Of the Year Love Letter

To say au revoir to 2010, I decided some authors who made my year worthwhile deserved a shout-out. 

Jim Northrup--You had me at "Microsoft blue sky" and "Wisconsin nice."  You rock!

Simone Elkeles--I love your style of romance and how you bring what could be stock characters and situations to life.

Konstantinos Staikos--The Great Libraries may be the greatest book ever. OMG, I love you for writing this.

Leanna Renee Hieber--How could I not love someone who puts Snape, ghosts, and Persephone into her novels?  I couldn't. Not, that is.

Kelly McNees--Please keep writing books!  The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott brightened my entire April.

Paula Marantz Cohen--Combining art, literature, and Jack the Ripper into a totally atmospheric and readable book?  I didn't think it could be done but you did it and gave me a whole new perspective on Henry James.

Kelly Creagh--Thanks for writing an atmospheric, Gothic romance perfect for reading on crisp fall days.

Dick Francis--You're the greatest!

Karen Marie Moning--What would life be like without Barrons?  I don't even want to imagine.

Chloe Neill--Still haven't gotten over the whole Ethan thing, but I'm sure I'll forgive you eventually.  Maybe.

And to all my readers, thank you for helping to make this blog what it is today, for all your book recommendations, for reading with me and chatting with me.  Have a great 2011!

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Is It Unethical to Accept Payment for Positive Reviews?

Image by seier+seier

The art world doesn't seem to think so.

According to an article cited on The Art History Newsletter, it is common practice for artists or galleries to hire noted art historians and critics to write reviews or catalog entries of their work.  The going price is $1-2 per word; for an average catalog entry (1000 words, plus "an extra charge if the writing needs to be turned around quickly”), that can turn into a very lucrative sideline for art historians with big reputations--such as Richard Vine, the managing editor of Art In America and one of the NYC art critics kept on retainer by artist agencies like Katharine T. Carter & Associates.

But it's not all roses and sunshine!  “You have to realize that you haven’t bought this person body and soul for the price of an essay,” Eleanor Heartney says.  No, but you have made them your bitch.

As book bloggers, it's cool if we make money from our reviews.  But we're expected to mention if we received a book for free or if we get commissions from book sales; and most consider it a personal affront if they're required to write positive reviews in return for being provided books.  That's not only good ethics; the FCC cares enough to protect consumers from being bamboozled out of $6-24 at the book store to regulate our review practices. 

The people who spend thousands of dollars on paintings, however, can suck it.

There is an obvious element of don't-look-behind-the-curtain to the buying and selling of art--no one had even heard of Caravaggio until Sir Denis Mahon started writing about him in the 1950s; now he's the quintessential Baroque painter and collectors fall on Caravaggio's work like rabid dogs, paying millions of dollars for them.  But when the voices studying, chronicling, and cheering on that magic show are motivated by money in absence of genuine feeling, it kind of leaves a bad taste in one's mouth.  Why doesn't the FCC regulate art criticism in print the way it does blogging?  Because art is more of an opinion?  Because the writers are above reproach and have professional standards, unlike bloggers?

Whatever the answer, from now on I'd like to announce that I am paying myself for every word I write.  This post has just made me a bazillion dollars.  I'll expect reimbursement from myself any day now.

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Addicted to Blogs

Image by greengardenvienna

A post by Pam from Bookalicio.us made me start thinking about a blurb I heard for one of those news magazines--I never saw the actual report, but they mentioned social networking can get the same reaction from people as gambling.

I think there might be something to this, since using sites like Twitter and Facebook do seem to feed on themselves. And I have noticed that a lot of us make resolutions to spend less time on the internet, only to wind up spending the same amount, if not more. I myself am guilty of this--remember when I decided I would take one day off from the webbernets every week? Yeah, that totally lasted more than two weeks. /sarcasm

The reason Pam's post reminded me of this is NOT because I think she's addicted to social networking. But I do think the urge to pull back a bit from blogging is our brain telling us that we need a breather and a return to RL (and other addictions? :P Hey, we all have them to one extent or another). How is social networking like gambling? Well, you hang out on the interwebz and wait for something "exciting" to happen--i.e., a conversation on twitter, someone comments on your blog, etc. Hooray! You get a little thrill, and it's that sense of reward that you become addicted to, not social networking--soc. net. is just the way you acheive it.

Of course there are different levels and different ways people are addicted. According to this study, only about four percent of people become addicted to the internet, about the same amount that become addicted to gambling. So the chances that you are addicted, even if you do spend a lot of time online, are pretty small.

What do you do if you think you have a problem? The docs in the study suggest limiting the time you spend online to certain hours--for example, 9 AM-11 PM. Haha, kidding! About the last part, anyway. Ahem. Limiting your hours reduces the feeling of risk/reward that ensnares people.

Does this mean I'm going to be limiting my hours on the internet? I actually have been doing that lately, I think. But I'm probably never going to go back to the days when I spent one hour online in the morning and that was it. I need my internets now! I could wean myself off it I wanted to, but... why? It's fun.

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