Blog ‘bout Book Blogs (Blogbandonment)

(Author edit: November 5. I added a blog post to my poem)

Say that five times fast. That’s OK. Take your time. Try again. I’ll wait…

We’ll just have to add that to “Peter Piper” and “She Sells Seashells,” won’t we?

I decided to reach out to some more book bloggers this week. I googled book blogs and came up with sites with lists of book bloggers. As I suspected, there were a lot of them. Why book bloggers? Somebody has to read your book and like (or dislike) it enough to tell others. There are countless blogs out there, and many companies/individuals that set up blog tours, cover reveals, and book blasts. I checked out a few of them, and I wasn’t convinced that it was worth the cost (advertising is always a gamble even if it is a necessity). Sure, you get a fancy banner, and they send out your info to the participating blogs, but I visited a few, and some blogs had tour stop after tour stop that looked pretty much the same. I don’t think you get to choose your site either.

The last point was the most important to me. Now, I’m sure that these bloggers get many emails from authors, so how do I stand out? I wanted to make a personal connection, so this is what I did:

• Looked at the review policy. Don’t review poetry? No point in staying…but wait…
• I searched their site for my genre. Hey look, they did review a poetry book, and they said they should do more. There’s my in.
• Guest posts. If they take them, I read through some to see if my writing fits.
• I cut and pasted some of my request, but always added something to show that I read their blog.
• I also looked to see if their reviews generated comments/discussions. More discussions = more readers

I did discover some interesting things during this exploration:

• Bloggers are clever! There are great names out there. Here are some of my favorites: Brooke-reports, Bookedonafeeling, Spinesinaline, Literaryweaponry, Fortheloveofdewey
• Book bloggers are 99% female. Why is this? I suspect that what I was told in school is correct, “Girls is smarter than boys” (and I thought I was SMRT)…and they have the ability to dedicate themselves to a task and finish it.

I came across several blogs that had been inactive for a long time. I was compelled to peruse through the blog to see if there were any clues to why the site had been abandoned. Not one had closure, no last post saying thanks, or link to follow. Nothing. A ghost in the digital miasma (I learned that word while doing a crossword puzzle…). So, as a writer, I wrote:


Blogbandonment

I stumbled upon your blog today
The place you built to have your say
A clever name
Graphics much the same
Stars twinkled between pages
Of poetic thoughts, dreams, and rages
Shared part of your life right here
For friends and followers to hear
But where do you go?
The last post was two years ago
Why walk away?
Was there nothing left for you to say
Do you still look the same?
Do you have the same name?
I hope you left for good reasons
Like the changing of the seasons
There’s nothing I can do
Except hope for you
So, I’ll go on pretending
That you wrote a happy ending
I closed your blog when I was done
The visitor count read 3,471



Till next time, keep reading!

Leon