Calling all Book Bloggers

Posted by: Redhead on: August 8, 2012

• In: blogging | book promotion | book review | book stores | for the love of reading
• 71 Comments

hey you! Yeah, you with the teetering stack of books to read and the book blog that I read all the time.

I need to talk to you for a minute.

Your blog is an awesome way to promote the books you love. Thanks to you, my “books I want to read” list explodes weekly.  Thanks to you, I’m spending far too much money at the local family owned bookstore, demanding they carry the newest titles of my favorite authors, putting books on hold before they even hit the shelf. I’m sure you’ve done the same.

Bloggers.   Bookstores.  where’s the connection? 

Many of you already know about the rockin’ awesome project I’ve started with Elizabeth of Dark Cargo. Some of you have even already started participating. A few of you were even part of my little trial experiment a few months ago! It’s called Bookstore Bookblogger Connection, and it’s for bloggers (like us!) and bookstores (you know, those peeps we give all our money to!), to have a connection.

Ahh, yes, your ego? Let me feed it:  Bookstore Blogger Connection  (twitter handle @BSBBCnxn) is a whole new way to promote your blog, and to promote books you love. Check out the site for more details, but the basics is that we will be providing bookstores with blogger written promotional book blurbs for books they are trying to sell. And underneath that “best book of the year!” or “polished to perfection!” or “her best work yet!” will be your blogs name, in all its glory.  Looks kinda like this:

Facebook, twitter, podcasting, they are sublime ways of promoting your blog and your work. But imagine a kid or a grown up in a bookstore, who doesn’t even know book blogs exist. They’re cruising the scifi / fantasy section, and they see a card with a few book blurbs about a Robert Jordan, or a Cat Valente, or an Cory Doctorow, or a Jim Hines, and now, suddenly, they want to buy that book. . . and see what your site is all about. This is a whole new way to get your name out there.

But Elizabeth and I can’t get this party started without you. Bookstore Blogger Connection only works if we have a ton of reviews from a ton of bloggers, and I do mean a metric ton.  we’re starting off with just fantasy and scifi for now. Consider it our our labor of love for our holy trinity of books, bookstores, and bloggers.  We’re not interested in becoming another Goodreads or another bookbloggerdirectory. Bookstore Bookblogger Connection is something completely new and completely different. And it can’t succeed without you.

Get your name out there.  Help the indie bookstores that have been our safe haven, our providers, our second homes. Your bookblurbs deserve life beyond the blogosphere.

oh wait, you’re not a reviewer? you’re an author? No probs, tell your reviewers to send us their info, so we can help you promote your book.

aww man, you’re not a reviewer, or an author? you’re a bookseller you say? Boy have I got the hook up for you. All this book promo goodness that’s being brewed? it be free. But it’s got to grow wings and fly first, so give us a little time to get the data in, and then we’ll have a little chat, and I’ll hook you up.

Here’s a photo of the one of the trials. And when I brought it to the bookstore, along with a few others? they loved it. and it looked pretty damn cool too.

Sorry for the fuzzy picture. The lighting in their SciFi section was less than ideal that day.

Tags: blogging, book promotion, book reviews, book stores, books