Spotlight on The Book Blogger Platform by Barb Drozdowich with a review and giveaway

BLURB:

Book Blogging - One of the Best Hobbies in the World!

Join thousands of book bloggers in expressing their joy of reading!

Are you a book blogger or do you want to be one? Are you having trouble handling the technical details of blogging? The Book Blogger Platform can be a "user manual" for your blog! A book written by a book blogger for book bloggers and that answers all your questions!

The Book Blogger Platform covers topics such as:

1. What a book blogger blog needs to contain

2. A step by step guide to manipulating images and videos

3. A description of all the common features hosted by book bloggers

4. A description of the social media aspect to a book blogger platform

5. Being Social - the social aspect of book blogging

If you are tired of always asking other bloggers questions

Let The Book Blogger Platform guide you painlessly. Over 80 color graphics lead you step by step through some of the more difficult technical issues that bloggers face.

Pick up a copy today and approach blogging with confidence!

Purchase Links:  

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Excerpt 1 from Chapter 1:
 

Just as all book bloggers are different, their approach to book blogging is also different. Some book bloggers consider themselves primarily book reviewers. Some book bloggers consider themselves primarily promoters of books. Some book bloggers will only post about a book they have read. Some book bloggers will post about any book that belongs to a genre that fits the profile of their blog.

Book bloggers who consider themselves primarily book reviewers make their reviews the main focus of their blog. They often take their self-imposed “job” of reviewing books very seriously. They put hours of work into reading a book and then creating the right combination of words to best describe their thoughts and impressions. It’s a labor of love.

Many book bloggers, such as myself, consider themselves primarily promoters of books. I began my blog posting reviews of books I’d read, and I worked hard to grow my blog’s audience. I am very proud of my blog and the work that goes into it. However, I have a full-time job and a family. I don’t have enough reading hours to review one book a day, so I fill my blog’s days with a mixture of reviews and promotions. I don’t post more than once a day, but I use the platform I have built to promote as many books and authors as I can that fit within my reading taste.

As I mentioned above, some book bloggers will only post about books they have read. They feel that posting about a book is a recommendation of that book and they don’t want to recommend a book they haven’t read.

Have I read all the books that are promoted on my blog? No. I fit into the other camp of book bloggers. I see promoting books, whether through blog tours, reviews, or other promotions, as simply sharing information. I leave it up to my readers to decide whether to read the book or not.

Another area in which people hold strong feelings centers on whether or not to post negative reviews. One camp feels that all book bloggers who review books need to post negative reviews. They feel that having an assortment of positive and negative reviews creates balance. It allows readers to read about what the blogger likes and doesn’t like and why. It is often said that reviewers who only post positive reviews risk having their honesty questioned.

I am of the camp that doesn’t bother to finish a book if I am not enjoying it. I feel no need to talk about a book I didn’t like. I have boxes and boxes of books to be read. My Nook (e-reader) is full of little gems waiting for my attention. Maybe it’s my age, but I don’t soldier on, I move on. I do, however, make it clear in my review policy that I only talk about books that I enjoyed reading.

This topic will come up again later; you do need to give some thought to your philosophy on book blogging. Are you going to only post reviews? Are you only going to promote books you have read? This isn’t necessarily something that will be decided on at the beginning and that you can never change. Many book bloggers change their views as time progresses.

Accompanying your philosophy of blogging is your view of how much of a platform you are going to have. I started my blog to express my thoughts about the books I’d read. It never really occurred to me that other people would read what I had read, let alone comment on it or share it with friends!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with creating a book blog to share your thoughts with friends—old friends as well as new. If, however, you actively seek out blog tour posts and post promotions of author’s books, you should also be actively growing your book blogger platform. If someone is paying to post on your blog via a blog tour, you should be able to share this information with as many people as possible.

Everyone starts out as a baby blogger. Everyone has a different view of what they want their blog to be. There is no right or wrong answer. Every blog should be a reflection of its owner and its owner’s tastes.

I hope to use this book to describe the Book Blogger Platform in its entirety. I hope to give you a lot to think about. Please don’t hesitate to ask questions. I’m on Twitter, Facebook, and my blogs every day. My contact links will be listed at the end of this book. I love answering questions and chatting about books!

AUTHOR Information:

Bio: Social Media and Wordpress Consultant Barb Drozdowich has taught at Universities and Colleges, trained technical personnel in the banking industry and, most recently, used her expertise to help dozens of authors develop the social media platform needed to succeed in today’s fast evolving publishing world. She owns Bakerview Consulting and manages the popular blog, Sugarbeat’s Books.

BakerviewConsulting (Business Site) * Twitter

BarbDrozdowich (Author Site)  *  Google+

Sugarbeat’sBooks (Book Blog) * Facebook(Authorblog)

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My Thoughts:

First of all, thank you for feeding my brain, Barb. I must warn you that I am a down to earth, mother of three boys who says it like it is. I am honest, helpful when I can be and I try to find at least one positive thing to say even when it is hard to do. Usually I am really good at picking the right books but when I really dislike them, I usually don't post them unless the author insists. That being said, I try to make proper use of spell check and cover all of my bases but I am far from proper. The thing is, I like to keep it real so to speak. I use slang when I feel it is fitting and I place smileys and frownies (when needed) throughout my words. I am human and this is my place of comfort and relaxation. This is something that I too, love to do. I have my own style and I hope that it doesn't offend you. 

I am still trying to process everything that I read. :-) This was very interesting and I especially wish that I had found it when I first started blogging. Believe me, I still have much to learn but I am a creature of habit and I have the if it ain't broke don't fix it philosophy. Could my blog be better? Yes, definitely, but what happens if I mess it up while trying to fix it? I was still not comfortable enough to try anything new. I think that after reading Barb's extremely thorough and helpful book that I may be ready to undertake project fix up. I will most likely take baby steps starting with working on adding pages.

I really liked the way the book was broken down and I loved that there was actually a working table of contents. :-) You rock Barb!

Barb's writing was clear, concise and easily understood. I won't lie, there were a few parts that I skipped over. Those did not pertain to me as I do not have a Wordpress blog. I was happy to see that she listed many of the differences between the them. I have seen many people switch over and I won't rule out the possibility for myself in the future so I was happy to have that information.

There was so much useful knowledge that my brain is short circuited. I was even trying to take notes. Lol! I will be going back through little by little. I really found the copyrighting and automating information to be super helpful as well as the plugins, sidebars, and code sections. The chapters about social media and being more social was especially intriguing to me. I have come along way but there is still so much that I just don't know! :-(

Even if you think that you know it all, there is probably something for you to learn from Barb.

The only thing missing that I would have loved to know more about was how to completely redesign my blog. I'm not very creative and I tend to have a problem with saying no to review opportunities.This doesn't leave me with a lot of spare time.

I know that I could hire someone to design something for me. That would cost money that I don't want to spend. Also, I am too sceptical to trust someone that I don't know. A how to book on that would be awesome. Hint! Hint!

This book didn't take long to read through. However, as I said, I'll need to go back and visit specific sections when I sit down to work on it. Luckily the table of contents works. Did I mention how happy this makes me? :-)

I received an ecopy in exchange for my honest opinion. This is a must have, treasure trove of useful knowledge for any blogger but especially newbies that are just starting out. I did not get bored once while reading this. I actually enjoyed it. I even had a few ah hah moments.

When is the last time you read a manual for something and actually enjoyed it?

Don't forget to enter the Comment Incentive Giveaway. It is a great chance to win a book you'd like to have! The link can be found at the top of the page.