Book Blogger Confessions #4

Hosted by For What It's Worth &
Midnyte Reader

It's special Monday on Book Blogger Confessions and they gave us three topics to choose from or we could pick all of them. I really wanted to do all of them, but I decided on the second topic:

The death of Google Reader. As Google continues to phase out it’s less popular products, bloggers were scrambling to find a new reader platform to follow their favorite blogs. What have you switched to for a reader? 

The big fear though is the loss of Google Friends Connect. How are you preparing if indeed GFC is discontinued? How many subscriber options are too many to offer your followers? What ones are the most popular on your blog?

I have been meaning to post something about this for a while so I'm glad I finally am now. The loss of Google Reader and GFC makes me extremely anxious, in a bad way. I know that numbers aren't everything and you shouldn't focus on that, blah blah blah. However, it's taken me a long time to get up to my 421 GFC followers. I love them all and want to hug every single one of them. 

It's going to happen though. I can't stop it, unfortunately. I've been a little loss on what to do, but I did create another option: BlogLovin'. 

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I'm still getting a hang of it and I despise that it uses my old design, but it does update, no worries! I also have email subscribers (on the right hand side) along with Google Plus. I'm considering Linky and Network Blogs, but I don't know if that would be TOO much. 

Hopefully it will all work out and that Bloglovin will be as great as GFC. I'm not getting my hopes up though. 

**If you follow me, it would be great if you do so on BlogLovin' so that you're safe when GFC disconnects. (If you sign up with BlogLovin' and already had GFC, you will automatically follow the same blogs I THINK.)**

What do you think about GFC disconnecting? What are you doing to prepare? 

This also gives me a chance to ask everybody: if you have BlogLovin', how did you upload your "profile picture?" It will only allow me through Facebook and I don't have a Facebook for the blog. 

Book Blogger Confessions #2

Hosted by For What It's Worth and Midnyte Reader

This week on the fun meme of Book Blogger Confessions, the topic is giveaways. And this time, it's a bit like an interview.

Q: As a blogger, how do you feel about extra entries, required entries etc? 

For me, I do like and enjoy extra entries. Not only for my own personal giveaways here, but also when I go enter somewhere else. As a blogger, I can have them be a follower, follow on Twitter, give me book recommendations by commenting, and/or have them tweet about it to spread the word. I think extra entries are very beneficial. Required entries? It can go either way. But as for all entries, I do not want the readers having to go through so many hoops. There's a limit on how many entries there will be and the number is not 37. 

Q: Do you have a system to choose/announce winners and keep prizes organized? What method works best for you when hosting a giveaway? (Rafflecopter/Google Doc's or other)

I announce by emailing the winner and giving them 48 hours to respond. I don't announce on my blog or do anything else. I MIGHT also announce on Twitter if they are on there. Choosing also goes with my method. "Always" sounds so confining, but I will probably always use Rafflecopter. It's easy for me and I think the people entering as well. With Rafflecopter, it chooses randomly for me. 

Q: What do you do about people who enter your giveaways but don't follow instructions exactly? 

You mean...cheaters? THEY SHALL GET MY WRATH OF DISAPPOINTMENT AND DOOM SHALL DESCEND OVER THEM. 

Well, if the cheater is a winner, I will pick another winner. If a cheater is someone else, I probably won't know about it and there's nothing I can do. But if someone doesn't complete something that they said they completed or lied or anything in that way, I won't give the prize to them. Their fault. 

Q: Have you ever had problems hosting a giveaway sponsored by an author or publisher who is supposed to send the prize to the winner and doesn't? How have you handled these issues?

No. I have never had a sponsored giveaway before so I do not qualify for this question. Hey, if an author or publisher wants to sponsor a giveaway here, contact me. 

Q: As a prize winner - what do you do if your prize never arrives? Do you contact the blogger or just let it go? 

If it's sponsored by a publisher or author? I haven't been in that situation, but if it's been a long time and doesn't come, I will contact the blogger. They have probably been in contact with the other party even if it is not their fault. If it is just the blogger's giveaway, I will definitely contact the blogger. Although it is very nice of them to give their stuff away, it is also their responsibility to follow through. I entered. I most likely followed them. I did everything they asked of me and did not cheat. I earned it. You told me I won. Now send it. 

~*~

Man, I'm in the giveaway mood now. I've only participated in two hops, but I'm thinking of either: doing another one or doing an individual one. Actually, if all goes according to plan, I will soon have two signed Ally Carter books to give away. You'll just have to keep checking back, I guess :) 

What are your feelings with all these giveaway questions? Have you had problems with giveaways before? 

**ANNOUNCEMENT** 

Blue Sky Bookshelf as been nominated for the Noob Award for Book Blogger Twitter Con (#BBTC) hosted by Parajunkee and The Bookish Brunette. This is not me telling you to go vote for me (you should vote for whoever you want to), but me letting you readers know what is happening. Even if you do not vote for me, you should vote for someone in BBTC. The event will take place April 1 to April 7. The voting started March 1. The run-offs will end March 8. Then the finals will take place March 13. For more information, go HERE.

Book Blogger Confessions #1

Hosted by For What It's Worth and Midnyte Reader

While stumbling across blogs, I came across this meme where book bloggers, like myself, can make confessions. Every other Monday, the hosts post a topic and that's when we come in and share more about it on a personal level

This week's question: How has blogging and reviewing changed your reading habits? Do you read a genre now that you wouldn't have tried prior? Or have you been turned off by a genre you used to love?

My answer:

In my pre-blogging days, I would reread the same authors and books, not knowing exactly how to expand and feeling quite comfortable in my little book space. I did feel a little disappointed when I finished a series and realized that I was left without a book to read.

Now being a blogger, I have such a big stack of books to read that it feels impossible to finish them all. NetGalley, library, recommendations from others...so many! On the bad side of this, I realized that I haven't found any time to reread my favorites. I feel as if they're my pets and I haven't shown any affection to them while I'm watching over someone else's animals for a while. It makes me a bit sad.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that my sister Shelver is actually having a reread month in May where we get to reread without any pressures. Stay tuned for more details later.

As for genres, I think it goes with my explanation for rereading. While I still have subgenre preferences, I've expanded my tastes more. Instead of having all contemporary on my shelf with The Hunger Games, I now have The Farm, ARCs of The Hunt and The Different Girl and will be having Cinder with my Sarah Dessen, Ally Carter, and Jen Calonita books on there as well. The second genre question made me think a little harder. While I read YA, I read Adult even more so in my pre-blogging days. Now with NetGalley and the blog (which is dedicated to only YA), I haven't been able to read Adult as much and once again, reread my favorites. But I'm not turned off by the Adult genre, time just seems to be an issue. Besides that, I don't think I'm particularly turned off by a genre as I am careful. My tastes have broadened, but when I read, I seem to put it under a microscope.

Which leads in to my next point about how I process books antithetically now. Before, I would read a novel. That's it. Read it and put it up. If someone asked me about it, I would give a noncommittal response unless it was a book that I fell in love with to the point of being lumped in fandom. If someone asked me what I liked or disliked about it, I wouldn't be able to pinpoint it. "I just like it, okay?" Or the other way around of disliking it. I didn't know how to figure out what made me exactly like or dislike it. Sure, sometimes I would be able to say something intelligent about the characters or the plot or dialogue. I would read something that the characters repeatedly did and think, "That's stupid, I don't like that." But the idea of writing a review for a book was more than daunting.

Now? It's not as if I sit down and ten minutes later, I'm up. I still have to think about what exactly I didn't or did like about a book. But this time, I actually think about it while I'm reading it. Sometimes I even take a picture of it. I still keep reminding myself to actually write things down as I read like so many great bloggers do, but I haven't reached to that point of organization yet. I process my novel so differently now though that I think of every book as a "review book" before I even turn the first page.

So the answer to the confession question: a big, fat YES.

It amazes me how one thing can change another thing. I become a blogger and my tastes have broadened, my reading habits change, and my love of books has intensified.

To all you bloggers and even blog-lurkers, has YOUR reading habits changed? Are they like mine?

Comment below!