This is Day 11 of 30 Days to Build a Better Book Blog. One of the fun things about running a literary blog is championing great books no one has read about before. As I stated before I began this blog to showcase Christian titles that did not make it into the mags and newspapers I reviewed for. Soon after the blog went live I received requests from publishing houses, authors, agents and editors to take a look at what they were working on. I am honored to have read some of the best stories of our time.Next week we will get deeper into the types of content your book blog should provide. But before we do I want to talk briefly about a feature I use here that not only drives traffic to the blog, but buttresses the mission of why I do what I do.
For the past five years I have ran my own book awards. We've done:
- book of the month picks,
- annual top 25
- beach read contests
- reader's choice
I'm excited, so excited for Uwem Akpen's Say You're One of Them , our 2008r Summer Beach Read Festival Winner. Today Oprah announced that his debut short story collection would be an Oprah Book Club Pick.
As book bloggers you get the good job of separating the wheat from the chaff and to be ahead of even Oprah when it comes to a great read.
Your homework assignment for this weekend is to build your own book award lists, upload it to your blog, then link it back in our forum. If you can't think of any, then create a top ten list of your favorite books with a reason why you chose them.
On a side note: When people ask me what is the best book marketing advice I can give. I always answer write a well-written, compelling, relevant page turner. This book as I have said for the past two years is, along with other avid book readers, reviewers and critics. I hope you now pick up the book so you can add to our discussion.
