Blog Talk: What Does Your Book Blog Say About You?

If it’s possible to judge a book by its cover, why not a blogger by their blog?

Look at the statements below and choose the FOUR that you think most closely describe your blog.   Each statement is numbered. Match the numbers to the words in the table at the bottom of this post to find out what your blog says about you….

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1. Your blog includes a blog roll or list of other book blogs you admire
2. You frequently take part in tags, blog hops or feature ‘who’s that blogger’ type posts
3. Your blog has been going for more than a year
4. You display your stats – views, followers, etc – prominently on your blog
5. Your most frequent posts are discussion pieces
6. Your blog features lots of custom-made graphics
7. Your blog has an archive, lists of reviews by category/genre/author, reading list pages or challenge pages
8. On your blog you feature books from a number of different genres
9. Your blog focuses on one main book genre
10. Your blog is linked to at least four of the following social media channels: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest
11. You frequently feature books with some of the following characteristics: LGBT; gender diversity; people with disabilities; characters from ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities; banned books; literature in translation
12. Your blog has used several different design themes
13. You post at least five times per week
14. You post less than five times per week
15. Book reviews on your blog are most likely to be for ARCs or recently published books
16. You often feature author interviews/Q&As

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Why not share in four words what your blog says about you in a comment below.

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Blog Talk: Should bloggers act as proofreaders?

One of my pet hates is books with loads of typos, such as spelling and punctuation errors, or other editing issues. (I’m aware this means people will now be scouring this blog post for errors – but I’m not an author trying to sell you their book!) I make a point of stating in my review policy that books which haven’t been proofread properly (or at all) will get a poor review, if indeed I actually finish them.

From time to time, I still come across books with lots of typos and it got me wondering –  what is the best response in those circumstances?

• Provide a few examples of the typo’s you’ve noticed to the author and suggest they have the book professionally proofread and/or copy-edited (or ask for their money back if they reckon it already has!). 
• Give the author a list of all the errors you’ve noticed. However, this means you’re doing a proofreader out of a job and, unless you’re a professional proofreader yourself, you’ll probably have missed some anyway.
• Don’t inform the author but reflect the issues in your rating of the book and mention it in your review.
• Ignore (or in my case, try to) the errors and concentrate on the plot, characters and other aspects of the book.
• Chuck the book away unfinished and move on. However, this means leaving unsuspecting future readers to experience the same issues.

I’ve probably done all of the above at one time or another but what’s your view?